John Tortorella is finally telling his side of the story after the Golden Knights’ media-day mess that led to a costly NHL punishment during Vegas’ 2026 Stanley Cup playoff run.
The issue dates back to May 14, when Tortorella skipped a postgame press conference after the Golden Knights beat the Anaheim Ducks in the second round. The NHL responded by docking Vegas a second-round pick in the 2026 draft and fining Tortorella $100,000. A month later, after the Golden Knights fell to the Carolina Hurricanes in six games in the Stanley Cup Final, Tortorella was dismissed by the franchise and Ryan Craig took over as head coach.
Vegas president George McPhee and general manager Kelly McCrimmon both publicly took Tortorella to task for the decision, saying the missed availability came at a steep price for the organization.
Now, in an exclusive interview with The Athletic’s Joe Smith, Tortorella said there had been an understanding before the series that he would speak before Ducks coach Joel Quenneville. But on the night Vegas eliminated Anaheim, Quenneville went to the podium first.
“That wasn’t me not wanting to do the press. That was me not wanting to hold up my team.
I had to make a decision. … I was not going to hold up my hockey team after eliminating a team from the playoffs," said Tortorella.
He added: "I had to make a decision: to wait for Joel to finish and talk to you guys and hold up my hockey team, or go on the bus with my hockey team. I’m going with my hockey team.
I own that. There was no underlying (issue).
It was just bad timing," added Tortorella.
McPhee, for his part, revisited the episode on the Cam and Strick podcast and made clear the organization believed the situation never should have unfolded the way it did.
“We just won a series. Everybody’s happy.
Torts decided to blow off the press conference, and unfortunately, Kelly and I didn’t know about it until Kelly was on the bus. Then I heard about it the next morning on TV.
So anyway, that shouldn’t have happened, and we paid a price for it.” said McPhee.
Even with the criticism, Tortorella said he still has a good relationship with the Vegas front office and spoke with McPhee earlier this week.
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