The Philadelphia Flyers have relieved head coach John Tortorella of his duties, the team announced Thursday morning.
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Brad Shaw, a current assistant coach with the Flyers, has been named the interim head coach. Will take over duties of head coach effective immediately.
Tortorella, in his third year with the club, had one year remaining on his four year contract with the Flyers.
“Today I made the very difficult decision to move on from John as our head coach,” GM Danny Briere said in a statement released by the team. “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.”
Briere added “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 move comes just two days after Tortorella gave a very honest answer to the team’s play as of late. Mentioning that he has not done a great job preparing them to play as of late.
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“This falls on me. I’m not really interested in learning how to coach in this type of season, where we’re at right now,” Tortorella told reporters postgame in Toronto on Tuesday. “I have to do a better job. So this falls on me, getting the team prepared to play the proper way until we get to the end.”
Despite minimal playoff expectations as the Flyers were rebuilding, the Flyers made some noise last season. Holding a playoff spot until the last month of the season. Finishing 7-11-4 in their final 22 games to fall out of a wildcard spot.
As of today, the Flyers have fallen to the 5th worst team in the NHL (28-36-9) and are on a six-game losing streak, in which they have been outscored 27-10.
There has been rumblings over the past month that Tortorella may not be the best coach for the next stage of the rebuild. The Flyers are expected to accelerate their rebuild this offseason.
The rumblings started due to a poll released with Tortorella being a Top5 hardest head coach to play for by ex NHLers.
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In his two and half seasons with the Flyers, Tortorella finished with 97-107-33 record.
“On behalf of the entire Flyers organization, we would like to thank John for his dedication over the past three seasons,” said Flyers Governor Dan Hilferty and President of Hockey Operations Keith Jones. “We fully support Danny’s decision in making this change as he continues to do what is needed for the future of our organization. John Tortorella has made a positive impact throughout the Flyers organization, and we are grateful and appreciative of the opportunity to work with him. We wish John, Christine and their family all the best moving forward.”
The Flyers next play tonight against the Montreal Canadiens at the Wells Fargo Center at 7:00 pm.
PHOTO CREDIT: Eric Hartline – Imagn Images
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