The challenge is clear yet daunting. Finding someone unafraid of the stage yet qualified to succeed left a very short list of hockey coaches. John Tortorella fits the bill.
This is more about breathing renewed passion into a Vegas Golden Knights team than anything tactical. For the Golden Knights right now, it’s not about how you do it but how well you do it.
Eight games to get a team winning again. Accomplish that, and qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs. Then go and try and win the thing. That’s the challenge.
Tortorella will walk into the VGK dressing room on Monday and immediately garner respect. He’ll have the attention of the room. Will he get a bump out of the group like Rick Bowness did in Columbus this season with the Blue Jackets? That has to be the hope.
Tortorella has all kinds of experience. If it can happen in hockey, he’s likely seen it over parts of 23 seasons as a head coach in the NHL. He won the Stanley Cup with Tampa Bay and was awarded the Jack Adams twice. He’s won 770 games in the NHL which is ninth among NHL coaches all-time.
The native of Boston, Massachusetts, has a wealth of experience representing his country during international competition, most recently in February at the 2026 Olympic Winter Games where he served as an assistant coach for the United States and helped the Americans to a gold medal in Milan alongside forward Jack Eichel and defenseman Noah Hanifin. It was the second time that Tortorella coached at The Winter Olympics, with the first instance coming in 2010 when he was behind the bench with the Americans as they donned a silver medal in Vancouver.
Tortorella was also on USA Hockey’s coaching staff as an assistant for the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off and as head coach at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey and the 2008 IIHF Men’s World Championship.
Tortorella has also coached Carter Hart in Philadelphia as well as William Karlsson and Brandon Saad in Columbus.
