Former Vancouver Canucks head coach John Tortorella has been fired by the Philadelphia Flyers, and at the age of 66, his future as an NHL head coach is unclear.
The infamously gruff head coach had indicated that the Flyers would be his last head coaching job in the NHL after being hired in 2022, but getting fired with less than a dozen games left in a season is probably not the way Tortorella envisioned going out.
Before a short, one-year stint at the helm of the Canucks, Tortorella spent five seasons as the head coach of the New York Rangers, with whom he also briefly coached a young J.T. Miller.
Miller, of course, was traded by the Canucks to the Rangers on Jan. 31, and is now part of an older team rapidly declining and sinking away from its window of being a Stanley Cup contender.
One NHL insider is led to believe that a return to New York is the only way Tortorella gets back behind an NHL bench, if he even wants to return.
Appearing on the Flames Nation podcast, TSN NHL insider Darren Dreger said, "For me, the New York Rangers are the only team that, right now, makes sense. And the reason I feel like that, and no disrespect to Peter Laviolette, it's because I know that James Dolan, the owner of the New York Rangers, loves John Tortorella.
"That owner has a ton of clout. Let's see what happens. If they miss the playoffs in New York, all bets are off. Maybe Chris Drury has some vote of confidence that he's coming back as general manager, but I can't be sure of that. I don't know that to be certain.
"What I do know is you've got a very hands-on, volatile owner who is not going to sit back and say 'Yeah, okay, status quo, that works. I'm comfortable with the way things are.' He does like John Tortorella, so that would be a scenario that does make some sense."
Should Tortorella be interested in returning for another year, any potential reunion, with the future of current Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet in doubt, appears to be unlikely at this juncture.
The Canucks, like the Rangers, are in grave danger of missing the playoffs, and it certainly seems as though the coaching carousel will be getting fired up early this year.