Minnesota Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher today announced the National Hockey League club has named John Torchetti interim head coach, replacing Mike Yeo.
Torchetti joins Minnesota from their American Hockey League affiliate, the Iowa Wild. Torchetti had guided Iowa to a record of 15-29-3-3 through 50 games this season. He took over in Des Moines on Nov. 11, 2014, and led them to a 21-39-2-2 mark over the rest of the 2014-15 season.
Torchetti had previously been head coach of Minnesota’s AHL affiliate in Houston from 2011-13, taking over there following Yeo’s promotion to Minnesota in 2011. He also served as head coach of the San Antonio Rampage in 2002-03.
The native of Boston, Mass., holds 31 years of professional hockey experience as a player, coach and manager. His NHL coaching resume includes stops in Tampa Bay (1999-2001), Florida (2002-04), Los Angeles (2005-06), Chicago (2007-10) and Atlanta (2010-11).
The team also announced that Iowa associate coach David Cunniff has been named interim head coach of the AHL club.
Cunniff, 44, has spent the last 14 seasons coaching in the AHL. The Milton, Mass., native served as assistant coach (2002-12) and later associate coach (2012-14) of the San Jose Sharks’ AHL affiliates in Cleveland and Worcester, working alongside Roy Sommer. He joined the Albany Devils as an assistant coach in 2014-15 before being hired by the Wild last summer.
Cunniff played five seasons of professional hockey, including 120 AHL games. His dad, the late John Cunniff, spent seven seasons as an AHL head coach with the Binghamton Whalers (1982-84) and Albany River Rats (1996-2001).
