Barn Burner: Boomer & Pinder with Rhett Warrener - Could John Tortorella Be The Answer For The Edmonton Oilers?? | BB Clips

Episode Date: June 16, 2026

Boomer, Pinder and Rhett react to the news that John Tortorella will not be returning as head coach of the Vegas Golden Knights next season. After taking over late in the year and leading Vegas all the way to the Stanley Cup Final, many assumed there was a chance Tortorella could stick around, but that won't be the case. The guys look back at the job Torts did in Vegas, how he managed to spark the team during a difficult stretch, and whether his short stint behind the bench changed the way people view him as an NHL coach. The conversation then shifts to the Edmonton Oilers, who remain in search of their next head coach. Could Tortorella actually make sense in Edmonton? Would his demanding style work with a veteran group led by Connor McDavid, or would it be a complete disaster? The boys debate whether Torts deserves another opportunity and if the Oilers should seriously consider him as a candidate. Let us know: should John Tortorella be on Edmonton's coaching shortlist?Video Link: https://youtu.be/QkXaiEqM4Ng#nhl #nhlshorts #nhlplayoffs #nhlpredictions #nhlhockey #nhlpicks #stanleycup #stanleycupfinal #edmontonoilers CHECK OUT OUR STUFF ⬇️BARN BURNER MERCHhttps://nationgear.ca/collections/shirts/FlamesnationBARN BURNER SHORTS https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj_bcGtvvo-cW2DHEDZ6dEO5ePDmlhZc9&si=jo8iNGxT4ImhS2Y8📲 Follow us:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fnbarnburner/X (Twitter): https://x.com/barnburnerfn?lang=en🎧 Listen on:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/be/podcast/barn-burner-boomer-pinder-with-rhett-warrener/id1648562889Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Mc6Qd5U22R2zbMlQ7RxIiProducer: Jack Haverstock Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vegas Golden Knights Need a new head coach As it was confirmed this morning that John Tortorella will not return Well, I don't blame him Flip your buddy there Old, what's his name? My buddy

Flip at him the bird There you see. Kelly McCrimmon Says he will not return to the team's coaching staff following the season It was all the, hey, thank you John It was great, we got to Sally Cup

Love you and all You and all of yours all the best. Do you think there's bad, buddler? No. I don't know. I'm not as convinced as a flat out, absolutely not. I mean, clearly we're all, no one's inside and has inside, like, knows what the hell's going on,

but from afar, it just feels like their plan was always the guy they've been grooming for nine years to be their head coach. Yeah, but that doesn't mean that Tortorillan didn't appreciate the couldn't fucking throwing them out there under the bus. I mean, they're a couple wins away from it being the ultimate success

story. Yeah, like, if they win, are we sure he's back or is it still potentially this okay well because of this i think it does change my thoughts on it if yeah because it all like i say it almost went as well as you could expect what you know what boarded you have well you had to win the cup two weeks before the end of the regular season yeah they were not leading they were not going to say well we're going to run right to the cup final here if they stub their toe they could have missed the playoffs and instead they were two in shy of a cup it's hard to not have it's hard to go better than it did like if If you reel off 14 wins in the playoffs as a team that was massively underperforming with two weeks to go,

I'm sorry, there must have been another plan the whole way because he crushed it. You know what I'm doing? I'm leaving the door open for your thought that it might not be as harmonious as you might expect. Well, two things. If the Anderson coach, Brian Craig, right? Right. Henderson, yeah. That's what he said.

Sorry, I thought you said Anderson. Oh, that's what he said. If he was being groomed, why did the fuck they just bring him up? Steve or some grumpy, I didn't sleep. Why didn't they just bring him up instead of torts? Sure, there's reasons, but if this is, all this is our plan. Yeah.

And to me, John Tortorello did not look impressed. Beside Kelly McRibbin during that media thing. I get that, but he never looks impressed doing media. The worst of torts is when he's in front of media. So you're just of the opinion that It could be right. I don't know what's, we're guessing.

Like we're literally guessing. I think there's a chance that what you're saying is true. I think there's some, some undertones. I think that torts would have appreciated. You know what? Because so you think,

is a straight shooter. I'm like, I don't care what he's sitting. But if I'm torts and I'm sitting beside him and it's like, yeah. Oh, so let's play that game then. So they throw him under the bottom. You can just say,

hang on, hang on. You think that they went to torts and and he said, no, I'm not coming back. No, I think he was pissed off. I think they, so did they, they, they wanted him back. I don't know. I think it was true. I'm not saying we know, we're guessing, but what is your,

your guess is that he said that was, that hurt my feelings. I'm not coming back. My guess is that my, my, oh my God, observation. Yeah. Is that that would be a possibility. That isn't standing beside your guy. No, it isn't. You're right. It wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't,

it wasn't, it wasn't, it wasn't, end of the world, but I didn't. throw a fit about it. I don't know. But there were some undertones of, I told you not to do that and you did it anyway. So screw you. I'm throwing you out there.

And John and I have spoken on the topic and we will not speak anymore. And John's like, I haven't spoken yet. But then he speaks glowingly about wanting to continue to coach at the end. It's like, I'm trying to make sense of it. But that's the other reason where it's like,

well, he's sliding out. He wants to coach. He's two wins away from a Stanley Cup, win. Like, yeah, there are.

So if Vegas has their way, they'd have shorts back or not. No. So maybe they both weren't ready for it. That's what I'm saying. I think that this is both are moving on. As good as it went, there's, I still.

Well, and Torrance's stock has to have taken a huge pompier. There was also, and again, I didn't. There were some who felt like the, some of the moves made by Torterella in the final. There was stubbornness to it. There was some stubbornness to it. The utilization is Barbish, with Barbichev and Barbertshev and Barbertschev, and things that you could have done,

the heart goal tender. the the coach's challenge that was highly highly ever unlikely to be successful and then doubling down on it post game saying I'm 100 out of time I mean that's fine that's what that's what you do but I'm

kind of with you I think that there was we will talk about this at the end and see how it goes and it was great until it wasn't and well that's just it there were amazing this is great we're up yeah and you talk about you know his comments

to me that was kind of a telling thing because again, I speak, you know, I speak that language. Brandenis. Yeah. Well, no, Tortarella when he was talking. I'm leaving my clothes here. There's nothing. Oh, this is stupidest quick. Like he was panicked and with good reason.

When he was talking about the team, like they are a good team and they will be back. And I want, I want a coach. Like he planted those seeds to let it be known. I don't think he's looking to coach the Vegas Golden Knights necessarily. I think he's letting it be known. I'm out here, but I am looking to coach. My gut is that he wanted to be back, because I don't know when you look around,

you're going to find a situation as good as this one. You probably also do it right now. Well, yeah. There's only two spots open. Yeah, and this is way better than the other one. But I don't think he's saying, I need to coach before the start of the next season. It's just,

well, I think he wants to coach. And honestly, I think he, you know, whatever happened, we don't know we're playing the guessing game, but immediately the takeaway is like,

I think this guy has to be on Edmonton's shortlist if they're serious. Does this Torrance comes back to Canada? That's a good question. I mean, if you were going to do it, it would have to be for the right reasons. And, you know, those two superstars on their prime, I would do a short-term thing there.

I wouldn't go five years like Vancouver did. I think that Torz does not want to come back to Canada, but if he looked at the opportunity, if Edmonton, yeah, because they're all idiots up there, and I have no idea what they're doing. But if Edmonton did approach him with a bunch of money, he'd have to consider it.

Like, what have you said, here's 12 million bucks for two years? we're going to ride Connor into the sunset. I think you'd probably consider that really strongly, as much as I don't think the media and him would get along, as much as it's Canada. I think it's the exact descriptor of the coach they've tried to hire. They wanted Cassidy Y,

veteran, winner, has pushed guys, is not a wallflower defensive structure. Laviola got a lot of those traits. Babs has a lot of those traits. This guy's got all those traits too. They don't want a young green new age coach. They want to go old school. school, he's that.

Like, I would be stunned if they don't reach out immediately. Not that I want them to get a good coach, but it fits their check. In my opinion. Yeah. I don't disagree with you at all. But how do you handle, we've started an investigation into Mike Babcock and urge, take her off the rails and start

heading the other direction? I think it's the same as when you ask for permission to talk to Cassidy and you've got an extension, the ink's still wet on and your coach is still employed. It's like, you're burning the boats and we're going to look like idiots, but if we get our guy, who cares? It's not like it's been handled well to this point. It'll just be another blunder in the long line of blunders in this coaching hire. So they clearly aren't too worried about the optics the way they've approached the ship.

They have their own sources leaking that Vegas wasn't giving permission while their own coach was still under contract. It worked in, I just, it works in Vegas. I was going to say, I'm just kind of walking through talking myself through this. So it worked in Vegas to almost a perfection. Torrance? Torts. Okay. And what did you have there?

Well, you had a team that recently won the cup, star players, veteran group, great locker room, that, like that whole thing. Can, could he do the same in Edmonton? Does Edmonton have the same traits that Vegas has? I think when we looked at Vegas and Edmonton in the regular season, we felt the same way about them. Something's wrong here. They should be better than the results.

And there's some sort of disconnect between, coaching group. Yep. And it could have been Edmonton that went out and got torts at the Olympic break when Leon threw his coaching staff under the bus on his way over to Italy. Instead, they're like, no, no, no, we'll put Paul coffee on the bench. We're going to keep Knobber, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then you look at what the Islanders did.

They lock up DeBore. He's not available to the Oilers in the summer. You look at what Vegas did. They get torts in the last week. It completely turns their fortunes around after looking like a team nowhere near their ceiling. They're two wins from a Stanley Cup. you probably wish you'd gone and done it.

And now they will. And if you're worried about the Babcock thing, then you let the investigation go. You quietly talk to torts or as loud as you want and just say, look, we don't need a headache if you're ready to come here. Like, who owes Mike Babcock anything? He's the guy putting in hot water with his past.

You probably said something to the man and you're just a bunch of... Like at this point, you've already... You've got egg on your face anyway. What's another one? What's another egg? My word, dummy. shit, so why shit theirs?

Like, have they promised Babs the job? I don't know. They clearly have interest. You have to have thought if they're saying Babs. We're going to put you through the ringer here, but we'll give you the job once. Yeah. And I don't just screw that. I also wonder if there's a ruthlessness. Like we talk about Vegas.

I've cut through there. We're like, well, this guy's now available. Things change. But you know what? Maybe. They're such donkeys because guess what? If they had waited the week like we said. Yeah.

Oh, weird. Or if they got their business done at the Olympic break. when it was clear that that group wasn't responding with that coach. God, I hope they keep messing up. It's so fun to get passionate and excited about the energy just. See?

Look at you. You're back. But it is the type of hire they want, right? When you hear. It would be a great fit. He's better than Babs. I agree. There's no baggage.

This guy just stepped in with Vegas. He's prickly with. He knows what Vegas is made of. How this will help? Prickly with the media. That's it. You can manage that. Who cares about.

about pretty minor compared to the, you know, this investigation might drag on for weeks, months. The thing of, that's a bigger distraction. Take a shot. There's no need to do that. I don't, to me,

I think it would come down to his torts. Does he need to coach before the start of the season? Does he view the Oilers situation as one that you have to? How could you not? It's, I don't know. Let's think, I mean,

like where else could you go and land with two superstars and a 95 point defenseman? like yeah there's some flaws and there's some holes but that's a pretty good fucking start that's why we laugh at them they've got a decade with all these pieces and have no cups to show for it