Golden Knights fire Bruce Cassidy, hire John Tortorella - ESPN

The Vegas Golden Knights fired Bruce Cassidy on Sunday and replaced him with John Tortorella, a move they hope sparks a playoff run with eight games left in the regular season.

Cassidy was hired by Vegas in 2022 and guided the Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup in 2023.

But Vegas (32-26-16) has struggled late this season, losing its past three games and six of its past seven. It entered Sunday third in the Pacific Division, six points behind the first-place Anaheim Ducks but four ahead of the Los Angeles Kings for the final divisional playoff spot.

Now, the Golden Knights will turn to Tortorella in pursuit of another title through the challenging Western Conference. His contract with the team is through this season, sources told ESPN's Emily Kaplan.

«We thank Bruce Cassidy for his dedication to our hockey club and community over the past four seasons,» general manager Kelly McCrimmon said in a statement. «Under Bruce's leadership, we reached our ultimate goal in 2023 by bringing a Stanley Cup to Vegas. Bruce will forever be remembered with the utmost regard by our organization for what we accomplished here.

»With the stretch turn of the 2025-26 regular season upon us, we believe that a change is necessary to return to the level of play that is expected of our club."

A franchise that has been defined by its win-at-all-costs approach largely has struggled to do just that for the past two months.

The Golden Knights followed a seven-game winning streak in mid-January with losses in seven of their next eight games. After a three-game winning streak around the Olympic break, they lost six of seven games. And now their current slump cost Cassidy, who has the most wins by a coach in Golden Knights history, his job.

Tortorella