Despite reports that former New York Rangers head coach John Tortorella would be returning to the Big Apple, a new development has arisen.
Following a disappointing season that failed to yield a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs just a year after winning the President's Trophy and advancing the the Eastern Conference Final, New York Rangers general manager Chris Drury decided to terminate coach Peter Laviolette.
The work began immediately for him to name Laviolette's successor, and it wouldn't be long before his preferred candidate became available. After being let go from the Pittsburgh Penguins, Mike Sullivan has been hired as the 38th coach in team history.
Before Sullivan's hiring, there was also speculation that the Rangers could consider former New York coach John Tortorella, who was fired by the divisional foe Philadelphia Flyers with only a few games remaining in the season after it became clear they wouldn't be in the playoffs.
Despite rumors connecting former Rangers head coach John Tortorella to the Rangers as a potential replacement for Laviolette (or now even as an assistant to Mike Sullivan), it looks like those rumors will not come to fruition.
Had Tortorella accepted an assistant role, it would have been the 1st time in Tortorella's NHL coaching career that he'd worked as an assistant rather than head coach.
Tortorella was fired by the Flyers in April
Amidst a 6-game losing streak and a record of 29-36-9, Flyers GM Daniel Briere terminated Tortorella in April.
He explained that it was a culmination of several factors rather than any particular single incident:
I felt it was time. You're going to ask me, is there one thing that happened? It's not one thing. It's a series of things that have happened, and probably a little bit more in the last three weeks, that has escalated since probably around the Trade Deadline, right after that. So like I said, it's not one thing specific. It's an accumulation [of things] that have happened, probably more often lately.
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