John Tortorella will not return as coach of the Vegas Golden Knights after guiding them to the Stanley Cup Final on an interim basis.

General manager Kelly McCrimmon announced Tuesday that Tortorella would not be back. “We thank Torts for the guidance he provided our team since joining the organization in March,” McCrimmon said.

Tortorella, who turns 68 next week, is 22 years removed from coaching Tampa Bay to the Stanley Cup in 2004. After his time with the Lightning, he spent time running the bench for the New York Rangers, Vancouver, Columbus and Philadelphia and was out of the league for roughly a year before getting the call from McCrimmon.

Possible Successor

One avenue Vegas could go with for Tortorella’s successor is promoting Ryan Craig, who has been coach of its top affiliate, the Henderson Silver Knights of the American Hockey League, for the past three seasons.

Original reporting: KSAT Sports (San Antonio) — read the source article.