The ballot for the 2024 Jack Adams Award, given to the best coach in the NHL voted by the NHL Broadcasters’ Association, was revealed on Wednesday evening.
Former Philadelphia Flyers forward Rick Tocchet won the award as he led the Vancouver Canucks to the Pacific Division title with a 50-23-9 record and 109 points, their best regular season performance since 2011-12.
Flyers head coach John Tortorella finished 12th in voting after garnering two second-place votes and a third-place vote, respectively.
Tortorella likely would have garnered more votes had the Flyers not lost 13 of their last 18 games after the trade deadline, including an eight-game losing streak from March 24th to April 9th.
The Flyers were picked by many to be a bottom-feeder in the NHL standings entering the season after a tumultuous 2022-23 campaign. They subtracted from the roster by trading forward Kevin Hayes to St. Louis, defenseman Ivan Provorov to Columbus, and buying out defenseman Tony DeAngelo, but they received reinforcements in forwards Sean Couturier and Cam Atkinson returning from injuries that kept them out to the lineup for the entire season.
Tortorella led the Flyers to a 38-33-11 mark, good for 87 points and sixth place in the Metropolitan Division. The Flyers were in the playoff hunt for the entire season in the process, which was a pipe dream heading into the year.
(Heather Barry Images, LLC)
Tortorella’s greatest challenge was when starting goaltender Carter Hart took an indefinite leave of absence to face sexual assault charges stemming from the 2018 Team Canada World Junior investigation. Samuel Ersson was thrust into a very unenviable position, but Tortorella had faith in his young backup and despite some hiccups, he rode him all the way to Game 82 as the Flyers almost made the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time in four years.
Tortorella also oversaw the growth and development of youthful key players such as Owen Tippett, Cam York, Morgan Frost, Tyson Foerster, and Egor Zamula, among others. Travis Sanheim also further molded himself into a steady top-pair defenseman, top forward Travis Konecny reached new offensive career-highs and made his second All-Star Game appearance, and role players such as Ryan Poehling, Nick Seeler, and Garnet Hathaway played much better than advertised.
The most impressive part of the season was the penalty killing of the Flyers. Under Tortorella and assistant Brad Shaw, Philadelphia finished fourth in the league with a PK operating at 83.4%, while leading the league in shorthanded goals with 16. 16 shorthanded markers tied them for the sixth-most in team history and it was the most they’ve recorded as a unit since 2008-09. Konecny alone had 6, leading the NHL as he set a personal-best in that category and was one goal shy of the franchise record.
