John Torchetti

United States John Torchetti

Date of birth	July 9, 1964
place of birth	Boston , Massachusetts , USA
size	183 cm
Weight	91 kg

position	Left wing
Shot hand	Right

Career stations

1984	Plattsburgh Pioneers
1984-1986	Carolina Thunderbirds
1986	Virginia Lancers
1986-1991	Carolina Thunderbirds
1988	Binghamton Whalers

John Torchetti (born July 9, 1964 in Boston , Massachusetts ) is a former American ice hockey player and current coach . In his active career, Torchetti played mainly for the Carolina Thunderbirds , while he was already active as an assistant coach or interim head coach for several NHL teams. Since January 2019 he has been the head coach of the Moncton Wildcats from the Ligue de hockey junior majeur du Québec .

Career

As a player

John Torchetti's career began in the youth field with the Plattsburgh Pioneers , a team that only played the 1984/85 season in the Ligue de hockey junior majeur du Québec (LHJMQ), won no game and was subsequently dissolved again. However, Torchetti moved after eight games to the Carolina Thunderbirds in the Atlantic Coast Hockey League , a minor league in the eastern United States. With the Thunderbirds he spent seven of his eight professional years as a left winger (in the 1986/87 season he was under contract with the Virginia Lancers for a short time ), won twice the regular season and became the MVP of the newly formed in the 1987/88 season All-American Hockey League elected. Through his performance, franchises from higher leagues also became aware of Torchetti, but he only spent ten games with the Binghamton Whalers in the AHL . In the following year he managed to win the play-offs and thus the Riley Cup with the team , with the Thunderbirds having switched leagues and now playing in the ECHL . Following the 1990/91 season, he ended his active career.

As a trainer

Torchetti gained his first experience as an ice hockey coach from the 1993/94 season as an assistant coach at the Greensboro Monarchs and from 1995 as head coach at the San Antonio Iguanas , both in the ECHL . In the 1996/97 season he moved to the International Hockey League (IHL) and took over the position of head coach at the Fort Wayne Komets . The following season he was honored for his work there with the Commissioner's Trophy as the IHL 's best coach. In 1998 he served as General Manager for the Detroit Vipers for one year .

In preparation for the 1999/2000 season he appointed head coach Steve Ludzik as an assistant coach to the Tampa Bay Lightning , which Torchetti gained first experience in the NHL . In 2002 he was employed by the San Antonio Rampage in the AHL, but after a short time he was appointed to the cooperation team in the NHL, the Florida Panthers , to work there as an assistant coach. After the head coach Rick Dudley was dismissed at the end of the 2003/04 season, Torchetti took over the last 10 games of the season as interim coach. He then moved within the NHL to the Los Angeles Kings , to work there again only as an assistant coach; However, head coach Andy Murray was dismissed there in his first season , so that Torchetti took over again and for the first time was head coach of an NHL franchise without restrictions.

After a year of "time out" as head coach of the Moncton Wildcats in the LHJMQ , he spent three years (2007-2010) as an assistant coach with the Chicago Blackhawks in the NHL, with the team winning the play-offs and the Stanley Cup in 2010 . This was followed by a season as an assistant coach with the Atlanta Thrashers ; then he took over the Houston Eros in the AHL for two seasons in 2011 .

In the 2013/14 season, Torchetti was the coach of HK CSKA Moscow , making it the first North American in this position at this club. At the Spengler Cup 2013 his team reached the final and failed there at the Genève-Servette HC . He left Russia after one season and was introduced as the new head coach of the Iowa Wild from the American Hockey League in November 2014 . After a little over a year, Torchetti took over an interim NHL team for the third time when Mike Yeo was dismissed as head coach of the Minnesota Wild in February 2016 . Torchetti led the game into the playoffs, but failed there in the first round. He was then replaced by the new head coach Bruce Boudreau before he worked as an assistant coach at the Detroit Red Wings from 2016 to 2018 .

In January 2019 he took over the Moncton Wildcats for a second time, where he succeeded Darren Rumble .