#4 – John Torchetti (2016) (15-11-1)
February 2016 saw the Minnesota Wild do something they had never done before, when they made a mid-season coaching change. In the midst of a losing streak which had seen the team lose 8 games in a row, and 13 of its previous 14, John Torchetti was brought in from the AHL’s Iowa Wild to right the ship.
This included a big 6-1 victory against the rival Chicago Blackhawks in the 2016 Stadium Series game.
Torchetti taking over as Head Coach reaped immediate benefits for the team, as he proceeded to win his first 4 games as coach.
Torch got the team back on track going 15-7-1 through March and looked to have the team back on track as a dark horse heading into the playoffs. That is, until the wheels fell off the train and the team backed into the playoffs with 5 consecutive losses.
In the first round series against the 1st place Dallas Stars, Torchetti was clearly outmatched as a Head coach but not entirely by his own faults. The Minnesota Wild were forced to start the series with injuries to Zach Parise, Erik Haula, and Thomas Vanek, leaving the team extremely shorthanded on scoring ability.
Parise and Vanek never did come back, but the team showed a ton of resiliency in a 6 game series loss. Battling back from a 4-0 deficit in the 3rd Period, only to end up losing 5-4 at the end was the story of the season for the Wild and Torchetti.
He brought the team out of one of the worst mid-season slumps in franchise, they scratched and clawed their way to the playoffs and went out kicking and screaming. He finished the season with a 57.4% winning percentage, a 6-game playoff series against the top team in the league, and a ton of positives heading into the next season.
Realistically, Torchetti earned himself the right to be around for a few more seasons, but was unfortunate that the next man on this list became available when he did.