The Philadelphia Flyers are switching things up behind their bench.
The club announced Thursday morning that they have fired head coach John Tortorella with just nine games remaining in the 2024-25 season. Brad Shaw, the team’s associate head coach, will replace him on an interim basis.
OFFICIAL: The Flyers have relieved John Tortorella of his duties as head coach. Philadelphia Flyers Associate Coach, Brad Shaw, has been named interim head coach and will assume duties immediately. https://t.co/qJuAybRMFT pic.twitter.com/saaH0u62lT
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) March 27, 2025
Tortorella was hired by the Flyers in June of 2022 and led Philadelphia to a 97-107-33 record during his tenure. The Flyers will soon be mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, missing out on the postseason for a fifth straight season.
“Today I made the very difficult decision to move on from John as our head coach,” Flyers general manager Daniel Briere said in a statement. “John played a vital role in our rebuild. He set a standard of play and re-established what it means to be a Philadelphia Flyer.
“John’s passion on the bench was only equaled by his charitable work in our community. As we move into the next chapter of this rebuild, I felt this was the best for our team to move forward. I’d like to thank John for his tireless work and commitment to the Flyers.”
Per Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli, Tortorella had one year remaining on his contract at a salary around $4 million. He departs after the Flyers lost their sixth straight game to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night. The team has gone just 2-10-1 in March.
“This falls on me,” Tortorella said Tuesday. “I’m not really interested in learning how to coach in this type of season, where we’re at right now. But I have to do a better job. So, this falls on me, getting the team prepared to play the proper way until we get to the end.”
Tortorella has publicly clashed with Philadelphia’s top young star, Matvei Michkov, several times this season. In a November guest spot on a TNT broadcast, the veteran bench boss explained the rationale behind healthy-scratching Michkov for two games. He also admitted that he had mostly abandoned trying to coach the young winger, partially due to a language barrier.
Later in the year, Michkov and Tortorella got into a shouting match on the Flyers’ bench during a game against the New York Islanders, which led to Michkov being benched for the final 29:58 remaining in regulation. Tortorella also disagreed with Michkov trying to score using the Michigan lacrosse-style move, eventually ceding to the youngster, saying, “I’ve lost that battle.”
The Flyers will play their first game without Tortorella on Thursday night against the Montreal Canadiens.
