John Tortorella is currently closing out his third season behind the bench of the Philadelphia Flyers and things are starting to get real ugly here in the dying days of the 2024-25 season. The Flyers ended up behind the eight ball most of the season, and in similar fashion to last season, their post-deadline play has been an unmitigated disaster. We already talked about who is the most likely to succeed Tortorella here, but let’s weigh the options of whether or not he should be fired in the first place.
Pros
Give the Roster a New Direction
It’s no secret the Flyers’ roster is… lacking. But it really doesn’t help when there’s a skipper who only wants players to play a defense-first style of hockey and anyone who doesn’t conform gets punished. Putting a more progressive coach in charge, one that understands how to properly utilize young guys like Matvei Michkov, Tyson Foerster and Bobby Brink may not single-handedly totally change the course of the anemic offense, but it could go a long way to actually building a foundation for the future. The fans have long since grown tired of the constant scratchings, benchings and changeups, and one has to assume the players’ tolerance isn’t far behind… if it isn’t there already.
Does Briere Get More Freedom?
One of the biggest question marks stemming from the front office is exactly how much power Tortorella holds when it comes to roster construction. Based on the contracts handed out to the “culture” depth players and the lack of high-end offense remaining ignored, it’s safe to say Tortorella at least got his hand in the cookie jar, even if it’s Briere who has to put pen to paper. If Tortorella’s voice gets removed from the front office, would Briere be more compelled to do his job?
Cons
Who Replaces Him?
The Flyers have gone through a carousel of coaches over the last decade and it finally seemed as though they had a stable presence in Tortorella. Right now, the replacement is likely either assistant coach Brad Shaw or Lehigh Valley Phantoms head coach Ian Laperriere. Shaw is interesting, but is it really a change? And Lappy has had some success with the Phantoms, but can he hold his own behind an NHL bench again? Just because the grass is dry and wilted on this side of the fence doesn’t guarantee it’s any greener on the other side.
Are there any other cons?
Three years of this kind of hockey would get any regular coach without the longevity and theoretical pedigree of Tortorella fired. There are just not many real reasons to keep him at this point.
Conclusion
If you polled the fanbase six months ago, an overwhelming majority would probably be in favor of keeping Tortorella around. But now? As the season closes out and things go from bad to worse, his approval rating is falling faster than any politician could dream of, which feels like is saying a lot these days.
Typically when we talk about Tortorella, we like to preface it by saying that he has done some good things, but at the end of three years, that slogan hasn’t exactly held up. They’ve missed the playoffs for all three seasons under the guy (two of which ended in spectacular failure), virtually no players made huge strides under Tortorella except Konecny. The offense is a disaster, the power play is even worse and the constant preaching of accountability but refusing to take any himself is beyond tired.
Like most old school coaches, the hard-knocks gimmick has a shelf life in the modern day NHL. It’s an aspect of Tortorella’s personality that has flown under the radar for the most part during his time in Philly as the collective masses can typically do the mental gymnastics to justify the ruse, but as time goes on, it’s less an attractive feature as much as it is tiring repetitive nonsense.
But firing Tortorella doesn’t necessarily fix anything if the front office isn’t committed to making any major roster changes. And that’s kinda the whole problem. The erratic lineup shuffling Tortorella has defaulted to is simply a tactic to find any spark to build upon. A problem that stems from the fact that they ran back a nearly identical 23-man roster from last season’s underwhelming campaign. If they fire Torts then sit on the sidelines during the 2025 offseason and don’t make meaningful upgrades, whoever takes over is still going to be hindered by an inconsistent, limited roster.
Though the deadline deal of Scott Laughton coming just weeks after the dealt Joel Farabee and Morgan Frost could very well indicate that Briere realizes it’s time to pivot away from the satus quo he relied too heavily on. 2025 isn’t shaping up to produce a deep free agent pool and the trade targets that survived the deadline largely aren’t game changers, which is going to throw a huge wrench in any roster upgrade plans, so a few minor tweaks followed by moving on from Tortorella may be the best they can do right now.
If they somehow manage to have a summer of ’07 caliber of offseason and they claim they still have faith in Tortorella, they may be able to get away with keeping him. But if they run back a very similar roster again AND keep Tortorella, they’re asking for a full on mutiny from the already weary fanbase.
We’ve seen that unfold in the past with Ron Hextall and Dave Hakstol. It went from “fire the coach, fire the coach” to “fire the GM, fire the GM” because the front office wouldn’t cut the cancer out. Briere would be lining himself up for the same exact fate in 2025-26 if Tortorella is retained, especially if the roster changes are limited.
The John Tortorella era has largely come as promised. They worked hard, they had more success than anticipated, but they topped out as a bubble team on the outside looking in and got the full experience with Tortorella’s media antics and feuds with the players that don’t conform to his system. The Flyers desperately need something new, and if it isn’t going to come in the form of a large scale roster overhaul, it needs to be in the form of a new head coach. Running back a near identical product for a third season in a row is just asking for everyone to turn on the rest of front office.
The front office has a decision to make. It may not be an easy call to get rid of the guy the organization has built their current identity around, but at the same time, Briere and Jones are running out of time to save themselves, and if they don’t fire the guy, this perfect little mirage the organization has built with the “new era of orange” will come crashing down around them.
By: Dan Esche (@DanTheFlyeraFan)
photo credit:
brotherlypuck.com 