John Tortorella isn’t ready to call it a career, not after getting so close in Vegas and not after more than 25 years on NHL benches.
The former Rangers coach said this week that he wants to keep coaching, even though the Golden Knights moved on from him after their run to the Stanley Cup Final. Vegas went 7-0-1 after hiring Tortorella with eight games left in the regular season, then knocked off the Edmonton Oilers, Anaheim Ducks and Presidents’ Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche before falling to the Carolina Hurricanes in six games in the Final.
“I want to coach now,” Tortorella said. “I’m not sure if that happens, and that’s where I am in my career.
But I wanted to coach that Vegas team. I told [McCrimmon] that.”
Tortorella, 68, started his NHL coaching career with the Rangers in April 2000, taking over for John Muckler for the final four games of the 1999-2000 season. New York went 0-3-1 in that brief stint, but it was the start of a long run that has made him the ninth-winningest coach in league history at 777-648-166 with 37 ties.
His résumé stretches across the Rangers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Vancouver Canucks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Philadelphia Flyers and Golden Knights. He won the Stanley Cup with Tampa Bay in 2004, reached the Eastern Conference Final with the Rangers in 2012 and earned Jack Adams Awards with the Lightning in 2003-04 and the Blue Jackets in 2016-17.
For Rangers fans, the most familiar version of Tortorella came during his second run at Madison Square Garden. Hired late in the 2008-09 season, he coached the club through 2012-13 and went 171-118-29 with one tie before being fired four days after the Rangers were knocked out by the Boston Bruins in the first round of the 2013 playoffs.
“Every coach has a shelf life,” Glen Sather said at the time. “I’ve told every guy I’ve hired that at some point in time this is going to change. Our goal is to win the Stanley Cup, and we
In Other News...
Rangers May Have Just Dodged Their Worst Free Agency Mistake
The Rangers came up empty in their pursuit of Alex Tuch, but there may be a silver lining in how the market shook out. Tuch landed elsewhere on an eight-year deal, and the early reaction around the league has not been kind. The Athletic recently slotted the contract among the NHLs worst, citing concerns about how it could age and whether the value will hold up over the long term.
For New York, the miss looks a little less painful because the club moved quickly to address the same need by trading for Pavel Dorofeyev and locking him in on a seven-year contract. The Rangers were clearly shopping for a major addition, and while Tuch would have brought name value, the combination of term and risk attached to his new deal makes this one of those rare free-agent near-misses that can feel like a break instead of a setback. [Read more 🡒]
Marcus Pettersson Already Sounds Like Exactly What Rangers Needed
Marcus Pettersson did not need much convincing once the Rangers entered the picture. After waiving his no-movement clause to make the move to New York, the defenseman sounded genuinely excited about landing with a team whose coaching staff he already knows well, and his comfort level with Mike Sullivan clearly mattered in the decision. For a player changing cities in-season, that kind of familiarity can make a new situation feel a lot less like a leap.
Pettersson also has wasted little time getting acquainted on the player side, saying he has already had conversations with Mika Zibanejad and J.T. Miller since the trade. For the Rangers, that matters as much as the on-ice fit, because integrating a defenseman quickly is about more than systems and pairings. The bigger question now is how smoothly all of those connections translate once he gets into the room and onto the ice. [Read more 🡒]
Sean Durzi Feels The Pressure Of Fixing A Rangers Problem
Marcus Pettersson and Sean Durzi met the New York media for the first time since their trades, and Durzi arrived sounding like a player eager for a reset. He called the NHL a prove-yourself league, said the move gives him a fresh start, and framed the opportunity in the biggest possible terms, with the Stanley Cup as the goal. For a Rangers team looking to tighten up its blue line, Durzi is expected to step in as the No. 2 right-handed defender behind Adam Fox, which makes his adjustment more than just a personal storyline.
Durzi also made clear that the trade came with some added motivation, even if it landed as a bit of a surprise. That matters in New York, where every new defenseman gets measured not just by fit, but by whether he can help solve a long-running problem on the back end. The Rangers are counting on him to bring stability and a little urgency to a role that carries real pressure, and the first public signs suggest he understands exactly what is at stake. [Read more 🡒]