Flyers GM Danny Briere: “a series of things happened” leading to Tortorella firing

It’s hard to say whether or not the Philadelphia Flyers firing head coach John Tortorella was a surprise considering everything that’s happened this week, but doing so with only a few weeks left in a lost season instead of the offseason was certainly a bit of a shock.

But according to Flyers general manager, it was probably the right moment to do so.

Daniel Briere on firing John Tortorella: “I felt it was time. You’re going to ask me is there one thing that happened, it’s not one thing. It’s a series of things that have happened, and probably a little bit more in the last three weeks that have escalated since trade deadline.”

— Eric Engels (@EricEngels) March 27, 2025

“I felt it was time,” said Briere on Thursday. “You’re going to ask me is there one thing that happened, it’s not one thing. It’s a series of things that have happened, and probably a little bit more in the last three weeks that have escalated since trade deadline.”

These comments come several hours after Briere and the Flyers had fired Tortorella from head coaching duties after almost three seasons behind the bench in Philadelphia. Briere was a part of the organization as a special assistant to the GM at the time of Tortorella’s hiring.

The firing comes in the wake of comments made by Tortorella after the Flyers lost 7-2 to the Toronto Maple Leafs, where he deflected the blame on himself but in a manner that sounded more like he had given up.

“When you’re in this type of situation, you’re losing all of the time, and there is nothing at the end of the tunnel for you; there’s certainly going to be some frustration,” said Tortorella after the loss on Tuesday. “This falls on me. I’m not really interested in learning how to coach in this type of season where we’re at right now. I have to do a better job. So this falls on me, getting the team prepared to play the proper way until we get to the end.”

Tortorella was hired by the Flyers in the 2022 offseason, and had spent the past three seasons as a head coach with the team. He only had a 97-107-33 record during his tenure with the team and never made the playoffs, although with a 51.07% 5v5 expected goal share during that time, he did extract a bit more out of the roster than expected.

Associate coach Brad Shaw will be taking over the head coaching role for the Flyers with an interim tag for the rest of the season. Shaw had spent the past three seasons in the role, joining the Flyers as part of Tortorella’s staff in 2022.