Wildcats Release Torchetti

The Moncton Wildcats have released John Torchetti. 

The third best team in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and the No. 3 ranked team in the country is without a head coach and director of hockey operations heading into one of the most important trade periods in franchise history.

Torchetti led the Wildcats to a 21-5 record this season before being released today

The drama started on Nov. 29 after an 8-5 victory over the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada. 

Team President Robert Irving and Torchetti met after that game. From that point on things started to unravel.

In a story published on-line Dec. 1, Neil Hodge of the Times & Transcript reported that Torchetti’s locker was cleared out early the previous morning.

That tidbit was removed before the story appeared in print.

Torchetti failed to make the trip to Cape Breton for the game versus the Eagles on Dec. 1. Late that evening, the Wildcats released a statement saying Torchetti was granted a leave of absence for personal reasons.

Torchetti returned to the team for practice on Dec. 3 and it appeared things were back to normal. Torchetti was not on the bus.

Within the hour, the Wildcats released yet another terse statement regarding Torchetti’s absence from the road trip. Once again, the Wildcats said he was away due to personal reasons. 

The Moncton Wildcats were on a championship trajectory under Torchetti’s guidance.

Torchetti arrived in Moncton on January 15th 2019.