John Tortorella and David Quinn will serve as assistant coaches to Mike Sullivan for Team USA at the Four Nations tournament in February, USA Hockey announced on Wednesday. Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Sullivan and Flyers head coach Tortororella are close friends, and Sullivan has served in the past as an assistant coach to Tortorella. Sullivan is also close with Quinn, going back to when they were teammates at Boston University as young players.
Tortorella has been a coaching mentor to Sullivan and the two stay in regular contact. A year ago, Sullivan recommended center Ryan Poehling to Tortorella after the Penguins (for salary cap management reasons) did not present a qualifying offer to Poehling. The player went on to become of of Tortorella's most trusted players in Philadelphia and earn a pre-emptive contract extension midway through his one year "prove it" deal in 2023-24.
Tortorella (1,547 games as an NHL head coach, 742 head coaching wins, .480 career coaching win percentage) is second all-time among American-born NHL head coaches and
ninth among all NHL head coach in league history in coaching wins.
Among American coaches, only Peter Laviolette (1,512 games, 807 wins, .534 coaching win percentage) has been behind the bench for more wins. Tortorella has the most games coached among American coaches.
Tortorella, who turned 66 on June 24, is the oldest and most experienced active head coach currently in the NHL. He is the final active NHL head coach born before 1960, but this could change if either Joel Quenneville (born Sept. 15, 1958) or Bruce Boudreau (born Jan. 9, 1955) were to return to an NHL club as head coach.
In 2024-25, Tortorella will enter the third year of the four-year contract he signed with the Flyers. A decision will loom for the organization and the head coach prior to the 2025-26 season as to whether to extend his contract or to begin a transition to another role in the organization.
A "lame duck" season for a 67-year-old Tortorella as head coach in 2025-26 does not seem to be in either party's best interests. Retirement does not seem likely, either. So, the likeliest scenarios iare a contract extension or a transition to an off-ice Hockey Ops role. Along with general manager Danny Briere and president of hockey operations Keith Jones, Tortorella is part of what the Flyers deem their "triumvirate of crucial decision-makers. Things change fast in hockey, but Tortorella presently has an enviable degree of job security in the organization.
I am, however, keeping an eye on Sullivan over the next year. The Penguins window to contend for another Stanley Cup, realistically, is closed. They have an "old vet" roster in various key spots. There's been front office turnover in their recent history. They've missed the playoffs the last two seasons.
I can absolutely envision a scenario in which a) Sullivan's tenure in Pittsburgh comes to an end by the 2025 offseason, b) Tortorella willingly cedes the head coaching job in Philly to his friend and protege Sullivan, c) the Flyers hire Sullivan to a multi-year contract (born in 1968, the 56-year-old Sullivan could easily coach in the NHL for another decade), and d) Tortorella stays on in Hockey Ops not just for the final year of his current contract but beyond that in support of Sullivan.
This sequential scenario is STRICTLY from my own speculation. No one in the organization or whom I know from other orgs has told me this, nor have I asked. However, I think it makes too much logical sense to not not be a distinct possibility. Tortorella becoming a Team USA Assistant under Sullivan, to me, is a sort of willing passing of the torch, albeit for the national team and not an NHL club.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger •NHL.com • 
Join the Discussion:
»