Could Tortorella Could Be On The Way Out In Vegas After the Playoffs?

Vegas Golden Knights head coach John Tortorella

The Vegas Golden Knights are on to the Western Conference Final under John Tortorella. But one wonders, depending on how much farther they go, if he'll be able to keep the job on a full-time basis after the season. He's only got a deal that runs through the end of this campaign. He took over the team after they fired Bruce Cassidy with just eight games left in the regular season.

This week, Torts earned himself a $100,000 fine, and more importantly, cost the Golden Knights a second-round draft pick, courtesy of his actions after the team's series-clinching victory over the Anaheim Ducks Thursday night.

The NHL slapped those penalties on the team after Torts refused to do the postgame interview and did not open the locker room to the media. An appeal this coming week might reverse the second-round pick part of the discipline, but is it possible that he might have put himself on a short leash with the team going forward?

Insider Darren Dreger said on First Up on TSN Radio that longtime Vegas assistant coach and AHL head coach Ryan Craig could take over the team next season.

Ryan Craig could be the next head coach of the Golden Knights. Let's see how things play out, they're going to the Conference Final with John Tortorella, so maybe he's earned a longer tenure. But Ryan Craig is a good coach.

Craig has done an excellent job with the Henderson Silver Knights this season in the AHL, and has certainly put in his time in the Golden Knights organization.

He spent six years as an assistant coach for Vegas, coming on board in the inaugural season immediately upon retiring as a player in 2017. He's learned under some of the best head coaches in the business, including Cassidy, Pete DeBoer and Gerard Gallant. And he was part of the staff that took the team to the 2023 Stanley Cup victory.

He's not officially known as an Original Misfit, as he wasn't on the ice, but Craig has been there with the franchise as long as Shea Theodore, Brayden McNabb, and William Karlsson, who've all been around since the expansion season.

Craig knows this crew very well, and it might be a seamless fit to have him take over if the Golden Knights don't want to deal with everything that comes with having Torts as your bench boss.

Then again, when has this franchise ever shied away from controversy? Maybe Tortorella is the ideal Golden Knights coach.

We'll learn a lot more over the next couple of weeks, as they get set to face a monumental challenge in facing the NHL's top team over the course of this season, the Colorado Avalanche.