The Philadelphia Flyers ESPN NHL analyst Kevin Weekes reported that the team has agreed to a 4-year contract with John Tortorella as their head coach.
Tortorella was most recently the coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets For six seasons, he was out of the team.
The Blue Jackets’ record was 227-166-54, making Tortorella the most successful coach in franchise history. They also qualified for the playoffs in four out of six seasons. With the exception of 2019, where they were swept by Tampa Bay in an opening round shocker, all other attempts to advance them failed.
Tortorella (63) has also coached Lightning with whom he won the Stanley Cup in 2004 New York Rangers Vancouver Canucks. He was twice named the Jack Adams Award winner as the NHL’s best coach.
Alain Vigneault, the Flyers’ head coach, was fired Dec. 6, 2021 after an 8-11-4 season which included an eight-game losing streak. Mike Yeo, who went 17-36-7 behind Philadelphia’s bench, was named interim coach. Philadelphia did not make the playoffs for the second year in a row.
Chuck Fletcher, general manger of the team, stated that Yeo would not be returning as head coach for the team in 2022/23.
The Flyers were amongst the NHL’s most disappointing team this season. Fletcher signed several veteran players, including a defenseman, last offseason. Ryan EllisHe was forced to miss four games by injury. Fletcher talked about an “aggressive restructuring” of the offseason. This includes a new Tortorella coaching staff.
This report was contributed to by Greg Wyshynski from ESPN.