Flyers fire head coach John Tortorella

Flyers general manager Daniel Briere announced that associate coach Brad Shaw will take over on an interim basis.

“Today I made the very difficult decision to move on from John as our head coach,” Briere said. “John played a pivotal 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."

Over Tortorella’s 237 games with the Flyers, he secured a 97-107-33 record and no playoff appearances. The Flyers came close last year, finishing with a 38-33-11 record, but fell just short in the final games of the season.

Tortorella has been a head coach in the NHL since 2000 and is a two-time Jack Adams Award winner as the league’s best coach. He led the 2003-04 Tampa Bay Lightning to the franchise’s first Stanley Cup.

In 1,620 career games coached at the NHL level, Tortorella holds a 770-648-37-165 record. 770 wins is good for ninth all-time and second all-time among American born coaches.

It’s not clear what the next steps are for the 66-year-old coach, but if this is the end of the road in the NHL, the next step for Tortorella will be a call from the Hall of Fame.