The start of the Philadelphia Flyers‘ 2025–26 regular season is less than two weeks away. In this edition of Flyers News & Rumors, we’ll look at former head coach John Tortorella‘s recent clarification on his final interview with the team, Sean Couturier‘s passive aggressiveness, and defensive prospect Ethan Samson’s unfortunate injury.
Tortorella Clarifies “Not Interested” Quote
On March 25, the Flyers fell to the Toronto Maple Leafs in embarrassing fashion: 7–2 on the road. Not having a regulation or overtime win since Feb. 25, general manager Daniel Brière and the rest of the Flyers’ management knew they had to pull the plug.
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Tortorella must’ve sensed his time was coming to an end, as well. In his final postgame presser, he told the media, “This falls on me. I’m not really interested in learning how to coach in this type of season, where we’re at now. But I have to do a better job. So this falls on me, getting the team prepared to play the proper way until we get to the end.”
The whole “not interested” part of that quote got people upset. After all, the Flyers were and still are a rebuilding team—it’s not always going to be pretty. Tortorella was fired two days later.
In an interview with NHL.com, he wanted to clear the air. “I loved coaching them,” he said. “I heard a couple NHL coaches accuse me [of quitting on the Flyers]. Did I quit on the team after those comments I made in Toronto? I haven’t quit on a [expletive] thing in my life. Those comments were totally taken out of [context].”
Today, he’s preparing for his assistant role with the U.S. Olympic team this winter. It could get him back into the NHL coaching scene.
Couturier’s Passive Aggressive Commentary
Speaking of Tortorella, it’s been well-documented that he and Couturier didn’t have the best relationship. With Rick Tocchet now leading the charge, the Flyers’ captain has been unusually outspoken at training camp regarding his former bench boss.
After telling the media that he rarely communicated with Tortorella just a few days ago, he took another jab on Sept. 25. According to PHLY‘s Charlie O’Connor, Couturier said the following about the team’s ineffective power play: “It was almost like, the last couple years, guys were scared to make plays and get pulled off [the power play]. It’s not quite, I think, the mentality or philosophy you want to have going into a power play and trying to score a goal, when you’re scared to make plays.”
In the 2023–24 season, Tortorella benched Couturier during the team’s playoff push. It certainly rubbed him, a new captain and all, the wrong way. It seems that the two never really got along—Tocchet could be a bigger X-factor than initially realized.
Samson Injured; Out 6–8 Weeks
Also on Thursday, Brière gave four injury updates. Oliver Bonk, Karsen Dorwart, and Lane Pederson are all day-to-day and, thus, not expected to miss much time. Samson, on the other hand, is expected to miss between six and eight weeks with an upper-body issue.
Samson, a 22-year-old right-shot defenseman, would’ve had an uphill battle to making the Flyers. Still, that eliminates any chance, on top of creating a roadblock for his third American Hockey League (AHL) season. Not set to take the ice until around mid-November, that could be challenging for a young player.
The Flyers have four preseason games left on their schedule, with three of them taking place at Xfinity Mobile Arena (Sept. 27, Oct. 2, Oct. 4). Then, before we know it, the Orange and Black will begin their 2025–26 campaign, hoping to end their long playoff drought.
