Islanders divisional foe hires familiar face

The coaching carousel is started to get underway. With Bruce Cassidy getting hired by the Vegas Golden Knights, the other teams with vacancies are making hires. One of those vacancies was in the New York Islanders division with the Philadelphia Flyers firing Mike Yeo.

On Friday, we received official word that the Flyers hired veteran head coach John Tortorella on a four-year deal. The finances of the contract were not made official, but according to Kevin Weekes Torts is getting paid $4 million a year.

New York Islanders divisional foe hires familiar face

The division has only been without Tortorella for a single season, but it really feels like much longer then that does it not?

And look, his last year in Columbus wasn't a good one (0.429 points%) but whenever a two-time Jack Adams winner enters (or re-enters) the division you have to take note. Will he make Philadelphia a playoff team in year one? Who knows. But the man had a heck of a solid track record (again, two-time Jack Adams winner).

Not to mention at least one player is very excited that Tortorella will be behind the bench:

But head-to-head with these Islanders, Tortorella doesn't have a good record. In seven games against since 2018-19, Torts holds a 2-4-1 record (0.657pts%). The Islanders have had a really strong record against the Blue Jackets under Tortorella.

And of course, the Flyers aren't the Blue Jackets, but isn't the makeup of the team pretty much the same? Not a lot of top talent so the team will have to rely on a strong defensive game and hope Trots can boost Carter Hart back up to that goalie we saw from 18-19 through 19-20 (0.915SV% and 2.59GAA).

Situationally Tortorella has been "here" before and has done relatively well.

All of that to say, don't sleep on the Flyers improving from where they were last season with John Tortorella behind the bench.