Vegas Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon clearly has his own way of doing things as he makes sure his team stays on track.
Firing Bruce Cassidy with just eight games to go in the regular season was a fairly unusual move for an established team. It had been done before, most notably when general manager Lou Lamiorello of the New Jersey Devils fired Claude Julien in 2006-07 with just 3 games to go in the regular season and replaced him with himself.
McCrimmon did not make that move as he saw no need to get behind the VGK bench, but he did bring in John Tortorella. That move raised eyebrows around the league, because the 67-year-old coach appeared to be out of opportunities when he was let go by the Philadelphia Flyers at the conclusion of last season.
Tortorella is known for his fiery demeanor and unyielding expectations, but he took on a softer tone with the veteran Golden Knights. The move clearly worked, as Vegas went 7-0-1 to close the regular season and then started playing its best hockey of the year in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Golden Knights took care of business against the Wild Card Utah Mammoth and then handled Joel Quenneville’s Anaheim Ducks in 6 games. The end of the line appeared certain against the Presidents Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche, but the VGK shocked the hockey world with a four-game sweep of the Avs.
Somehow, Tortorella was getting results he couldn’t have possibly expected, but the Golden Knights met their match against the Carolina Hurricanes. After gaining a 2-1 advantage following a double-overtime victory in Game 3, Carolina won the final three games of the series, and the Vegas dream of a second Stanley Cup in four seasons died on home ice.
McCrimmon makes the wise move
While the Golden Knights were winning playoff games, Cassidy’s name kept coming up as the favorite to get the Edmonton Oilers’ coaching job. That team had fired Kris Knoblauch after their disappointing season and early exit in the playoffs, and the thought was that Cassidy could steady the ship since he had won the Stanley Cup with the Golden Knights in 2023 and had taken the Boston Bruins to the Final in 2019.
But the Golden Knights were unwilling to give him permission to coach the Oilers. There was a non-compete clause in his contract, and unlike most teams that fire their head coach, they were unwilling to give Cassidy an opportunity to pursue another position. Or at least that position on a team with elite stars like Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
Many observers thought McCrimmon’s actions were unusual, but within the letter of the law. Perhaps there’s another reason for his intractable position.
McCrimmon was smart enough to know that Tortorella was a short-term solution. The idea of this old-school coach leading a team as its permanent coach would not have been wise. He had reacted in a less-than-mature manner when the Flyers traded high draft pick Cutter Gauthier to the Anaheim Ducks for defenseman Jamie Drysdale in 2024.
The young center let the organization know he wanted to move on, and that triggered Tortorella.
“Then, we don’t want you,” Tortorella said when he heard about Gauthier’s desire to be traded. “I don’t know Cutter from a hole in the wall. I’m not too interested in talking about him. I rather talk about Jamie. He’s the guy that’s coming here.”
Another Tortorella incident in a full-time head coaching position would not have been a surprise.
Best move would be reuniting with Cassidy
McCrimmon has shown he is not afraid to do what he thinks is best for his team and he does not care what outsiders think. The best move would be bringing back Cassidy and asking him to fulfill his contract.
Cassidy is not an easy coach to play for and when his team does not play its best hockey, he is not always happy. This was the case in Boston — where he was a big winner — and also the case in Vegas.
If he does not think his team has played well even when it wins, he makes his feelings known. He can be tough on his players, but he is far more consistent than Tortorella and a couple of months off the job should renew his spirit and his outlook.
At this point, there are not many coaches out there who would be better than Cassidy. The Athletic reported that the Golden Knights have solid feelings about Ryan Craig, the head coach of the Henderson Silver Knights, the team’s minor-league affiliate.
Craig has been the coach of that team for 3 years, but he has no NHL head coaching experience. The Golden Knights are a veteran team with older players like Mark Stone, Brayden McNabb, Tomas Hertl, Jack Eichel and Mitch Marner. A rookie head coach would not be the way to go.
This is a time for all sides to come together and return Cassidy to the fold and let him get behind the Vegas bench again in one of the most unusual moves in NHL coaching history.
The post Golden Knights must rehire Bruce Cassidy to replace John Tortorella, win Stanley Cup appeared first on ClutchPoints.
