Former New York Rangers coach John Tortorella is entering the 2025-26 season without a job.
Tortorella was about to complete his third season as head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers before he was fired in March.
While the Flyers saw improvements early on in Tortorella’s tenure, the team failed to make the playoffs during his time in Philadelphia, and Flyers general manager Daniel Brière felt it was time to shake things up.
“Torts is a complicated man. He's a complicated coach. He's a blast to work with because he challenges you. I truly believe he made me a better GM. He's not a 'yes' man," Briere said. "He had opinions and he's earned the right to share his opinion. We listened to him. But we felt it was time to move in a different direction.”
Once Mike Sullivan was on the verge of being hired by the Rangers, it was reported by ESPN’s Emily Kaplan that John Tortorella was reportedly a strong candidate to rejoin the Rangers as an assistant coach under Sullivan.
This would have been a full-circle moment if the two coaches had been hired together, as Sullivan served as an assistant to Tortorella when he was the head coach of the Rangers from 2009 to 2013.
However, Kaplan later added that Tortorella did speak with the Rangers but will not be rejoining the organization after all.
With training camp just a couple of weeks away, Tortorella is still without a coaching gig, and it appears he’ll sit out the season unless something changes quickly.