Flyers GM Danny Briere gets 100% real about his decision to fire head coach John Tortorella

Modified Mar 27, 2025 13:51 GMT

NHL: Philadelphia Flyers at San Jose Sharks - Source: Imagn — Flyers GM Danny Briere gets 100% real about his decision to replace head coach John Tortorella (image credit: Imagn)

After what has been deemed a disappointing season, the Philadelphia Flyers are going to have a different coach than John Tortorella now. The team is stating in its official revelation that they are relieving Tortorella of his duties and will install assistant coach Brad Shaw as his interim for the rest of the year.

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GM Danny Briere opened up on the difficult decision to change coaches after almost three full seasons together:

"Today I made the very difficult decision to move on from John as our head coach. 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."

Briere also added that the next chapter of the rebuild has to be authored by someone else. He believes this is what's best for the team moving forward, but he wants to thank the NHL coach for his work and time.

The Flyers almost made the playoffs last year under Tortorella, but they have backslid a bit this year. While they're still technically in the race, they are 10 points back of the second wild card, so it's difficult to envision a run happening now.

What John Tortorella said after final Flyers game

The Philadelphia Flyers have struggled lately, and it resulted in the firing of John Tortorella nine games before his third season concluded. The final straw seemed to be a throttling by the Toronto Maple Leafs.

They lost 7-2 and their dwindling playoff chances took a major hit. After the game, Tortorella said via NBC Sports Philadelphia:

"There's certainly going to be some frustration. This falls on me. I am not really interested in learning how to coach 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."

Those comments may have been a little bit telling, as he was fired the very next day.

About the author

Zachary is a journalist covering NFL, Professional Golf, esports, and Major League Baseball at Sportskeeda. He has a degree in writing/editing from Southern Adventist University (USA), and in his spare time, he likes to play games such as Minecraft, Pokémon and Fortnite, or watch sports.

Ever since he was a youth football wide receiver, Zachary has been an avid NFL fan. He loves the Carolina Panthers, with Cam Newton being his all-time favorite player (with respect to the close second, Steve Smith). If you ever meet Zachary, prepare to hear all about how underrated Newton was and how he single-handedly dragged the Panthers to Super Bowl 50.

Zachary is also a big fan of top golfers like Tiger Woods, Wyndham Clark, and Scottie Scheffler. He enjoys watching them and hopes that Woods can return to form soon and win again.

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Edited by John Maxwell