Bruce Cassidy Ready To Forfeit The $5M Vegas Owes Him For Chance To Coach Again

While the Vegas Golden Knights and John Tortorella continue to steam along in these playoffs, their former head coach, Bruce Cassidy, just continues to steam.

Cassidy was fired with a handful of games left in the regular season, but he still has one year left on his contract, and he is owed about $5 million on that. The Golden Knights have refused to grant any team permission to speak with him about their vacant head coaching jobs at least as long as their season continues.

Cassidy hasn't hidden his frustration about the situation.

Now, as Michael Russo reports in The Athletic, Cassidy has even come out and said he's willing to surrender all those millions that Vegas owes him, if they'd just let him get back to work.

He told The Athletic, just for the chance to interview for the current NHL coaching vacancies, he’d forfeit the reported $5 million the Vegas Golden Knights are on the hook to pay him not to coach next season.

“I’m getting paid money to sit at home,” Cassidy said over the weekend. “Well, I’d rather go to work, to be honest. I would. I’d rather earn it. So that’s my position on that. I’d give (the salary) up tomorrow and bet on myself if that freed me up to go interview, but it doesn’t. So that’s the problem.

“I’d quit and give up the money."

Unfortunately, it's not that simple.

Per Russo, "the language in his contract with Vegas states the Golden Knights must grant him permission to interview elsewhere even after relieving him of his coaching duties."

The NHL doesn't seem to find a problem with the situation, however.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said, “Obviously, we don’t find it unreasonable because we’re allowing it to happen. “I do think Vegas is clearly within their contractual rights to do what they’re doing...

“Obviously, we’ve talked to all the parties involved in this, including Bruce, so he knows what our position on the subject is, and he might not be happy about it, but he was accepting of it, and we’ll see where we go from there (when the Finals end)."

Aside from the league head office, the Golden Knights are being criticized in other corners of the hockey world, but that doesn't concern them. As they've continued to say, all they're focused on is winning the Stanley Cup. And they're just three victories away from it now.

"They’re in the playoffs," added Cassidy. "I understand that. I will tell you, I think they can do two things at once, but I get it. I get what their focus is. I understand that. But I do want to go back to work.”

The Edmonton Oilers, Los Angeles Kings, and Toronto Maple Leafs are three teams that are said to be interested in talking to Cassidy about their openings.