When you shock the NHL world by getting rid of a Stanley Cup-winning head coach, you wonder what would happen if his replacement did well. You wonder whether that head coach could get enough out of his players and have them rally around him.
That seems to be the case with the Vegas Golden Knights, who've suddenly rallied around John Tortorella. After Bruce Cassidy was fired in March, the former Flyers head coach has done something improbable: he turned the 2025-26 Golden Knights into a threat.
That's the 31 other NHL teams seeing Tortorella lead Vegas to glory.
We're talking about going 7-0-1 in the regular season since he was hired. That also led to a Pacific Division title and Vegas playing with more confidence. That's a scary thing to see when you have a new head coach on board.
So, let's play a little game and see how far Tortorella must go for Vegas. What will it take for him to make his interim status permanent? Let's weigh the possibilities and see how far he must go to make the former Flyers coach a Vegas fixture.
Do Vegas Golden Knights fans want John Tortorella around for the long term?
Believe it or not, Tortorella has actually grown on Golden Knights fans. Despite having a rasher nature than Bruce Cassidy, the two-time Jack Adams winner has had great success in his limited time with the Golden Knights. Vegas only lost one game (in overtime, no less) and earned points in all regular season games that he coached.
He's also done positive things with the lineup structure, compared to Cassidy. The former Golden Knights coach would try atypical mixtures in the forward and defenseman groups, hoping for a spark. Think of Brett Howden playing alongside Jack Eichel as one example.
However, Tortorella is more brazen in his lineup structure. He's not afraid to construct his lineups with his best players. That includes putting Eichel, Mark Stone, and Mitch Marner together, putting their opponents on their heels.
While that sounds nice, fans must keep caution of Tortorella's personality. People mentioned how brutal Cassidy was to work with because of how rough he was. That could be even worse for the Golden Knights, should they stick with the former Stanley Cup winner.
How far must the Golden Knights go to have Tortorella stick around?
A first-round exit is likely to leave Tortorella cast aside. The expectation is that the Golden Knights will go further with him around, specifically with the players responding to him well. If Vegas bows out against the Utah Mammoth, it's most likely that he won't stick around.
Of course, the opposite end of the spectrum is also true. If Tortorella wins it all by a random chance, Vegas will likely have no choice but to keep him around. Think of Craig Berube when he replaced Mike Yeo on the St. Louis Blues in 2018-19. How did that go for St. Louis that season?
Personally, the Western Conference Final would be the sweet spot for a Tortorella extension. The big stars on the Golden Knights continue to respond well to the former Stanley Cup winner, playing harder than they did under Cassidy. In turn, it's likelier that he stays around because of this intangible, making him a tenured figure.
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