Philadelphia Flyers fire coach John Tortorella, name Brad Shaw interim coach
The slumping Philadelphia Flyers fired coach John Tortorella on Thursday and named Brad Shaw interim coach.
Tortorella had been hired in 2022 to oversee the team's rebuild, and the Flyers were in the playoff hunt last season until the final week. But they have dropped to eighth place in the Metropolitan Division this season and are on a 1-10-1 slide.
"When you're in this type of situation and you're losing all the time and there's nothing at the end of the tunnel for you, there's certainly going to be some frustration," he said Tuesday after the Flyers lost 7-2 to the Toronto Maple Leafs. "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, but 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 let go with nine games left in the season and one more year left on his contract.
General manager Daniel Briere praised Tortorella during a Thursday news conference for the "no-quit attitude" he instilled in the team but said, "I felt it was time" to move on.
"It's not one thing," he said. "It's a series of things that have happened and probably a little bit more in the last three weeks that has escalated since probably around the trade deadline."
Briere said Tortorella's comments on Tuesday, which the general manager put to frustration over the team getting "shellacked," were "one of the things that happened along the way, but that's not the specific reason."
"We have different opinions on different things," Briere added.
Tortorella had overseen the development of rookie Matvei Michkov this season and had benched him at times and made him a healthy scratch on a few occasions, calling it "part of the process."
"With young guys, they can watch games, too, as far as development," he told reporters in November. "It's trying to help them."
Briere said management didn't get input from players before making the decision.
"I think Torts did a great job with the young guys," Briere said. "His approach to making them pros has really helped a lot of guys. Everybody reacts differently. There's probably guys it didn't work quite as well, but overall, I thought he did a tremendous job helping our young guys take the next step."
Tortorella, 66, finishes his Flyers tenure with a 97-107-33 record. His 770 career wins rank second among U.S.-born coaches. He won a Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004.
Shaw, promoted from associate coach, went 18-18-4 as New York Islanders head coach in 2005-06 after the team fired Steve Stirling.
The Flyers beat the Montreal Canadiens 6-4 Thursday in Shaw's debut. Michkov and Sean Couturier scored twice.
The Flyers, who traded Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost this season, are on pace to the playoffs for the fifth year in a row, matching the franchise's longest drought.
"I really hope that this is rock bottom for us today and this is the turnaround," Briere said.
The Flyers are the fifth NHL team to make a coaching change this season, following the Boston Bruins, St. Louis Blues, Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings.
This story has been updated with new information.