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Flyers add Torchetti as assistant; worked with Fletcher in Minn.

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Chuck Fletcher
Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher announced the hiring of assistant coach John Torchetti on Tuesday.

The Flyers added John Torchetti as an assistant coach for the remainder of the season, general manager Chuck Fletcher announced Tuesday.

Fletcher was the Minnesota GM when Torchetti was named the interim coach with the Wild late in the 2015-16 season. He replaced the fired Mike Yeo, who is now the Flyers’ interim coach.

Small world, eh?

Torchetti was also an interim head coach with Florida (2003-04) and Los Angeles (2006-06).

“It’s nice to have someone with head-coaching experience on the bench,” Yeo said.

Torchetti, 57, will join Yeo, who will remain interim head coach for the remainder of the 2021-22 season, along with assistants Nick Schultz, Kim Dillabaugh, and Darryl Williams.

Fletcher is expected to re-evaluate the entire coaching staff after the season.

Torchetti, Yeo, and Schultz all had ties with Fletcher in Minnesota. Williams, hired by the Flyers in July, coached with former Flyers coach Alain Vigneault in Vancouver and in New York with the Rangers.

In December, Vigneault and assistant Michel Therrien were fired by the Flyers

The Flyers will take a 12-game losing streak – which equals a franchise record – into Tuesday’s game at the Islanders.

Torchetti, who has also coached in Russia’s KHL, last served as head coach of the Moncton Wildcats of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League in 2019-20. He led the club to a 50-13-1 record, with a .789 win percentage in a season that was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He last appeared behind an NHL bench as an assistant with the Detroit Red Wings during the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons. He also was an assistant with the Tampa Bay Lightning (1999-01), Florida Panthers (2002-04), and Chicago (2007-10), where he helped the Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup Championship in 2010, defeating the Flyers in six games. (Sorry to bring up the reminder.)

Following his tenure with Chicago, Torchetti was an associate coach for the Atlanta Thrashers in 2010-11. He was also a head coach in the American Hockey League for parts of five seasons, most recently for two years with the Iowa Wild from 2014-16 before taking over as interim head coach with Minnesota toward the end of the 2015-16 season, replacing Yeo after the Wild had lost eight straight games and 13 of their last 14.

Torchetti has an all-time AHL coaching record of 150-154-12-41.

Sam Carchidi is in his 15th year covering the Flyers. He can be reached on Twitter @BroadStBull or on email at samcarchidi55@gmail.com

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