After nearly three years behind the bench, John Tortorella is no longer the head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers. The Flyers announced they’ve relieved Tortorella of head coaching duties and named associate coach Brad Shaw the interim head coach for the remaining schedule.
“Today I made the very difficult decision to move on from John as our head coach,” Flyers’ general manager Daniel Briere said 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.”
It’s a bold yet unsurprising move from Briere. From most statements, the Flyers’ front office had honest expectations for the team heading into the 2024-25 season, and even those haven’t been met. The biggest tell that a change behind the bench was incoming was Tortorella’s comments after Philadelphia’s embarrassing defeat against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday.
“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,” Tortorella said. “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.”
