John Tortorella of the Flyers Ignores Concerns About His Future with the Team.
John Tortorella, head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers, will turn 66 years old prior to the commencement of the 2024–25 regular season. It is reasonable to wonder how long the seasoned coach will remain throughout the Flyers’ rebuilding process given his old age.
But make no mistake: Tortorella is aware of the rumors that he may be leaving the bench to seek a position in the Flyers front office. Tortorella isn’t interested in any of the hubbub, to be honest. He has heard it.“Can I ask you a question? Is this a question based on what was thrown out there, as far as a front office job and stuff like that?”
Tortorella replied after being quizzed about his future as a coach on Friday. “I am as energized as I’ve ever been. This team here… the organization, I love working here. I’m already thinking about next year. I just spent an hour with (Danny Briere). We just spent a half hour with Patrick Sharp and some of our analytics guys on certain players that we think we can help.
“I am totally in until Danny says, ‘Get the hell out of here’,” Tortorella finished with an affirming nod of his head.
Tortorella just completed his second season as head coach of the Flyers and already has his sights set on a third. Initial reports of Tortorella moving to a front office role were already shot down once by TSN’s Darren Dreger, and now Tortorella himself has come forward to finish the job on that front.
Flyers president Keith Jones has played his part in extinguishing this fire, saying that a change in pace for Tortorella “is not something that has entered any conversation” and that Tortorella is “outstanding at developing young players and developing accountability,”.
All parties involved have, at different points, publicly committed to the future with Tortorella at the helm. Tortorella quelling the speculation himself was just the final nail in the coffin.
