The Philadelphia Flyers have fired head coach John Tortorella the club announced on Thursday. Associate coach Brad Shaw will take over head coaching duties on an interim basis.
“Today I made the very difficult decision to move on from John as our head coach,” said GM Daniel Briere in a statement. “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.”
“On behalf of the entire Flyers organization, we would like to thank John for his dedication over the past three seasons,” said Flyers Governor Dan Hilferty and President of Hockey Operations Keith Jones. “We fully support Danny’s decision in making this change as he continues to do what is needed for the future of our organization. John Tortorella has made a positive impact throughout the Flyers organization, and we are grateful and appreciative of the opportunity to work with him. We wish John, Christine and their family all the best moving forward.”
The Flyers currently sport a 28-36-9 record, worst in the Metropolitan and 2nd better than only Buffalo (29-35-6) in the Eastern Conference. Tortorella, who previously won a Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning, had 1 year and $4M remaining on his contract.
For his part, Shaw is currently in his 3rd season with the club after joining the Flyers coaching staff in July of 2022. Prior to that he spent time with the Vancouver Canucks and Columbus Blue Jackets in a variety of roles.
The former NHL defenceman had a career that spanned 4 franchises and 14 seasons between 1985-1999. His first test as the Flyers’ new bench boss comes Thursday night against the Montreal Canadiens.
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