Todd Richards: 2012-2015
John Tortorella: 2015-
For everyone that wanted something to happen, this happened. Todd Richards was fired and replaced by John Tortorella following a 4-0 shutout last night.
Personally, it's sad to see a really good coach leave a really good team because that is what this team is. Richards led this young squad to multiple 40 win seasons, and a playoff appearance, which led to their first two playoff wins in franchise history, and both against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Last season was an injury bitten season, so the organization gave Columbus a chance to see if he can do. Due to his history of slow starts, the team sits as the basement of the league, and still searching for a win. And that is why Todd Richards was replaced.
On to the next one.
John Tortorella is now the head coach of Columbus, the 7th coach in franchise history. He is the all winningest American born coach. Torts led the Tampa Bay Lightning to a Stanley Cup prior to the 2004-2005 lockout season- a roster with Vincent Lecavalier and Martin St. Louis on it. He became the New York Rangers coach a few years later, and brought them close to the Cup final, but couldn't. Torts' style is vibrant in New York- especially in the defense of the team. Guys like their captain, Ryan McDonagh; Marc Staal; and Dan Girardi do more shot blocking as a result. He then headed to Vancouver to coach a Canadian team (which he wanted to do) in an attempt to bring Vancouver a Cup, but they missed the playoffs and was fired after one season (the 2013-2014 campaign).
The question for Columbus is which John Tortorella does they get. We will see. More to come...
_________________________________________________________________
Update: 4:15 pm ET
Columbus has to give up a second round pick to Vancouver as he was still under contract with the Canucks. The pick can be either this year's (2016), next year's (2017), or the following year (2018).