9:02 AM: The Flyers have officially announced the hiring of Tortorella, but did not confirm the financial terms. The Athletic’s Arthur Staple reports that the finalists for the job were Peter DeBoer and former New York Islanders head coach Jack Capuano.
4:25 PM: ESPN’s Kevin Weekes reports that Tortorella’s deal with the Flyers is a four-year, $4MM per year contract.
3:21 PM: After days of it seeming like an eventuality, John Tortorella is expected to officially be named the next head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers. The Athletic’s Charlie O’Connor reported this morning that final negotiations were underway and that an official announcement could come tomorrow, but The Fourth Period’s Anthony Di Marco now reports that an official announcement could come as soon as tonight and that the organization is “moving forward” with Tortorella as their new head coach.
We’ve gotten an unusually extensive amount of reporting on the Tortorella hiring process. It’s been known for a few days now that the team had zeroed in on Tortorella as a candidate and that the hiring was likely, but negotiations between the two sides had not been completed. Now, it seems like that process is done, although it’s unclear whether the terms of the deal will be made public.
Tortorella joins his fifth NHL team as a head coach and his fourth Eastern Conference team, with his one season spent in Vancouver as his lone Western Conference head coaching experience (2013-14). He ranks 13th all-time in games coached (1,383), 14th in wins (673), and has a 2004 Stanley Cup ring with the Tampa Bay Lightning to show for his illustrious career.
After his second gap year in the past decade, Tortorella returns to the NHL with the goal of quickly restoring a competitive team in Philadelphia. Whether that happens is a different story entirely. Of note, in his first entire season as coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2016-17, he took a team that had finished below the .500 mark the previous year to their only 100-point season in franchise history. However, that was a team spearheaded by a list of quality young players, most notably Zach Werenski and Seth Jones on defense, that the Flyers simply don’t have to offer. Nor do they have a goalie with the track record that Sergei Bobrovsky had at that point, who earned his second Vezina trophy that season with a .931 save percentage and 41-17-5 record.
While a healthy Sean Couturier and Ryan Ellis should give the Flyers a large boost next season, Tortorella will be tasked with the job of helping the team navigate their post-Claude Giroux era. He’ll be charged with restoring the ceilings of players like Travis Konecny and Oskar Lindblom up front and continuing the positive development of Joel Farabee. He’ll also need to institute a system that can help Ivan Provorov and Rasmus Ristolainen on the back end after some rough defensive seasons.
None of it will be an easy job in the Metropolitan Division. With the New York Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes poised to dominate again next season, they’ll also have the Blue Jackets and New Jersey Devils as on-the-rise teams to battle with.
At least they’ll be able to keep Atkinson happy, everyone else, not so much
I’d really love to know how much time Fletcher put into this search. I mean this smacks of settling.
The story is Fletcher wants no part of Torts. The 3headed alumni with power went to the Board of Directors. There should be a front office shake up right after the draft
Torts has already had words with Gritty. Torts thinks Larry Brooks is inside The costume
It wasn’t funny the first time you said that in this thread.
“ for the @NHLFlyers players!,” Dubinsky tweeted, as reports of Tortorella’s Philadelphia hiring went around on Thursday night
I can’t stand the guy
Good luck to him.
I’m sure the Philly fans will love him.
He can’t hear you, he has a Stanley Cup ring in his ear.
Yeah, that was in 2004. His time has passed.
uvmfiji… Actually it’s in his ass, so he can look at it
So, he’s deaf in the other ear?
Need to win at least two for that quip.
Dumpster fire
Congrats John! I will miss seeing you squirm when Rick D invades your personal space on sports center! On another note… Time to archive the blue suite my friend ;)
Philly fans and him will be quite a duo
How many games till he has blows up
What about in practice, before the first game?
Well, at the very least, the Flyers will be exponentially more interesting now.
I will definitely watch more Flyer games!
Will Gritty & Coach John , get along?
John thinks Gritty really is Brooks in side
Not the Philly Flyers I used to know. This is a settle hire.
It’s the match that just needed to happen, lol!
I predict JVR to be the first player in Torts’ doghouse.
Why shouldn’t he be?
Can hardly wait for his press conferences after games !
can’t wait to see Trotz take a team to the finals while Flyers players are leaving town in droves…
Idk if you’re ripping philly for not getting Trotz, but if you are I’d imagine it was more Trotz didn’t want to go to philly than philly didn’t want Trotz. I do like torts for philly though
If you think Torts has problems with his players you should talk to the Isles about Trotz.
As a Pens fan, this couldn’t bring me any more joy. What a match made in heaven.
Iron Mike Tortorella
To be fair he was a finalist for the Jack adams in 2020…only three seasons ago
As a Columbus fan, I liked Tortorella. Yeah, he’s rough around the edges but he got the most out of our players. He may rub some the wrong way, but that’s his style. His message to the locker room will be “the country club is closed, you’re in the marines now boy”.
Torts rocks. Philly will be very tough to play against this year.
Give him two years. First year successful and the second year folks remember why he never sticks. Still, he manages to make his way back.
Glad the Flyers signed him as this takes out of the running for the Red Wings job, so thank you Philly