Bruce Cassidy has been stuck in an unexpected limbo that doesn’t appear to be ending any time soon.
The Golden Knights coach was unexpectedly fired in March with eight games remaining in Vegas’s regular season. Now out of a job, he has been a target for several franchises with head-skipper vacancies. But Vegas has denied permission for Cassidy—who won the Stanley Cup with the six-year-old team in 2023—to interview.
Technically, the Golden Knights are in bounds of their contractual rights in denying the requests. But after a firing, interview permission is largely a formality in the NHL. The Golden Knights’ hold out is so unusual that on Tuesday, the NHL Coaches’ Association issued a statement about the situation in which they wrote that contracted coaches no longer working for their clubs “should not be prevented from pursuing other employment opportunities.”
Vegas GM Kelly McCrimmon reiterated on Tuesday that the team’s “focus currently is on the Stanley Cup playoffs and the teams have respected that.” McCrimmon added he’d spoken with Cassidy, who “understands.”
Among the clubs reportedly interested in speaking with Cassidy are Western Conference division rivals Edmonton, Vancouver, and Los Angeles. The Golden Knights’ move comes in stark contrast to the Maple Leafs, who on Monday granted permission for the Oilers to speak to former coach Craig Berube.
Cassidy—the fourth-highest-paid coach in the league—had one year remaining on his Vegas contract and is still on the books for $4.5 million. The team remains on the hook for the sum in its entirety unless he takes another job. In that situation, NHL mitigation and offset rules would require Vegas to pay any difference in salary for a new contract, instead of carrying the full amount.
The restrictions on Cassidy pile onto an already prickly off-ice situation for the Golden Knights this postseason.
After the team’s Western Conference semifinals clinching win against the Ducks on May 14, head coach John Tortorella didn’t speak to the media or open the locker room following the game, an NHL media policy violation. The next day, the franchise was slapped with the loss of its 2026 second-round pick and a $100,000 fine for Tortorella. At an NHL hearing on Tuesday, the league upheld the penalty despite the appeal.
Cassidy’s future remains entirely in the hands of the Golden Knights—who do not appear to be budging on their stance as they prepare to face the Avalanche in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals on Wednesday.
