John Tortorella is in the business of winning, and that’s why the Vegas Golden Knights are his latest customers.

He blends a brazen yet structured personality with decades of hockey acumen and a track record of success at multiple levels.

Those qualities have led to him winning a Stanley Cup, multiple playoff series, more than 770 combined regular-season and playoff games, in addition to being a member of the coaching staff that led the United States to the nation’s first gold medal in men’s Olympic hockey in 40 years.

Barring something unforeseen, this is why Tortorella will have a job for as long as he wants in this sport.

Coaches usually get deeply involved — it’s what they do. That’s what made Tortorella’s recent admission about learning how not to be so heavily involved rather surprising.

Prior to his arrival, a franchise defined by the need to win was struggling by its standards. Bruce Cassidy, who coached the team to a Stanley Cup in 2023, had Vegas in a playoff spot entering late March, but the team had lost six of its past seven games. Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon made a change.

Firing Cassidy was just as surprising as the decision to hire Tortorella — who last coached the Philadelphia Flyers in 2024-25 — with only eight games remaining in the regular season.

Tortorella’s priority was to establish stability. He has succeeded, as evidenced by the fact that the Golden Knights are in the Stanley Cup Final after overcoming a first-round deficit to the Utah Mammoth, breaking a 2-2 deadlock against the Anaheim Ducks in the second round and going on to sweep the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference finals. They are tied 1-1 heading into Game 3 on Saturday.

“I think he has a lot of confidence. I think that was something you can see,” McCrimmon said before the Western Conference finals. “There are times when a change has some benefits. A really direct communicator. I think he’s been able to catch them doing things right, and we’ve got the best of Torts.

“He’s really enjoying his time here. He’ll speak to that himself. But I think he’s loved every bit of it, so that enthusiasm is infectious. I’ve heard our players say that they feel we’ve got a swagger back to our team.”

It’s hard to argue with the results, even if the stability he has provided comes from a place of knowing when to take a step back.

How is he doing it? And what allows a 67-year-old coach whose job is about involvement to show restraint?

“We’re still involved, but I think you need — especially with this team when I came here, I think you need to respect the athletes,” Tortorella said. “I think I need to coach this team different than I was coaching in Philly. I loved coaching in Philly. I love the players there. But a lot of them, probably 80%, were still kids learning what it is to be a pro. I think you have different subjects that you need to go over when you’re dealing with a young team. Some of it is not even on the ice.

“Here, with the veteran group and some of the experience and winning that’s gone on in the organization, you need to coach differently.”

THERE IS SOME TRUTH in comedy, and there’s a joke among NHL coaches, that you’re hired just to be fired.

By the end of the 2024-25 season, there were 25 NHL head coaches who’d been fired in-season over the past five years. Major League Baseball, the NBA and the NFL had a combined total of 32 in-season head coaching/managerial changes in that same amount of time, according to ESPN Research.

Vegas has contributed to that churn. Tortorella, who was among the coaches fired in that window, is the fourth coach the Golden Knights have had in their nine seasons, despite winning a Stanley Cup in 2023 and making the playoffs in all but one year of their existence.

Shuffling through coaches and learning how to quickly get on the same page comes with being a player in the contemporary NHL. Having only an eight-game window to do so before going into the playoffs is a bit more extreme than most situations.

But again, Vegas is not like most situations.

“It was a little bit different, obviously, having a new voice come in so late in the season,” Golden Knights center Colton Sissons said. “I don’t think any of us had been through that, but it was great just to rejuvenate the energy, and obviously, it’s worked out pretty well.”

Tortorella’s personality seems to have struck a chord with the players.

“I think he’s hilarious,” Golden Knights forward Keegan Kolesar smiled. “I laugh my ass off every day with him in a great way, a positive way. He’s very encouraging. It’s been great for the team, and obviously, we’re here for a reason, and I think he’s been a big part of that.”

Naturally, that led to Tortorella being asked if he heard how Kolesar described him.

“I don’t think I remember being called that,” Tortorella said. “A few other names around here I’m sure, but not that.”

That emotional connection also exists when they take the ice. Tortorella has repeatedly stated how much he enjoys being around this particular group. He has appreciated how the players have accepted him, along with how both sides have come to understand each other better with each passing week.

“I have just tried to be — I’ve spent a lot of time just trying to get out of the way,” Tortorella explained. “I think that’s the biggest thing I’ve done. I hope with our guys because of the trust the organization, myself have in them with their experience. I do think when I was brought in, it was a little bit of a lull as far as the confidence of it.

“I thought we found that right away, found a way to win some games. That solves the problems.”

THE UNDERLYING METRICS show that the Golden Knights were one of the strongest defending teams in the NHL this season when Cassidy was in charge. According to Natural Stat Trick, Vegas was in the top seven in shot share and among the best in allowing the fewest shots per 60 minutes, the fewest scoring chances per 60 and the fewest high-danger chances per 60.

But the Golden Knights had the lowest team save percentage at 5-on-5 when Cassidy was fired. Some of it had to do with their goaltenders struggling for consistency. The rest could be attributed to injuries in a campaign in which they used four netminders.

In Tortorella’s eight regular-season games in charge, they had a top-five shot share. They were second in scoring chances per 60, third in high-danger chances per 60 and were also third in shots per 60. They allowed the fewest scoring chances per 60, the fewest high-danger chances scoring per 60 and were 11th in shots allowed per 60.

Many of the improvements have persisted into the playoffs against some of the hardest competition in the league. The Knights entered the Stanley Cup Final with a 47.91% shot share, meaning they have had several games in which they have played more without the puck than with it. Even so, they’re averaging the second-most goals per game this postseason, at 3.71 after Game 1 of the Final.

They also entered the Cup Final in the upper half of teams allowing the fewest shots per 60, the fewest scoring chances per 60 and the fewest high-danger scoring chances per 60. This has also been a top-seven team when it comes to generating shots, scoring chances and high-danger chances.

Another notable difference? The goaltending. The Golden Knights had the highest team save percentage in the NHL during Tortorella’s eight regular-season games.

That facet of the game also has remained consistent in the playoffs. Carter Hart, who played for Tortorella when they were in Philadelphia, returned from injured reserve in April just as his former head coach was taking over, and he has started every playoff game.

Hart, who was one of the five 2018 Canadian world junior hockey players acquitted of sexual assault in July 2025, signed with the club in October. He debuted in December for the Golden Knights after he was reinstated by the NHL.

The Golden Knights have helped by blocking shots at a high rate. They’ve been so effective at times this postseason that they’ve had games with more blocked shots than saves.

Rasmus Andersson is the only member of the team who was in the top 20 leaguewide in individual blocked shots during the regular season, and some of those blocked shots came when he was playing for the Calgary Flames prior to being traded. The only full-season Golden Knight in the top 50 this season was Brayden McNabb, who was injured in Game 2 doing just that.

Now compare that to the postseason. Noah Hanifin, Shea Theodore and McNabb are in the top 10 in blocked shots, and Andersson ranked 11th entering the Cup Final.

“The way they slide their lanes, the way they hold their D off the post, the net front, the way they step up and front shots, the way they kind of smother half of the ice in the D-zone. It’s almost like they line up as many bodies as they can as soon as the shot comes through,” Avalanche defenseman Josh Manson said. “They sometimes get on the wrong side of the puck, but it can be beneficial for them if they block it, they turn it the other way and go on an odd-man rush. It’s a bit of a cat-and-mouse game when it comes to that.”

SOURCES TOLD ESPN’S EMILY KAPLAN when Tortorella was hired that his contract with the Golden Knights runs through this season.

Will Tortorella return next season? Will the team go in another direction and hire someone else?

Those questions will be answered this offseason. Maybe they already have been but have yet to be made public.

But the way Tortorella talks about the franchise and the roster, as well as the way the front office and the players speak about him, shows there is clear respect.

He was sitting next to McCrimmon during their news conference at the Western Conference finals and again ahead of the Stanley Cup Final. It’s not that head coaches and GMs can’t be funny in those moments — they can be, but it usually comes after years of working together.

But the way McCrimmon and Tortorella interacted with each other — along with the way they found those openings to show humor — it seemed like Tortorella had been there the whole season rather than having arrived less than three months ago.

Maybe the ultimate indicator of just how comfortable Tortorella seems goes back to his realization that restraint as a coach can be instrumental when it comes to the thing that matters most with the Golden Knights.

“So as a coach, it’s not what you’re doing. It’s what you don’t do,” Tortorella said. “You need to get out of the way. I think that’s what we do best as a coaching staff. We guide when we need to guide. But we’ll get out of the way because our guys get it. It’s a testament to the organization since they’ve been in the league, it’s about winning.

“I think that message is loud and clear with the organization.”