The front office fast-trigger virus that caused the Seattle Kraken to fire head coaches in back-to-back seasons has unfortunately spread to the PWHL’s Seattle Torrent.
Head coach Steve O’Rourke was fired Friday after shepherding the Torrent through an extremely challenging expansion season. In a tersely-worded statement short on explanation, GM Meghan Turner said, ““We are grateful to Steve for his contributions to the Seattle Torrent during our inaugural season. We wish him and his family nothing but the best in the future.”
Unless details emerge that justify such a move, the dismissal seems an over-reaction to Seattle finishing last in the eight-team PWHL with a record of 8-1-5-16. (Read that as eight regulation wins, one overtime win, five overtime losses, and 16 regulation losses.)
Torrent Coach Navigated Torrent Of Obstacles
O’Rourke guided his team through a laundry list of specialized issues beyond the normal coaching headaches. As always with expansion rosters, few Torrent players knew each other well when the season started; fewer had played together.
“It takes time,” the coach said at his end-of-season media availability, “especially with a group that was so disconnected. I don’t know if we ever got to the level of physical play that we wanted to. The defending side of it was, we weren’t hard enough. It’s something we worked on, on a constant basis, drills around the net, boxing out.
“We’re not that far off. There’s little areas we have to get more consistent at.”
For Much Of Season, Gang Wasn’t All Here
Coalescing individuals into a team was severely complicated, first by USA vs. Canada Rivalry Series games, then by Olympics-related breaks that disrupted continuity. “We started without our top eight players at training camp. Those players left during ‘Rivalry’ break. Then they go to Olympics.”
That’s even more of a disruption than it seems. The six Torrent Olympians were taught systems by their national teams which differed from what O’Rourke wanted to establish as their Torrent identity. The coach defined that as “Playing fast, playing on our toes.”
Torrent Ran A Season-Long Obstacle Course
Training camp lasted all of one week. The preseason consisted of two games against Vancouver. Torrent offices near Kraken Community Iceplex weren’t completed until well into the season. Seemingly mundane tasks like where to hold meetings became puzzles.
Two Torrent forwards from the gold medal-winning Team USA sustained major injuries in Milan. Captain Hilary Knight missed several games with a torn MCL. Hanna Bilka was lost for the season. On a team struggling to score goals, these were absences the Torrent couldn’t overcome.
Through it all, O’Rourke molded players who’d been strangers into a close-knit group. “Before you can win, you have to care,” O’Rourke said. “We have a room of people who care for each other.”
Part of that was insisting ideas be shared both ways between coaches and players. O’Rourke employed a performance coach to keep tabs that everyone in the dressing room was feeling respected and heard.
He saw the big picture, even limiting Knight’s minutes for the Torrent so she’d be at her best with Team USA. He was a vocal proponent for women advancing through the coaching ranks. He was articulate and thoughtful sharing insights with media, and through them, with Torrent fans. He never resorted to coach-speak.
Not least of all, O’Rourke maintained good humor in all his public appearances.
Turner Decided Talented Torrent Roster Under-performed
If O’Rourke and Turner ended up at loggerheads, they certainly didn’t start that way. “We sat down in Toronto around the expansion draft,” O’Rourke recalled in a December, 2025 PWHL.com profile.
“We connected on how we see the game being played, how we want to connect with the players so they have that good experience. We want them to have fun on the ice. This is still about accountability for the players — they want to be pushed. But it’s about how we ask that of them.”
When she hired him last June, Turner said, “He brings a great hockey mind, a clear vision for the game, and a strong commitment to developing both our team and our players as individuals.”
What changed? Nine wins in 30 games, despite the league’s generous expansion rules. Seattle and Vancouver filled their rosters with genuinely talented players.
But unlike fans on social media who cheered O’Rourke’s dismissal, Turner should have known to look past the optics of a last-place finish to factor in the never-ending hurdles. Besides, the Torrent season was a rousing success in many ways.
“We’ll start to win,” O’Rourke said at his presser three weeks ago. The coach then made what turned out to be a fateful prediction. Referencing the league’s further expansion, he unintentionally described his own situation. “We know there’s change coming.”
Earlier Torrent:
— Torrent’s Bilka Watched ‘Miracle’, Then Made Her Own
Earlier Kraken:
— Kraken Prospects Square Off At Memorial Cup
