Pros and Cons of the Edmonton Oilers Hiring John Tortorella

It doesn't take long, does it?

Less than 48 hours after dropping a 3-0 decision that ended the Stanley Cup Final after six games, the Vegas Golden Knights pulled the plug on the interim coach who helped them get there after a late-season hire.

The team said Tuesday that John Tortorella, who went 7-0-1 behind the bench after succeeding Bruce Cassidy on March 29 and won series against Utah, Anaheim and Colorado, would not return to the coaching staff after the 2025-26 season.

The move immediately placed the soon-to-be 68-year-old (his birthday is June 24) atop the pile of presumably available coaches for the Edmonton Oilers, who've been without one since Kris Knoblauch was dismissed on May 14.

B/R's hockey staff compiled a rundown of pros and cons regarding an Edmonton decision on Tortorella, who lifted a Cup with Tampa Bay in 2004 and reached the playoffs in 11 of 18 subsequent seasons with the Lightning and five other teams.

Take a look at what we have come up with and drop a thought in the app comments.

Pro: Torts Will Prioritize Team Defense

Brian Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images

Carter Hart (79), Jeremy Lauzon (5) and Brayden McNabb (3) defend the net against Carolina's Jordan Staal

Anyone even remotely plugged into the NHL knows about the Oilers' blue line.

Edmonton was 25th in the league in goals-against average (3.23) during the regular season, allowed 26 goals in a six-game playoff loss to the Anaheim Ducks, and has made news this week with reports that defenseman Darnell Nurse, an Oiler since he was drafted seventh overall in 2013, had requested a trade.

It's a glaring weakness on a team trying to maximize the remaining two years on superstar Connor McDavid's contract, and one that "Torts," a stickler for system-based, disciplined defensive hockey, would certainly address.

Vegas had the league's best goals-against average (1.88) in the season's final eight games after Tortorella succeeded Bruce Cassidy, after allowing an average of 3.07 per game through the season's first 74.

In other words, he'd get them to play defense whether they like it or not. And he's got enough street cred to insist that if they didn't play it the right way, they'd sit.

Con: Managing the Media

When your relationship with the media is challenging enough to make you the subject of videos and slideshows, you know it's dicey at best.

So the mere suggestion that Tortorella could be on his way to Edmonton, where media scrapes with players have also made news—reporter Jim Matheson labeled Leon Draisaitl as "p---y" in 2022—is enough to raise red flags.

It's already tense given the team's recently failed Cup pursuits, its questionable personnel decisions, and the aforementioned ticking of the McDavid clock.

Put that together with a guy who branded a question after Game 5 of the Cup Final as possibly "the stupidest question I've heard" and who was fined for skipping a postgame media availability earlier in the playoffs, and you can see why that's a concern.

Bottom line: He'll be entertaining, but in a pressure cooker like Edmonton his abrasive nature might not be the best idea.

Pro: A Point to Prove to a Division Rival

Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images

John Tortorella argues with the Edmonton bench while coaching Vancouver in 2013.

It's not as if Tortorella has a career-long bond with the Golden Knights. After all, his tenure with the team lasted fewer than three full months from end to end.

But he'd gone public after Sunday's loss to Carolina with a desire to "see what happens next year" with Vegas. So to be told less than 48 hours later that it was no longer his job to look forward to has to sit pretty awkwardly.

Heading to Edmonton would instantly give him a chance to take the other side of a rivalry that has already included playoff matchups in 2023 (won by the Golden Knights in six) and 2025 (taken by the Oilers in five).

Tortorella just got to the Cup Final and was thrown aside.

What's more motivating than revenge?

Con: Playing Nice with McDavid

Jeff Vinnick/NHLI via Getty Images

John Tortorella and Roberto Luongo

Remember that ticking McDavid clock thing?

The way the Oilers' brass sees it, the team will return to playoff prosperity next spring and convince No. 97 to stick around for the long term when he's eligible to discuss another contract extension come July 1, 2027.

Make moves that'll maximize the Cup window. Include their three-time MVP on important decisions. And don't do anything to make him consider leaving.

Bringing in a guy like Tortorella, whose track record of lifting underachieving teams is matched by a history of friction with high-profile players like Vincent Lecavalier, Marian Gaborik, Roberto Luongo, Pierre-Luc Dubois and Matvei Michkov, may not match the sentiment.

The idea is to win and keep McDavid around.

But let's face it: Tortorella can drive a team bonkers.

Pro: He's Available, Period

Jason Mowry/Getty Images

Mike Babcock

Subtitle this one "He's not Mike Babcock or Bruce Cassidy."

Reports during the playoffs suggested Edmonton was interested in hiring the Vegas coach that Tortorella replaced, Cassidy.

The news soon led to the firing of a then-still-employed Knoblauch and was followed by a back-and-forth in which the Oilers asked for permission to talk to Cassidy—dismissed, but still under contract through next season—but were denied.

That, in a move almost universally panned as desperate, led to Edmonton pursuing Babcock, a Cup winner with Detroit in 2008 who'd since been fired in Toronto and investigated by the players' association before coaching a game in Columbus.

The apparent interest has prompted another investigation, this time by the league, and means the Oilers can't hire him until it's completed, if at all.

It makes Tortorella a front-runner, particularly if you buy the adage, championed by ex-NFL'er Brian Dawkins, among others, that "the best ability is availability."