Golden Knights fire back after NHL punishes John Tortorella and organization
Jack Eichel and coach John Tortorella just pushed Vegas into the West final, but the story flipped fast on Friday.
The NHL hit the Golden Knights with a $100,000 fine on Tortorella and stripped the club of its 2026 second-round pick.
That punishment came after what the league called flagrant violations of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs Media Regulations following Game 6 against the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday.
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Vegas did not try to smooth it over. The team's X post made it plain that the organization was aware of the NHL announcement and had no further comment.
That's a bold play in the middle of a playoff run. It keeps the message tight, protects the locker room, and tells the rest of the league this team is not about to spend a day apologizing.
It also puts more heat on Tortorella. A $100,000 fine is not a slap on the wrist, and the league made clear this came after previous warnings to the club.
Vegas was also offered the chance to appeal, with an in-person hearing set for next week in New York.
Vegas turns a league hit into a playoff test
That matters because this is no fringe team trying to get through May. Vegas finished the regular season at 39-26-17 with 95 points, then kept rolling into a bigger spring stage.
So the no-comment statement lands as more than routine damage control. It reads like a team deciding the bench, not the microphones, will handle the response from here.
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Still, losing a second-round pick is a real front-office loss. That is the kind of draft capital teams use to restock the blue line, move up the board, or sweeten a trade.
And the timing is brutal. Vegas should be talking about its next opponent, not a punishment tied to postgame media access.
Tortorella's presence makes this even louder. He has been on the job since March 29, and now one of the first big storylines around his Vegas run has nothing to do with systems or line matching.
The Golden Knights clearly chose silence over spin. In this room, that probably plays better than a long explanation.
But outside that room, the bill is steep, the draft cost is real, and the NHL made sure everyone noticed.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 14, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Nick Suzuki | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| Juraj Slafkovsky | - | 3 | 3 | |
| Pavel Dorofeyev | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Ivan Demidov | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Mitch Marner | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Shea Theodore | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Phillip Danault | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Lane Hutson | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Josh Anderson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Cole Caufield | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Josh Doan | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jake Evans | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Mikael Granlund | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Konsta Helenius | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alexandre Texier | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jason Zucker | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ivan Barbashev | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Leo Carlsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||