John Tortorella isn’t done.Speaking publicly for the first time since the Vegas Golden Knights announced just after their Stanley Cup Final run that he wouldn’t be back, the longtime NHL coach made that clear, saying that whenever another opportunity presents itself, he’s ready for it.“Oh, I want to coach,” Tortorella told The Athletic this week in an extended conversation. “I want to coach now. I’m not sure if that happens, and that’s where I am in my career. But I wanted to coach that Vegas team. I told (general manager Kelly McCrimmon) that.”Tortorella said that talking with former players about the game and mentoring them is what’s been keeping him going. Many of those players have become part of the coaching community, including the Minnesota Wild’s new AHL coach, Stu Bickel, and, coincidentally, the coach who replaced Tortorella in Vegas, Ryan Craig. The coaching world is a “little fraternity,” Tortorella said, and the 68-year-old isn’t ready to leave it after three decades.“But I also understood Kelly and (team president George McPhee)’s point of view,” Tortorella said. “They’ve been developing (Craig) for a number of years there. He’s a good coach and a good man.”Tortorella replaced Bruce Cassidy on March 29, with eight games remaining in the regular season, and Vegas went 7-0-1 in those games before its run to the Final, where the Golden Knights lost in six games to the Carolina Hurricanes.NHL free agency: Early winners and losersShayna Goldman and Madison EadesTortorella is grateful for his time with Vegas but said he wanted to “finish the job.”“I guess the word I’d use is ‘Disappointed,’” Tortorella said. “I was honest with Kelly. We met the next morning (after Game 6). … Kelly is very honest, and he let me know within one minute of sitting down in that meeting — he basically told me, ‘Ryan Craig is coaching the team next year.’ I told him what I thought, and we had an honest conversation. I truly respect where the organization is going.“We didn’t finish the job, and I wanted some more time with that club to try to finish the job. That’s not my call. That’s the general manager and president’s call. You just get about your business after that.”Tortorella won the Stanley Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004 and has 777 wins in 1,628 games in a 24-year career, coaching for the Lightning, New York Rangers, Vancouver Canucks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Philadelphia Flyers and Golden Knights. He’s 70-72 in the Stanley Cup playoffs and is the second-winningest American-born coach behind Peter Laviolette (846 wins).But going on another deep run was certainly invigorating — especially after years of coaching less-developed teams.“I loved it. I loved the teaching part of it,” he said. “I loved coaching in Philly, Columbus, when we were building that. But when I went to Vegas, a team laden with veterans — they had won in ’23, a lot of them — the information I got when I got there was there wasn’t a whole bunch of confidence within the group. That’s how we attacked it. I get to coach a different way. I get to coach with them, not at them.