This was cool to see:

John Tortorella after the session: “I called him and I wanted to know if he wanted to come out. It’s pretty close to home here, as far as his family and all, what’s gone on there. He’s a coach. First time I met him was today. And I never met Johnny and Matt. I never met them in my travels as a coach. But their family is here. Horrific situation going on. He’s a coach and done some great work with some of the youth out here. And I figured it’s perfect to get him in with us. He was hesitant at first, we we let him go at his timetable. I think it worked out really well. I gave him my camp book (schedule) and we’re gonna check in next week and see if we can get him out here a few more times and have him be part of it. I don’t want it to just be ‘come out here,’ I want him to be part of it. I think it will be therapeutic for him to be around us and run some drills. He’s done it before. He’s a coach. It was great. Great to have him here and we’ll see where it goes.”

Torts say Gaudreau was “giving him shit” for asking the guys to skate harder because he only had three lines out on the ice. He mentioned that a lot of people in the Flyers organ-I-zation know Gaudreau because of his local work.

It’s a bummer that Johnny never played for the Flyers, and you wonder what would have happened had the team had been in a different position in 2022. Two years ago, Chuck Fletcher said the Flyers “weren’t in” on Gaudreau, who ended up in Columbus on a seven-year deal worth a little less than $10 million per season. There was some scuttlebutt about the Flyers being unwilling to attach a first round draft pick to get off JVR’s contract and we know that cap issues made a lot of things difficult. Gaudreau said he “kept an eye” on the Flyers situation but nothing ever really materialized. Back then, the fan base was split on Johnny anyway, not the player, but the situation. Some people wanted to pursue him, and others thought it was irresponsible for a rebuilding team to spend that kind of money on a superstar. There was a lot of work that needed to be done before “going for it,” so the timeline didn’t sync up. This was, if I recall correctly, the end of the forgetful “aggressive retool” era and we had not yet segued into the “new era of orange,” so Gaudreau’s free agency took place at the wrong time.