Cassidy ‘wants to work’ as Golden Knights prevent NHL coach from talking to ‘certain’ teams

Vegas Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy watches during the third period of the team's NHL hockey game against the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday, April 18, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/David Becker)

Bruce Cassidy finds it “upsetting” that one of this year’s Stanley Cup finalists, who fired him two months ago, is preventing him from finding another job as a head coach in the National Hockey League.

Cassidy confirmed on an episode of the Spittin’ Chiclets hockey podcast released Thursday morning that two teams had asked the Vegas Golden Knights for permission to talk to him about their head-coaching vacancies but were denied.

Vegas has reportedly denied the Edmonton Oilers and the Los Angeles Kings permission to speak to him about their bench-boss vacancies. The Oilers fired their most recent head coach, Kris Knoblauch, earlier this month.

Cassidy said he would like to interview with them but can’t without permission from Vegas, to whom he’s under contract through next season.

The 61-year-old veteran coach, who was fired in late March and replaced by the well-travelled John Tortorella with just eight games left in the regular season, led the Golden Knights to a Cup victory in 2023 and also guided the Boston Bruins to the Final in 2019.

Vegas, who advanced to the Cup final after they swept the Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference final earlier this week, awaits the winner of the East’s Carolina Hurricanes-Montreal Canadiens series.

“I want to work,” said an “in limbo” Cassidy. “I’m a hockey coach.”

He said NHL bylaws prevent him from simply quitting, forfeiting his salary and taking a job with another team.

“I think those are in everybody’s contract,” Cassidy said of his deal’s non-compete clause, adding the Golden Knights don’t want him to take jobs with teams “in certain places.”

“I think they do that probably because they wouldn’t want a coach in the middle of the year to resign on (for example) Feb. 1 and go work up the street on Feb. 3 because they like a better situation. I’m sure that’s why some of these things are written in.”

Incidentally, the Golden Knights asked the Philadelphia Flyers for permission to speak to and hire Tortorella, who was fired with nine games left in the 2024-25 season.

Last week, the NHL Coaches’ Association said in a statement it’s monitoring Cassidy’s situation and that it believes coaches “who remain under contract, but are no longer working for their club, should not be prevented from pursuing other employment opportunities.”

“It would be unprecedented at the head coaching level should multiple teams be denied permission to speak with Coach Cassidy,” it said. “The situation is still unfolding, but our priority is to protect the interests of our members in this type of circumstance.”

Cassidy says he wants to move on and find another opportunity to do what his former club is four wins away from doing now: win hockey’s Holy Grail.

“(I’m) watching the team I coached for 74 games (this season) go to the final and going, ‘Jeez, what did I need to do better?’” he said. “You go through it in your head because that’s what you coach and play for, to get your name on the Cup. It happened once. I’d love to do it again.

“So that part is a challenge, and then to not be able to go and say, ‘OK, I’m going to do things better in my next stop and get on with that,’ that’s kind of a double whammy.”