The Vegas Golden Knights made a surprising move to fire head coach Bruce Cassidy with just eight games remaining in their regular season. Vegas had just lost 5-4 to the Washington Capitals and fallen to third in the league-worst Pacific Division.
In Cassidy’s place, the Golden Knights brought in the well-traveled John Tortorella, who led them to a 7-0-1 finish to the regular season and now has them tied 2-2 in a first-round playoff series with the Utah Mammoth. Cassidy got a chance to speak about his dismissal Tuesday night, as TNT brought him on as a special guest analyst for their playoff coverage.
“Yeah, you know, you grind for 74 games, and you want to be there at the end, right?” Cassidy said. “That’s the payoff, right? Playing for the Cup, getting your name on the Cup again. So, yeah, but Vegas, they have their standards. They felt we weren’t there, so they made a change. Great guys in that locker room, great players, so I’m excited for the guys, but disappointed I didn’t get a chance to finish the job with them.”
Cassidy ended his Vegas tenure with a 178-99-43 record over four seasons (2022–2026) with the Golden Knights. He led the team to its first Stanley Cup championship in 2023 and recorded two 50-win seasons.
The hard-nosed bench boss seemingly lost the locker room, with captain Mark Stone even calling the atmosphere around the team “stale” before Cassidy’s departure. The hope was that Tortotella’s fiery presence would reignite the club, and so far, so good. Still, Cassidy believes the decision may have been a bit premature.
“Well, I would have liked to see it through,” Cassidy said. “We’d won once before, so we knew what it looked like to win. We were a first- or second-place team most of the year. I felt we would have got in. I don’t know where we would have finished at the end. That’s speculation. But yes, I would have loved to have had the opportunity. But it didn’t work out that way, so you start thinking about your next challenge.”
There are currently no open head-coaching positions in the NHL, although the Los Angeles Kings do have DJ Smith as their bench boss on only an interim basis. After being swept out of the playoffs by the Colorado Avalanche, it’s unlikely Smith keeps his position. A few other head coaches are expected to be on the hot seat this summer, including Craig Berube (TOR), Scott Arniel (WPG), and Andrew Brunette (NSH).
The Capitals have an assistant-coach spot open after Kirk Muller departed the organization on Monday. However, it’s unlikely Cassidy would take an assistant job until he exhausts all of his options to return as a head coach somewhere. Cassidy was previously the head coach of the Caps for two seasons, fired after 107 games split across the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons.
