Inside John Tortorella's playoff record and stats: How many Stanley Cups does Golden Knights coach have in NHL career?

Veteran head coaches in the NHL tend to stick around with different teams if they have a proven track record, and that is certainly the case with John Tortorella.

The former Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Rangers coach has had his share of success in the playoffs, all while leading a variety of teams over the past three decades. He helped the Lightning win their first Stanley Cup in the 2004 season in just his second full season as a head coach, an accomplishment that has stayed with Tortorella throughout his career.

Tortorella's latest feat is taking the Vegas Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup Final after becoming the team's head coach just weeks before the playoffs began. As a result, Tortorella has only added to his resume by finally returning to the Final more than two decades after his first appearance.

Here's a breakdown of Tortorella's career playoff history.

NHL PLAYOFFS HQ: Live NHL scores | NHL playoff schedule | NHL playoff bracket

John Tortorella playoff record

• 68-68 (.500)

Tortorella's 68 career playoff wins are good for 20th-most in NHL history and the sixth-most among active NHL coaches. However, of the coaches in the top 20, he has the worst winning percentage as the only one who isn't over-.500.

Overall, Tortorella has coached 138 career playoff games across four different teams since the 2003 postseason. He has nine playoff runs with more losses than wins, but has produced double-digit playoff wins during three separate seasons.

John Tortorella playoff results

Tortorella has been a head coach for parts of 24 seasons across six different teams since the 1999-2000 season. However, he only made the playoffs with four of those teams and has only made it to the conference finals three times in his career.

In his second season as a full-time head coach, Tortorella led the Tampa Bay Lightning to their first-ever Stanley Cup title, going 16-7 over the course of the playoff run. In each of his other three playoff appearances with Tampa Bay, Tortorella went a combined 8-14/

In 2016, Tortorella took over a Columbus Blue Jackets team that had very little playoff experience in its history, having made the postseason just twice. Under Tortorella, though, Columbus made the playoffs in four straight seasons, winning a round in each of the last two.

The 2019 Blue Jackets were the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference but produced a massive upset by taking down the 128-point Lightning. In fact, the Blue Jackets swept the Lightning in stunning fashion, winning the series 4-0 before losing in the second round.

The following year, the Blue Jackets won a playoff round in the expanded COVID-19 bubble playoffs, defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs before Tampa Bay got its revenge in the next round. As Blue Jackets head coach, Tortorella went 13-18 in the playoffs.

With just weeks to go in the 2025-26 season, the Vegas Golden Knights fired Bruce Cassidy and hired Tortorella to spark a playoff run. That proved to be a wise move, with Tortorella leading the Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup Final, going 12-4 in the Western Conference playoffs