NHL delivers biggest punishment of the year to the Golden Knights after John Tortorella controversy
Jack Eichel and John Tortorella are suddenly tied to the biggest Vegas playoff story of the day.
The NHL made clear in its statement that the Golden Knights had been issued previous warnings about media regulations other policies.
The Golden Knights are moving on in the playoffs, but they're doing it with a hit that will follow them into future draft boards.
Breaking news hit Friday when Vegas was docked a second-round pick for what was described as a flagrant violation of league media policy. Tortorella was also fined $100,000.
That punishment landed less than a day after Vegas finished off Anaheim 5-1 and punched its ticket to the Western Conference Final.
This is where the story turns. A playoff win should have owned the night. Instead, the coach's no-show after the game became the headline by the next morning.
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The Golden Knights had just closed out the Ducks and kept Tortorella's late-season push rolling.
Then the league stepped in and made the fallout bigger than the result itself.
The clip shows the final horn, players spilling off the bench, and the room waiting for a coach who never walked in.
@GoldenKnights
a second round pick for a «flagrant» violation of the league's media policy.
Coach John Tortorella has also been fined $100,000.
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Vegas wins the round, then loses the room with punishment by NHL
That's a brutal swing for a team that just advanced to the Western Conference Final for the fifth time in nine seasons. Vegas should be talking about Colorado, matchups, and line deployment. Instead, it has to answer for discipline.
And this lands on Tortorella fast. He was hired on March 29 to give the bench a jolt before the postseason. On Friday, the noise around him changed from edge to embarrassment.
Inside that room, the challenge is obvious. Players can live with a loud coach. They don't want a distraction that drags the whole team into a league punishment during a playoff run.
Kelly McCrimmon now has two fires to manage at once: keeping Vegas locked in for the next round and owning a punishment that strips away a meaningful asset. A second-round pick still matters, even for a team built to win now.
That's why this story has real weight. The Golden Knights are still alive, still dangerous, and still rolling. But Friday made it clear that one missed press conference can cost far more than one bad night.
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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 | ||||