Former New York Rangers coach John Tortorella was fired Thursday by the Philadelphia Flyers after three seasons behind their bench. So, the knee-jerk reaction in New York is to ask whether the Rangers should consider replacing Peter Laviolette with the man who coached them from 2009-13.
Tortorella is a polarizing figure. Abrasive. No-nonsense. Combative. Effective.
He guided the Tampa Bay Lightning to their first Stanley Cup championship in 2004 and has the ninth-most wins (770) in NHL history. Only Laviolette has more wins among United States-born coaches in League history; he’s seventh overall with 841.
His 171 wins with the Rangers are fifth-most in franchise history, and his .583 points percentage with them is the sixth-best mark.
Tortorella coached the Rangers for the final four games of the 1999-2000 season after John Muckler was fired. He returned in the 2007-08 campaign after Tom Renney was relieved of his duties. In 319 regular-season games with the Rangers, Tortorella was 171-118-29 with one tie. He also guided the Rangers to the 2012 Eastern Conference Final where they lost in six games to the New Jersey Devils, and was 19-25 in 44 Stanley Cup Playoff games coaching them.
He was fired after the 2013 playoffs, when players complained about him in exit interviews.
Since then, Tortorella coached the Vancouver Canucks (for one controversial season), Columbus Blue Jackets and Flyers.
Now, at the age of 66 and 12 years after being dismissed by a different management group, is a reunion with Tortorella a good idea?
Assessing whether Rangers should fire Peter Laviolette, hire John Tortorella as coach
Members of the Forever Blueshirts staff weigh in on the two part question: should the Rangers fire Peter Laviolette and bring back John Tortorella as their coach?
Jim Cerny – Executive Editor
Let me start with this: Call me crazy, but I think Peter Laviolette returns as Rangers coach next season. If I’m wrong and he doesn’t, I do believe the Rangers must at least consider John Tortorella as his replacement. Ultimately, I would pass on a Torts reunion, though.
Listen, Tortorella would bring the accountability this team needs and is a good fit for a team that has immediate championship aspirations. It’s doubtful the Rangers would have as many no-show performances with Torts behind the bench. They’d compete. But only for a season or two. So, the Rangers would have to win the Stanley Cup quickly after his hire, or else it’d go south quickly.
Replacing a more stern coach with another — as it would be going from Laviolette to Tortorella — would be an unconventional move. But these players don’t need nor deserve another players coach, like Gerard Gallant.
General manager Chris Drury knows Tortorella well enough since he played for him as Rangers captain. Torts has mellowed since then. But I don’t think Drury would or should turn to a Tortorella reunion to fix the issues with this team. If he fires Laviolette, this would be his third coaching hire in four years, and likely his last as GM. If I’m him, i don’t trust that next move to be Tortorella.
Torts checks some boxes, but I don’t like the feel of it. I say no to his return.
John Kreiser – Senior Writer
There’s no rational way that firing Laviolette is a good decision right now. Axing him and bringing back Tortorella would be sheer madness.
I remember being at Peter’s first press conference, when the Islanders hired him in 2001. He coached them to their first playoff berth in eight years in 2001-02, got them to the postseason again in 2002-03 – and was fired. It was the start of a career that has seen him have a great record of short-term success — including a Stanley Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006, leading an undermanned Flyers team to the Final in 2010 and getting the Nashville Predators within two wins of the Cup in 2017. He stepped into a messy situation when he arrived on Broadway in 2023 and promptly led the Rangers to the best regular season in their history, the Presidents’ Trophy and the Eastern Conference Final. He hasn’t won 841 games by accident.
This season hasn’t been nearly as good, and I can see there’s a case for letting him go after the way the Rangers fell apart in mid-November and have never completely recovered. His systems don’t work nearly as well this season, and the special teams have fallen into a black hole. The overall compete level has been spotty. Several key vets have seen their game regress, and Igor Shesterkin’s play is the only thing that’s kept the Rangers in the race for a playoff berth.
But Torts is not the answer. He’s a terrific coach – but not for this team, at this time.
Dane Walsh – Staff Writer
Bringing back John Tortorella would be a big mistake for the Rangers. Look how he’s handled his young players in Philadelphia. You have Matvei Michkov who’s primed to become a star in the league, but he gets punished with fourth-line minutes, and is even scratched at times. Same goes for Cam York. With key youngsters like Brennan Othmann and Brett Berard, and with Gabe Perreault soon to be looking to make an impact for the Rangers, Tortorella is not the guy for the job.
The Rangers have been historically bad over the past several years developing young talent. Laviolette is not great in this area, but he’s not abusive toward the youngsters like Tortorella can be. If they move on from Laviolette, they need to bring in a fresh face that can help all of the team grow. Look at a guy like Spencer Carberry and what he’s done with the Washington Capitals. That’s the direction the Rangers should take.
Eric Charles – Staff Writer
It’s fair to ask if this inconsistent and undisciplined Rangers team could use a Broadway reunion with Torts. The way I see it, though, wrong place at the wrong time.
After a strong start to the season, the Rangers hit a roadblock in late November that’s been heavily documented. A team that for the first year-plus under Laviolette found ways to win now finds ways to lose. It’s fair to blame Laviolette. A move to Torts might have made sense if he were available in say, December or January, when this was still a team of veterans who were underachieving. Even after acquiring J.T. Miller, whose mindset is not so different from Torts, a reunion with the former coach doesn’t feel at all like a good fit.
A culture change needs to be addressed this offseason in order for this group to be a powerhouse in the Eastern Conference once again. While Torts’ ideologies of doing whatever it takes to win should be present in the locker room, I don’t see how the Rangers’ younger players will thrive with him at the helm. We’ve seen how the roller-coaster Michkov experiment has gone with Torts this season in Philly. Simply put, Tortorella instills a strong culture, but he doesn’t cultivate young talent to reach their full potential.
Laviolette’s days may be numbered, but his replacement should be someone who can bring the best out of both veterans and younger core players. I don’t think Tortorella can adapt enough to succeed with the entirety of the Rangers’ roster.
-1740715749-q80.webp "Official injury update provided on New York Rangers defenseman K'Andre Miller")
