Philadelphia Flyers fire John Tortorella, Brad Shaw to serve as interim head coach

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The Philadelphia Flyers announced on Thursday that they have relieved John Tortorella of his duties as head coach.

The team said Philadelphia Flyers Associate Coach Brad Shaw has been named interim head coach and will assume duties immediately.

The team posted the news on social media.

"Today I made the very difficult decision to move on from John as our head coach," said Briere. "John played a vital role in our rebuild. He set a standard of play and re-established what it means to be a Philadelphia Flyer. John's passion on the bench was only equaled by his charitable work in our community. As we move into the next chapter of this rebuild, I felt this was the best for our team to move forward. I'd like to thank John for his tireless work and commitment to the Flyers."

"On behalf of the entire Flyers organization, we would like to thank John for his dedication over the past three seasons," said Flyers Governor Dan Hilferty and President of Hockey Operations Keith Jones. "We fully support Danny's decision in making this change as he continues to do what is needed for the future of our organization. John Tortorella has made a positive impact throughout the Flyers organization, and we are grateful and appreciative of the opportunity to work with him. We wish John, Christine and their family all the best moving forward."

No other details have been released at this time.