NHL Rumors: Flyers down to Barry Trotz and John Tortorella, plus Rangers offseason
Anthony Scultore
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Today’s NHL Rumors focuses on the Philadelphia Flyers goalie search as it appears to be coming closer to a conclusion.
According to Frank Seravalli of The Daily Faceoff, they’ve appeared to narrow their choices between two veteran coaches.
The Philadelphia Flyers have narrowed down their list of head coaching candidates, sources tell Daily Faceoff. The finalists are believed to include Barry Trotz and John Tortorella, two benches bosses with nearly 3,500 NHL games of experience between them, each with a Stanley Cup on their resume.
DFO
NHL Rumors: Next Flyers Coach
Barry Trotz, 59, has been interviewing for head coaching jobs since he was fired by the New York Islanders. For his coaching career, he’s amassed a record of 914-670-60-168 over the course of 23 years. He spent 15 of those with the Nashville Predators and 4 with the Washington Capitals, where he won the Stanley Cup in 2017-2018.
John Tortorella has been considered the frontrunner to land the Flyers job since they let go of Mike Yeo. He’s a fiery coach known to get into some heated moments with the media and his players. But he is also widely considered one of the fairest coaches in the business and would bring instant accountability to that locker room.
The 63 year-old Torts is 12th all-time on the NHL’s win list. In 1383 games he has a record of 673-541-37-132. His postseason record is 56-64 winning a Stanley Cup in 2004 with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
NHL Rumors: New York Rangers offseason
Fresh off elimination by the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference Final, the New York Rangers have already begun their offseason work.
Today, they extended RFA forward Vitali Kravtsov to a 1-year deal worth $875,000. The contract is one-way which means he must pass through waivers before being sent down. The general belief is that he will be moved at the NHL Draft in July.
New York only has around 13.5M heading into the offseason. They will likely be trading Patrik Nemeth’s contract which has two-years remaining at $2.5M AAV to make some additional room.
On the RFA front, Kaapo Kakko is their main focus. The 21 year-old former #2 overall pick of the 2019 Draft is a candidate for an offer sheet. Of course, that’s a risky move as he’s only produced 58 points in 157 games over three seasons.
Goalie Alexandar Georgiev is not expected to be qualified as the Rangers will look for a cheaper option. The Rangers also have Sammy Blais and Julien Gauthier to re-sign.
When it comes to UFA’s the Rangers are going to be forced into a decision between either Ryan Strome or Andrew Copp. Depending on how much they have left to try and keep Tyler Motte and possibly Frank Vatrano.
