{"id":531428,"date":"2026-03-30T18:26:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T18:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/531428\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T18:26:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T18:26:31","slug":"golden-knights-gm-explains-stanley-cup-winning-coach-swap-with-eight-games-left","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/531428\/","title":{"rendered":"Golden Knights GM Explains Stanley Cup-Winning Coach Swap With Eight Games Left"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Vegas Golden Knights<\/a> are navigating the final stretch of the regular season with hopes to clinch a postseason berth as they sit third in the Western Conference’s Pacific Division with 80 points in 74 games.<\/p>\n

Despite sitting third and having a four-point lead over the wild-card cutout point in the standings (the Los Angeles Kings with 76 points), Vegas’ recent form raised concerns internally.<\/p>\n

The Golden Knights have lost 12 of their last 16 games and own one of the worst records in the league since the Olympic break. That stretch seemed to be a big enough concern for the franchise to pull off a major coaching decision<\/a> on Sunday, with just eight games remaining in their regular season.<\/p>\n

\"Vegas<\/p>\n

Vegas Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy.John E&period; Sokolowski-Imagn Imagess<\/p>\n

(John E&period; Sokolowski-Imagn Imagess)<\/p>\n

The Golden Knights fired Stanley Cup-winning head coach Bruce Cassidy and replaced him with John Tortorella, who also won the title back in 2004 while coaching the Tampa Bay Lightning.<\/p>\n

General manager Kelly McCrimmon explained the move in an official statement announcing the coaching swap.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith 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,\u201d McCrimmon said.<\/p>\n

McCrimmon acknowledged Cassidy\u2019s success, including leading the team to a Stanley Cup title in 2023 and maintaining one of the league\u2019s best records over his tenure.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder Bruce\u2019s leadership, we reached our ultimate goal in 2023 by bringing a Stanley Cup to Vegas,\u201d McCrimmon said. \u201cBruce will forever be remembered with the utmost regard by our organization for what was accomplished here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The organization, known for its aggressive approach since joining the NHL<\/a> back in time for the 2020-21 season, reasoned the decision on chasing an immediate improvement and better on-ice results.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith John Tortorella, we bring in a Stanley Cup champion as well as one of the most experienced and respected coaches in the NHL,\u201d McCrimmon said. \u201cHis guidance will be a great asset to our team at the pivotal point in the season we currently face. We look forward to welcoming John to Vegas.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Golden Knights next face the Vancouver Canucks on Monday, with puck drop set for 10 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n

Related: Ducks’ Radko Gudas Sends Clear Message Before Maple Leafs Rematch<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Maple Leafs Send Strong Messages Before Ducks Rematch<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Mar 30, 2026, where it first appeared in the NHL<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Vegas Golden Knights are navigating the final stretch of the regular season with hopes to clinch a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5114],"tags":[762,191,5,348,1596,145,4,14,92,27,39,190,109,5222],"class_list":["post-531428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-washington-capitals","tag-bruce-cassidy","tag-capitals","tag-hockey","tag-john-tortorella","tag-kelly-mccrimmon","tag-los-angeles-kings","tag-nhl","tag-stanley-cup","tag-tampa-bay-lightning","tag-vancouver-canucks","tag-vegas-golden-knights","tag-washington","tag-washington-capitals","tag-washingtoncapitals"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116319538313651131","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}