The Vegas Golden Knights blocked former head coach Bruce Cassidy from interviewing for vacant head coaching positions with the Los Angeles Kings and Edmonton Oilers, forcing both Pacific Division rivals to alter their offseason coaching searches on Monday.
Vegas retained Cassidy under contract for the 2026-27 season at $4.5 million despite replacing him with John Tortorella late in the season.
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The National Hockey League confirmed that the Golden Knights are acting within their contractual rights and league policy.
Kings Move Forward Without Cassidy
Los Angeles Kings General Manager Ken Holland acknowledged the situation during an interview with LA Kings Insider Zach Dooley, emphasizing that the team must move forward without Cassidy.
“The process is, pretty much everyone is under contract to somebody, so you have to ask for permission and then it’s that team’s right to determine if they want to grant permission or if they don’t want to grant permission,” said Holland.
Holland noted that withholding permission is a standard contractual right utilized by organizations across the hockey industry to retain valued staff members.
“Over the years, I’ve had some calls about maybe not head coaches, but people called and we didn’t want to let them go and we found a way to keep them,” said Holland.
The Kings will continue their search by interviewing four to eight candidates before the upcoming draft, with interim coach D.
J. Smith remaining under consideration.
“I’ve been around the game a long time to know that if somebody’s decided that they don’t want to grant permission, they’ve negotiated that right and you move on,” said Holland.
