Bruce Cassidy coached Vegas to a Stanley Cup championship in 2023, but the Knights have lost 12 of 16, putting their playoff hopes in peril. Walter Tychnowicz / Imagn Images
March 29, 2026Updated 5:14 pm EDT
The Vegas Golden Knights have fired coach Bruce Cassidy and hired John Tortorella with only eight games remaining in the regular season, the team announced Sunday afternoon.
Cassidy coached Vegas to a Stanley Cup championship in his first season with the club in 2023. His 178-99-43 record in four regular seasons behind the Golden Knights’ bench ranked fifth-best in the NHL over that span. Vegas’ 24 playoff wins under Cassidy were the fourth-most in the league during his tenure.
But the Golden Knights have struggled this season, already losing a franchise-high 42 games (16 of which came in overtime and shootout), but are still in playoff position. Vegas currently sits in third place in the Pacific Division, four points above the playoff cut line, despite losing 12 of its last 16 games.
Tortorella last coached in the NHL for the Philadelphia Flyers in 2024-25. He won a gold medal as an assistant coach for Team USA at the Olympics, has a 770-648-37 record as an NHL head coach and won the Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004.
“We thank Bruce Cassidy for his dedication to our hockey club and community over the past four seasons,” Vegas general manager Kelly McCrimmon said in a statement. “Under Bruce’s leadership, we reached our ultimate goal in 2023 by bringing a Stanley Cup to Vegas. Bruce will forever be remembered with the utmost regard by our organization for what was accomplished here. With the stretch run of the 2025-26 regular season upon us, we believe that a change is necessary for us to return to the level of play that is expected of our club. With John Tortorella, we bring in a Stanley Cup champion as well as one of the most experienced and respected coaches in the NHL. His guidance will be a great asset to our team at the pivotal point in the season we currently face. We look forward to welcoming John to Vegas.”
Tortorella’s 770 regular-season wins over 23 seasons are the second-most by an American coach in NHL history, and the ninth-most overall. He has 56 postseason wins over 12 different postseason runs in Tampa Bay, New York and Columbus, and won the Jack Adams Trophy as the NHL’s top coach in 2004.
Mar 29, 2026
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