Knights wise to move on from Torts

You know that suit that John Tortorella left behind at the hotel in Raleigh last week? He can go back and claim it any time he wants. Because time is a commodity he now has plenty of.

The fiery 67-year-old who helped turn the Vegas Golden Knights’ season around and guided the team on its long Stanley Cup Playoff run only to fall two games short of defeating the Carolina Hurricanes, will not return to the bench at T-Mobile Arena this fall. The team announced Tuesday it is partying ways with Torts and is moving on to what will be the fifth head coach for the team’s 10th anniversary season come October.

The smart money is on Ryan Craig, the current head coach of the AHL Henderson Silver Knights, who has been with the team since its inception and was an assistant on Bruce Cassidy’s Stanley Cup-winning staff in 2023. He’s a good guy, a smart hockey person and has put in his time as both an assistant at the NHL level and as a head coach in the AHL. Many of the players know him, especially the younger ones like Braeden Bowman, Kaedan Korczak, and others who played for Craig in Henderson. He’s ready to take over in Vegas.

Torts? This was likely a short-term solution from the outset. General manager Kelly McCrimmon will tell you that when he speaks on the matter Wednesday morning at City National Arena.  Torterella was willing to leave the comfort of the ESPN studio to get back behind the bench because that’s what coaches do. Look no further than Cassidy, who has said publicly that he wants to get back to work. And now that the Golden Knights’ season is over, perhaps he’ll be free to pursue that opportunity, perhaps in Toronto where the Maple Leafs are still searching for Craig Berube’s replacement.

And while Tortorella performed admirably in an interim role when he took over with eight games remaining, going 7-0-1 and taking Vegas to the Stanley Cup Final, perhaps it has opened the door for yet another chance down the road. He’s coached six different NHL teams — Tampa Bay, Columbus, the Rangers, Vancouver, Philadelphia and Vegas — so someone might be willing to bring him on board in the hopes he can do for them what he did for the Golden Knights, which was revive and breathe new life into a team that had stagnated.

He deserves full marks for what he did. The majority of the players loved playing for him and said so Tuesday on locker room cleanout day at City National Arena.

“It’s a tough situation for a coach to come in with that little time left,” said defenseman Noah Hanifin. “Just the way he was able to get us back on the right track fast and give us a chance was pretty impressive.”

Goaltender Carter Hart, who played the entire playoffs in the Vegas net and who had played for Tortorella when they were together in Philadelphia, said: “He keeps things black and white. He’s a super honest man and coach and I think as a player that’s all you can ask for is complete honesty and transparency.”

Tortorella always said he was able to coach a group like this successfully because they were experienced, had been through the wars of a Stanley Cup playoff run and that it was a good room with strong leadership and high character. He referred to himself as more of a guidance counselor while coaching the Knights, a term which most found somewhat amusing. But the reality is he didn’t have to be the bad guy, the angry guy to get his team’s attention. Just a lot of trust and belief in their abilities to play to their potential.

Of course, you can’t change who you are and that was true with Tortorella when it came to his dealings with those who didn’t play for him. His media availabilities were a cross between comical and cringe worthiness, sometimes lasting for less than a minute, sometimes not at all, as was the case when the Knights eliminated Anaheim and he was a no-show at the postgame news conference.

That cost him $100,000 and perhaps contributed to the team being dinged a second-round draft pick by the NHL for repeated violations of the league’s media policies.

Personally, I got along with Torts about as well as someone in my position could. He answered virtually every question I asked, be it about a player’s performance, team strategy or about hockey in general. Was he as engaging as Cassidy, Pete DeBoer or even Gerard Gallant? No. But I never expected him to be. I just tried to be prepared, keep my questions simple and not expect a lot in return, so when Tortorella did give a lengthy response, it felt like a win.

Some of my colleagues who cover the team weren’t as fortunate. They were treated to the full Torts experience, which isn’t pleasant. That meant short, curt answers leaving them little to work with.

But we all knew that going in. And had he stayed on in Vegas, at some point, things would’ve boiled over and the Knights would have once again been looking for yet another coach. So the decision by the team to move on from Tortorella now is the right one.

If Craig is indeed the successor, I’m excited for him and for what he can do as an NHL head coach. At some point, every coach needs to get an opportunity to show that they’re capable or incapable of coaching at the game’s highest level.

I think back to when Glen Gulutzan was coaching the Las Vegas Wranglers in the ECHL and how he eventually got to be an NHL head coach in Dallas and how happy I was for him. The guy had paid his dues and even after being let go by the Stars and later, Calgary, he’s back running the bench in Dallas.

So here’s hoping Craig gets that same opportunity. As for Tortorella, there’s probably going to be an opportunity for him to stay in coaching. He showed he can still do it, and he deserves to get behind someone’s bench, warts and all.

As for that suit he left behind in Raleigh, he should donate it to some worthy charity or organization. Or put it up for sale on eBay. It might fetch a pretty good price.