Golden Knights Replace Head Coach Bruce Cassidy with John Tortorella

With just eight games left in the 2025-26 season, the Vegas Golden Knights have made an unexpected move by letting go of their head coach.

On Sunday, Vegas announced the firing of Bruce Cassidy, naming John Tortorella as his successor.

Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon expressed gratitude towards Cassidy in a press release, saying, “We would like to thank Bruce Cassidy for his service to our hockey club and community over the past four seasons. Under Bruce’s leadership, we achieved our ultimate goal of bringing the Stanley Cup to Las Vegas in 2023. Bruce will forever be remembered by our organization with the utmost respect for what he accomplished here. With the 2025-26 regular season quickly approaching, we believe changes are necessary to return to the level of play expected of our club.”

He went on to say, “With John Tortorella, we are adding a Stanley Cup champion and one of the most experienced and respected coaches in the NHL. His guidance will be a great asset to our team during the critical season we are currently facing. We look forward to welcoming John to Las Vegas.”

Recently, the Golden Knights faced a loss against the Washington Capitals, ending in a 5-4 shootout. This marked their third consecutive defeat and their sixth loss in the last seven games.

Currently, Vegas holds the third position in the Pacific Division, with a record of 32 wins, 26 losses, and 16 losses. If the season ended now, the team would qualify for the playoffs and potentially face the Edmonton Oilers in the first round.

Interestingly, Tortorella wasn’t coaching in the NHL this season. Instead, he acted as an assistant for Team USA at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics, where they won the gold medal.

As a head coach, Tortorella has a record of 770 wins, 648 losses, and 37 overtime losses, with a previous Stanley Cup victory in 2004 with the Tampa Bay Lightning.