Vegas Golden Knights fire coach Bruce Cassidy, hire John Tortorella

LAS VEGAS − There’s a new leader of “The Realm” on the Las Vegas Strip.

The Vegas Golden Knights announced the firing of coach Bruce Cassidy March 29, replacing their 2023 Stanley Cup-winning skipper with head coaching veteran John Tortorella.

“Bruce will forever be remembered with the utmost regard by our organization for what was accomplished here,” Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon said in a news release.

The dismissal comes with eight games left in the regular season for the Golden Knights, who sit in third in the Pacific Division. Vegas has lost six of its last seven games and only won five games since the league returned from the Olympic break.

The Golden Knights are on track to hit their lowest points percentage in the team’s nine-year history. They have only missed the playoffs once, in the 2021-22 season, leading to the ouster of then head coach Peter DeBoer and Cassidy’s installation.

The Strip dwellers lost to the Washington Capitals 5-4 in a shootout the night before the announcement.

“With the stretch run of the 2025-26 regular season upon us, we believe that a change is necessary for us to return to the level of play that is expected of our club,” McCrimmon said.

Tortorella’s 770 career wins rank second among U.S.-born coaches. He won a Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004 but has not coached in the playoffs since 2020, when his Columbus Blue Jackets were bounced from the first round.

His last NHL tenure ended abruptly, having been fired in 2025 by the Philadelphia Flyers with nine games left in the season. However, the team was already out of the playoff picture by the time he was relieved of his post on Broad Street.

Tortorella’s debut could come on March 30, when the Golden Knights host the Vancouver Canucks at T-Mobile Arena.

USA TODAY has reached out to the Golden Knights for further comment and to Tortorella through his Tortorella Family Foundation.