{"id":653573,"date":"2026-05-20T02:32:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T02:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/653573\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T02:32:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T02:32:07","slug":"nhl-teams-wait-for-vegas-permission-to-talk-to-bruce-cassidy-our-focus-currently-is-on-the-stanley-cup-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/653573\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL teams wait for Vegas\u2019 permission to talk to Bruce Cassidy: \u2018Our focus currently is on the Stanley Cup playoffs\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

DENVER \u2014 The Vegas Golden Knights let Bruce Cassidy go. But they\u2019re apparently not ready to let him go somewhere else.<\/p>\n

Vegas fired Cassidy in March, with eight games remaining in the regular season. They replaced him with John Tortorella, who has taken the Golden Knights to the Western Conference final, where they\u2019ll face the Colorado Avalanche starting Wednesday night. Cassidy won the Stanley Cup in Vegas in 2023 and won the Jack Adams Award as the league\u2019s best coach in 2020, when he was behind the Boston Bruins\u2019 bench. Unsurprisingly, after being let go by Vegas, he promptly became a leading candidate for current job openings in Edmonton, Los Angeles, Toronto and now Vancouver.<\/p>\n

But Vegas has not granted those teams permission to speak to Cassidy, who is still under contract with \u2014 and therefore still being paid by \u2014 the Golden Knights for another year, league sources told The Athletic<\/a> this week. Such permission is typically a mere formality in these situations, as teams are eager to rid themselves of the financial obligation. But the Oilers, Kings and Canucks are division rivals, and Vegas appears to be in no hurry to help them.<\/p>\n

During a pre-series news conference on Tuesday, Vegas general manager Kelly McCrimmon said, \u201cWe\u2019ve been consistent that our focus currently is on the Stanley Cup playoffs and the teams have respected that. I have spoken with Bruce; he understands that, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NHL Coaches\u2019 Association released a statement<\/a> on Tuesday in an apparent attempt to apply pressure to Vegas, saying it\u2019s been \u201cclosely monitoring the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile we respect the league\u2019s rules and processes, it is our position that coaches who remain under contract, but are no longer working for their club, should not be prevented from pursuing other employment opportunities,\u201d the statement said. \u201cIt would be unprecedented at the head-coaching level should multiple teams be denied permission to speak with Coach Cassidy. The situation is still unfolding, but our priority is to protect the interests of our members in this type of circumstance.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the second high-profile off-ice controversy for the Golden Knights as they prepare for the Avalanche. The team was docked a 2026 second-round draft pick and Tortorella was fined $100,000 for \u201cflagrant violations\u201d of the league\u2019s media regulations after Vegas\u2019 series-clinching victory over Anaheim in the second round on May 14. The league cited \u201cprevious warnings\u201d issued to the team regarding their failure to comply with media regulations and \u201cother associated policies.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCrimmon also addressed that situation on Tuesday, hours after the NHL upheld the punishment after an appeal<\/a>, and said in part, \u201cWe were wrong. It will not happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER \u2014 The Vegas Golden Knights let Bruce Cassidy go. But they\u2019re apparently not ready to let him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[1792,393,385,99,1788,1793],"class_list":["post-653573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-edmonton-oilers","tag-los-angeles-kings","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-vegas-golden-knights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}