Sunday saw a seismic shift in the NHL landscape as the Vegas Golden Knights fired Bruce Cassidy. The Stanley Cup-winning head coach was relieved of his duties in favor of John Tortorella, who also had a Stanley Cup to his name. He also has two Jack Adams awards to his name, making him a lucrative pickup.
All that sounds good, right? The Golden Knights get a seasoned head coach to pick up Cassidy's slack for the rest of the season. Perhaps he can lead the team to a Stanley Cup and make everything better, as Kelly McCrimmon intended.
Well, here's the thing, dear reader. Sometimes, the best move you can make is one that doesn't need to be made. If wearing out his welcome in the locker room was the biggest problem, perhaps waiting his contract out would've been a better move.
But Tortorella coming in to replace him? This is an all-time head scratcher that must be dissected. Why did McCrimmon and crew go with the notorious hothead to replace Cassidy, who's lauded as one of the league's best head coaches? In what world does this make sense?
Why John Tortorella isn't an upgrade over Bruce Cassidy
This is for the people that say that Tortorella is a Stanley Cup-winning head coach. Many people cling onto this and say that his two Jack Adams awards and Stanley Cup matter. However, there are a couple of catches to this.
First, the Stanley Cup came in 2003-04, when the NHL was vastly different. Today's game is much faster and plays with more offensive balance. On that note, the last four seasons haven't been kind to the former Tampa Bay Lightning head coach. Look at his record in that span.
John Tortorella's record is 115-133-45 (.469) in his last 4 seasons as an NHL head coach.
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) March 29, 2026
He has won two playoff series since 2013.
He has not guided a team to a division championship since 2012 and has failed to finish above 3rd in 10 consecutive seasons.
Looking at that record signifies that Tortorella hasn't done exceptionally well at adapting to the changing league as expected. Yeah, you can say that he wasn't given good rosters to begin with. But what makes you think that he'll magically fix the goaltending situation?
Will he suddenly get Adin Hill going when the defensive structure has been gutted? What about the outgoing contracts that constitute the team, i.e., Reilly Smith, Colton Sissons, and Jeremy Lauzon? There are deeper problems involved with the Golden Knights than merely pinning the blame on the head coach.
Firing Bruce Cassidy is nothing more than a desperation move
As I'm listening to SinBin.Vegas's Periscope, Ken brings up plenty of valid points. That starts with the moves made in recent years, when the last good move was acquiring Ivan Barbashev. After that, it's been Carter Hart, Anthony Mantha, and Rasmus Andersson, all of whom haven't worked out the way that the Golden Knights wanted.
That's not even mentioning other moves that failed. Is Cassidy directly responsible for Robin Lehner not working out? No, which makes this move nothing more than a desperate ploy. Somebody needed to take the fall for the season failing to meet expectations and that was Cassidy.
What's even worse is that this opens the door for Pacific Division rivals to swoop in and grab Cassidy. Think of the Edmonton Oilers as a perfect example of this. That could lead to further catastrophe in the Pacific Division that buries the Golden Knights further down the pecking order.
Whatever the case, March 29, 2026, will be known as the day that the Vegas Golden Knights hockey changed forever. Fans will remember this as the day that the franchise's trajectory shifted towards the end. You might point to other hires, such as Pete DeBoer and Cassidy, beforehand and look at the team's success. But this time? The circumstances are vastly different.