John Tortorella Out As Flyers Head Coach

The 66-year-old is out after nearly three full seasons on the job in Philadelphia.

Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella is out after nearly three seasons on the job in Philadelphia. / Robert Edwards-Imagn Images

Philadelphia Flyers head coach John Tortorella is out after nearly three full seasons on the job and zero playoff appearances, the franchise announced on Thursday morning.

Assistant coach Brad Shaw has been named as the interim head coach and will assume those duties for the remainder of the season.

"Today I made the very difficult decision to move on from John as our head coach," general manager Daniel Briere said in a statement. "John played a vital 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."

The Flyers are 28-36-9 on the season and poised to miss the playoffs for the fourth straight season. The 66-year-old head coach leaves Philadelphia with a 97-107-33 mark since taking over to begin the 2022-23 season. His best season came in 2023-24, when Philadelphia went 38-33-11 and finished sixth in the Metropolitan Division.

Philadelphia deemed that Tortorella, who is conceivably on the back nine of his coaching career, was no longer the right person to lead the Flyers' rebuild. A coaching search will begin immediately.

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