5/2/25 |10:44AM: Emily Kaplan tweets that Tortorella did speak with the Rangers but will not be re-joining the team.
10:20AM: Darren Dreger tweets that he doesn’t believe there is anything to the rumors of Tortorella joining Sullivan as an assistant coach.
Arthur Staple also tweets that Tortorella won’t be on Sullivan’s staff.
5/1/25 | Emily Kaplan tweets that the Rangers are in “advanced talks” to hire Mike Sullivan to one of the “richest” coaching contracts in NHL history.
She also tweets that John Tortorella may join the Rangers as one of Sullivan’s assistant coaches rejoin the organization.
Sullivan was of course Tortorella’s assistant coach when Tortorella was the Rangers head coach.
Adam Rotter: Chris Drury will finally get his man. It’s the only move that makes sense for the Rangers and what seemed like it could have been a wide ranging coaching search ends up being quick because they got their guy.
I’m not surprised that John Tortorella is potentially coming back. He and Sullivan are extremely close, Torts was with him at the 4 Nations and hopefully being an assistant coach will allow Torts to bring out his best without all the responsibility of being the head coach. It will be Tortorella’s second time as an assistant as he was John Muckler’s assistant in 1999-00.