Fired John Tortorella a 'complicated man,' says Flyers GM - ESPN

Philadelphia Flyers GM Daniel Briere said differences of opinion with John Tortorella led to the coach's firing on Thursday.

«Torts is a complicated man. He's a complicated coach. He's a blast to work with because he challenges you. I truly believe he made me a better GM. He's not a 'yes' man,» said Briere. «He had opinions and he's earned the right to share his opinion. We listened to him. But we felt it was time to move in a different direction.»

Tortorella had one year and $4 million remaining on his contract. He was replaced by associate coach Brad Shaw on an interim basis. The decision was made by Briere, president of hockey operations Keith Jones and Comcast Spectacor CEO Dan Hilferty. Tortorella was hired in 2022 by Chuck Fletcher, Briere's predecessor as general manager.

Philadelphia is 28-36-9 on the season with the lowest points percentage (.445) in the Eastern Conference. The Flyers entered Thursday night with a six-game losing streak and having lost 11 of its past 12 games. Over three seasons in Philadelphia, Tortorella was 97-107-33 and failed to make the playoffs.

Briere said the urge to make a coaching change had only occurred to him recently.

«It's pretty new. It really got serious in the last few days,» he said.

Those losses included a crushing 7-2 defeat to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday. Tortorella shocked many after that game when he said that he was not «really interested in learning how to coach in this type of season, where we're at right now.»

Briere acknowledged those comments were «one of the things that have happened along the way» that led to Tortorella being fired. «It's a series of things that have happened. Probably a little bit more in the last three weeks. [It] escalated since right