Flyers fire head coach Tortorella with team on verge of falling to last in Eastern Conference
Published
John Tortorella has been relieved of his duties as head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers, a team owning a 28-36-9 record this season with nine games remaining.
Amid a 1-8-1 record in their past nine games, Philadelphia has slipped to second-last in the Eastern Conference, just one point ahead of the Buffalo Sabres with three more games played.
Associate coach Brad Shaw has been named interim head coach and will be behind the bench for Thursday's game against the Montreal Canadiens.
"Today I made the very difficult decision to move on from John as our head coach," Flyers general manager Daniel Briere said. "John played a vital role in our rebuild. He set a standard of play and re-established what it means to be a Philadelphia Flyer. John's passion on the bench was only equaled by his charitable work in our community.
"As we move into the next chapter of this rebuild, I felt this was the best for our team to move forward. I'd like to thank John for his tireless work and commitment to the Flyers."
The move comes two days after Tortorella pointed the finger at himself after the Flyers were outclassed in a 7-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday.
“When you’re in this type of situation, you’re losing all of the time, and there is nothing at the end of the tunnel for you; there’s certainly going to be some frustration," Tortorella said. "This falls on me. I’m not really interested in learning how to coach in this type of season where we’re at right now. I have to do a better job.
"So this falls on me, getting the team prepared to play the proper way until we get to the end."
Tortorella was in his third season with the Flyers and had yet to reach the playoffs. The Flyers sat in a playoff spot for most of last season before struggling late in the year and just missing out on a wild-card berth. After finishing with a promising 38-33-11 record last year, the team has regressed in 2024-25. Philadelphia went 31-38-13 in his first season behind the bench in 2022-23.
A veteran of 1,620 career games as a head coach, Tortorella has never before missed postseason in three straight years with one franchise.
The 66-year-old Boston native joined the Flyers after coaching six seasons with the Columbus Blue Jackets from 2015 to 2021. He has a career record of 770-648-37-165 as head coach and a 56-64 record in the playoffs.
Tortorella guided the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Stanley Cup in 2003, but has only advanced past the second round once since, helping the 2012 New York Rangers to the Eastern Conference Final.
The Flyers will return home on Thursday to host the Canadiens after going winless on a five-game road trip in which the team was outscored 22-10, including 14-6 over their last two.