John Tortorella was fired as coach of the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday and replaced by associate Brad Shaw.
The 66-year-old was the oldest active coach in the NHL.
“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 reestablished 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.”
Tortorella was in his third season as coach of the Flyers, who lost 7-2 to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday, their sixth straight defeat (0-5-1) and the second straight they gave up at least seven goals following a 7-4 loss at the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday.
Philadelphia has lost 11 of its past 12 (1-10-1), hasn’t won in regulation since Feb. 25 and is last in the Metropolitan Division (28-36-9).
“It’s my job to prepare this team in this type of situation,” Tortorella said Tuesday. “Haven’t done a good enough job the past couple games.”
Among the Flyers’ struggles this season is a power play that is 30th in the NHL (13.7 percent) and an .887 save percentage at 5-on-5, ranked last in the League. They’ve been outscored 52-21 in their past 12 games.
“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,” 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. 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 went 97-107-33 in three seasons with Philadelphia, missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs in his first two seasons. Last season, the Flyers were in position for a playoff spot as late as April 5 but finished four points behind the Washington Capitals for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference.
In 23 seasons with the New York Rangers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Vancouver Canucks, Columbus Blue Jackets and Flyers, Tortorella is 770-648-165 with 37 ties. He’s ninth all-time in wins, and second among United States-born coaches after Peter Laviolette (841). On Jan. 30, Tortorella became the seventh coach, and first born in the U.S., to reach 1,600 games. He’s sixth in NHL history with 1,620.
Tortorella won the Stanley Cup with the Lightning in 2004 and is 56-64 in the playoffs. He’s a two-time winner of the Jack Adams Award voted as NHL coach of the year (2004, 2017).
“On behalf of the entire Flyers organization, we would like to thank John for his dedication over the past three seasons,” president of hockey operations Keith Jones said. “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.”
Shaw, 60, will coach his second team in the NHL. He replaced Steve Sterling with the New York Islanders 42 games into the 2005-06 season and went 18-18-4. Shaw is in third season with the Flyers after he was an assistant with the Canucks in 2021-22 and Blue Jackets from 2016-21. He was also an assistant and associate for the St. Louis Blues from 2006-16.
Tortorella is the fifth NHL coach fired this season, joining Jim Montgomery (Boston Bruins on Nov. 19), Drew Bannister (St. Louis Blues, Nov. 24), Luke Richardson (Chicago Blackhawks, Dec. 5) and Derek Lalonde (Detroit Red Wings, Dec. 26).
