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Category: Hockey

  • Golden Knights will not retain John Tortorella

    After guiding the team to its third Stanley Cup Final, the Vegas Golden Knights are moving on from their head coach.

     

    According to a team announcement, the Golden Knights will not retain John Tortorella as head coach, and will be looking for their third of the calendar year.

     

    Vegas couldn’t have asked for much more from the 67-year-old coach. After taking over for Bruce Cassidy with eight games remaining in the regular season, the Golden Knights won nearly all of them, closing out the regular season with a 7-0-1 record, capturing the Pacific Division crown.

     

    Despite the better performance, the Golden Knights didn’t enter the playoffs as a true threat for the Stanley Cup. Many analysts predicted that Vegas would fall short against a stronger Central Division opponent, with some theorizing that they might be dispatched by the Utah Mammoth as early as Round 1.

     

    — Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) June 16, 2026

    Obviously, that’s not how things shook out. Under Tortorella’s stewardship, the Golden Knights took out the Mammoth (with two overtime games) and the Anaheim Ducks relatively easily. However, their easiest series of the postseason shockingly came in the Western Conference Final, when the Golden Knights knocked off the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche in a four-game sweep. Unfortunately, after taking a lead in the series after Game 3, their postseason came to an end at the hands of the Carolina Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup Final.

     

    It’s hard to determine whose decision this was. Before joining the Golden Knights at the end of the season, Tortorella was essentially retired from coaching except for a tenure in the international circuit. Given that his coaching career began back in the 1989-90 season, Tortorella may have just wanted one last run at things before retiring for good.

     

    Additionally, it’s even harder to imagine Tortorella, especially at his age, joining the two available options. Currently, outside of Vegas, the only two teams without a head coach for the 2026-27 campaign are the Edmonton Oilers and Toronto Maple Leafs. Given his combativeness with the media throughout his coaching career, it wouldn’t make a lot of sense for him to take over behind the bench for a team with a feisty media environment.

     

    Still, the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs showed that Tortorella has some fuel left in the tank. If there is another coaching dismissal this offseason, Tortorella would immediately become a candidate, especially for a team on the fringe of postseason contention.

     

    This article first appeared on Pro Hockey Rumors and was syndicated with permission.

  • Flyers Activate Bobby Brink, Place Daniel Vladar On IR

    The Philadelphia Flyers will get a forward back from injury in Monday night’s game against the Vegas Golden Knights. Winger Bobby Brink was activated off of injured reserve earlier in the day while goaltender Daniel Vladar was placed on IR in a corresponding move, per Jordan Hall of NBCS Philadelphia. Vladar’s IR designation can be made retroactive to his last game on January 14th, making him eligible to be activated before Philadelphia visis the Utah Mammoth on Wednesday.

    Brink will return to the lineup after missing six games with an upper-body injury sustained on January 6th. The fourth-year pro had appeared in all 41 Flyers games this season before getting injured. He scored 11 goals and 20 points in those appearances. 14 of those points came in two separate eight-game streaks – one at the beginning of the season and another in early December.

    While his scoring around those hot streaks hasn’t popped, Brink has still reestablished his role as a sharpshooter in the middle of Philadelphia’s lineup. He is scoring at roughly the same pace that led him to 41 points in 79 games last season, though is already one goal back from the 12 goals he posted last year. That’s a hardy improvement for the 24 year old and has led to a career-high 15 minutes of average ice time.

    Brink will step onto Philadelphia’s third-line in place of Rodrigo Abols, who suffered a scary-looking injury in Philadelphia’s last game. Brink will play above options like Garnet Hathaway, Carl Grundstrom, and Lane Pederson. The Flyers are also nursing an injury to winger Tyson Foerster.

    While Brink’s return will add another shooter to the lineup, the Flyers will keep their sights on Vladar’s injury. The 28-year-old netminder has stood up as the top Flyers goaltender. He has 16 wins and a .905 save percentage in 28 games this season, a career-year just above the 13 wins and .906 Sv% he posted in 23 games of the 2021-22 season. A placement on IR, rather than LTIR, should indicate Vladar’s return isn’t far away.