Report: Tortorella almost resigned in Columbus after 2019-20 playoffs

Now that the Columbus Blue Jackets and John Tortorella have mutually agreed to part ways following a disastrous season, more information is beginning to come to light on the fact that Torts may have wanted out before the 2020-21 season even began.

Per The Athletic's Aaron Portzline, the 62-year-old had initially planned to resign from his position as the Blue Jackets' head coach following their first round loss to the eventual Stanley Cup Champions, the Tampa Bay Lightning during the 2019-20 playoffs, but a conversation with one of his Blue Jackets players had convinced him to come back for one last kick at the can.

Apparently, it was known in the locker room that Torts wanted out after recognizing that there were too many differences in philosophy between the coach, the players and management in terms of building a team that went against the model that they had originally agreed upon.

When Jackets captain Nick Foligno heard that Torts wanted out, he took it upon himself as captain to set up a lunch with his coach to try to convince him to stay in Columbus and finish what they had started.

Another interesting detail to this story is that GM Jarmo Kekalainen was amenable to removing Tortorella from behind the bench, but not to firing the veteran bench boss. Instead, Kekalainen would have found used Torts in another capacity in the final year of his contract at a lesser salary than the $2.5M he was slated to make as head coach.

Obviously, what we know now is that Tortorella ended up staying on as the coach of the team, made several questionable decisions (perhaps in an attempt to get fired, but that's purely speculative) and coached the team to its worst season since 2011-12.

I'm sure all parties are eager to turn the page on this season and start anew, with Columbus on the hunt for a new head coach for the 2021-22 season and Torts expected to begin searching for his next NHL coaching gig after announcing in recent weeks that he was not yet ready to call it a career.

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