Grading the Golden Knights’ decision to fire coach Bruce Cassidy

The Vegas Golden Knights, in a stunning move late in the season while in playoff positioning, have fired coach Bruce Cassidy nearly four years into his tenure.

Longtime coach John Tortorella, a former Stanley Cup champion and coach of 1,620 games, will become the Knights’ fourth coach in team history.

Firing / Hiring grade: D+

There’s no other way around it. This is a shocking move.

Cassidy arrived in June 2022 and took the Knights to their first Stanley Cup championship in his first year. The Knights won 50 games twice under Cassidy and made the playoffs in all three years.

It’s not just that a coaching change happened. It’s that it came with eight games remaining in the season while the Knights are still in playoff positioning.

There was never a sense Cassidy lost the room. Some players didn’t feel a disconnect, or that the message was getting stale.

But with a team that made the additions of Mitch Marner and Rasmus Andersson, that was enough for general manager Kelly McCrimmon to feel a change was warranted.

No question, this is the biggest gamble of McCrimmon’s tenure — not only to fire Cassidy, but bringing in Tortorella fresh off the ESPN analyst chair and have him implement a system with three weeks left in the regular season.

This goes one of two ways: Either it pans out, the Knights figure it out and roll into the playoffs with momentum, or this is going to be a severe train wreck. Right now, it’s teetering toward the latter.

Grade: D+