Brad Shaw speaks out on 'bittersweet' feeling of replacing John Tortorella as Flyers interim HC

By Zachary Roberts

Modified Apr 02, 2025 15:35 GMT

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After John Tortorella's firing, Brad Shaw took over, with less than 10 games remaining on the schedule. The Philadelphia Flyers opted to go a different way after culminating in a 7–2 loss the day before Tortorella was let go.

In his place, longtime assistant Shaw took the interim title and has not yet lost a game as a head coach for the Flyers. On "First Up," he discussed what it was like taking over for the fired coach:

"Yeah, that first day was crazy from, you know, Torts walking through our room saying he got fired, whatever, 10 minutes later, getting called into Danny Briere office, being offered the interim job, getting very bittersweet. It's a great word for it, emotional, roller coaster of the day." (3:00)

It has been 17 years since Shaw last served as an interim head coach for the New York Islanders. He's leaning on that experience now and thinks there's less uncertainty this time.

"It's a great sport. Some days it's a s****y business," he said. "Torts, he's a mentor of mine, but more importantly, he's a friend of mine. And, you know, we've worked together for eight years and become close. I think we really complement each other very well.

We're very different personalities, but at the end of the day, we come to the same conclusion, somehow, a lot on how the game should be played."

For now, Tortorella is unemployed and Shaw is auditioning for his chance to run the NHL franchise full-time in the future.

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Brad Shaw addresses taking reigns for Flyers as regular season winds down

Brad Shaw hasn't been an interim coach of the Philadelphia Flyers for long, and his season is nearing an end. The team has six games left beginning with a Saturday bout with the Montreal Canadiens.

John Tortorella was replaced by Brad Shaw (Imagn)

In taking over for John Tortorella, Shaw admitted that the coach will always be someone he is close with via The Inquirer:

“I couldn’t have more respect for him as a human being and as a hockey guy. Yeah, he’s always going to be a friend of mine, and I’m going to thank him for giving me the chance to work with him and learn and become better.”

He said he aims to make things a little "lighter" for the Flyers down the stretch and believes his personality will do that a little better than the former coach's did.