About John Tortorella
John Tortorella (born June 24, 1958) is an American professional ice hockey coach and former player who most recently served as the head coach of the Vegas Golden Knights of the National Hockey League (NHL). Tortorella has also served as head coach of the NHL's New York Rangers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Vancouver Canucks, Columbus Blue Jackets and Philadelphia Flyers. With Tampa Bay, Tortorella won the Stanley Cup in 2004. Hired late into the 2025–26 season by the Golden Knights, Tortorella led the team into the 2026 Stanley Cup Final, where they lost to the Carolina Hurricanes in six games; he was not retained after the loss. He is the first American-born NHL coach to reach 500 wins; as of the end of the 2025–26 season, he is ninth all-time in wins with 777. He has twice won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's top coach. Tortorella is well known for his outspoken and sometimes confrontational nature, which has included criticizing his own players and members of the media. Tortorella is also known for his system of regularly rotating goaltending duties during his time in Tampa Bay, a system which was discontinued when he became head coach of the New York Rangers and used Henrik Lundqvist as the regular starting goalie. This system returned in the 2019–20 NHL season with the Columbus Blue Jackets, with the emergence of Joonas Korpisalo and Elvis Merzļikins as the goaltender tandem. He won the Calder Cup with the 1996 Rochester Americans. Tortorella has also been the head coach of the NHL's New York Rangers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Vancouver Canucks and Columbus Blue Jackets.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.