Flyers fire head coach John Tortorella, Brad Shaw named interim

The Philadelphia Flyers are making a coaching change.

The Flyers announced Thursday that they have fired John Tortorella and that associate head coach Brad Shaw will replace him in the interim.

Tortorella, 66, was brought in as the Flyers coach back in June 2022. During his time in Philadelphia, Tortorella went 97-107-33.

“Today I made the very difficult decision to move on from John as our head coach,” general manager Daniel Briere said in a statement. “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.

“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 team decided to make a change with one win over their last 12 games, including a 7-2 blowout loss against the Toronto Maple Leafs, the team’s sixth straight defeat.

“This falls on me,” Tortorella told reporters after the game. “I’m not really interested in learning how to coach in this type of season, where we’re at right now. But 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.”

Tortorella is ninth on the NHL’s all-time coaching wins list with 770. He’s won multiple Jack Adams Awards and captured the Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004.

Shaw, 60, is in his third season with the team after joining the Flyers coaching staff with Tortorella in July 2022. Before that he spent two seasons as an assistant coach with the Vancouver Canucks.