The Wild will have close to a new coaching staff at the AHL level next season as they announced that the contracts of head coach Tim Army and assistants Nate DiCasmirro and Nolan Yonkman will not be renewed for next season.
Iowa had a 34-27-11 record this season but they were quickly eliminated in the opening round of the playoffs, dropping their best-of-three series against Rockford (Chicago) in two straight games. Top prospects Marco Rossi (51 points in 53 games) and Jesper Wallstedt (.908 SV% in 38 contests) both had good seasons but their improvement evidently wasn’t enough to keep the coaching staff intact.
Army has led Iowa for the past five seasons but they haven’t had a lot of postseason success in that stretch, winning just one series back in 2019. The 59-year-old also has some NHL coaching experience having spent six years as an assistant with Colorado which could help get him some interest elsewhere this summer.
As for DiCasmirro, he was in his second season as an assistant with the team, his first full-time coaching role after a long playing career that ended in 2019. He also served as an assistant for Austria at the most recent World Juniors. Yonkman, meanwhile, was also in his second season with the team in what was his first full-time coaching role since returning in 2019.
This will be GM Bill Guerin’s first opportunity to hire an AHL head coach as Army had completed his first season before Guerin took over running Minnesota in 2019. The only coach believed to be returning is goaltending coach Richard Bachman. Iowa joins Grand Rapids (Detroit), Henderson (Vegas), and San Diego (Anaheim) as teams looking for a new head coach at the AHL level.
Michael Russo of The Athletic was the first to report that the coaching changes were being made.
“Oh yeah? You and what Army?”
It’s a Wildfire!
Soccer and anything else is more popular in Des Moines.
It’s the closest thing Iowa has to a sports team of any kind but then again this is Iowa we are talking about, not like anyone cares anyway.
There isn’t anything there anyway.
@I wander I guess you don’t like to eat. Where do you think you get your food from? The Frozen Food Fairy?
Hey we are equal sports team rivals and haters here in Minnesota lol! We love to give it to Wisconsin to but love us some cheese curds lol!
I’m from the quad cities originally and live 40 minutes north of lime springs and decora Iowa now so trust me I know all about Made Rite’s(my parents knew the people who created them)
And quaker oats in cedar rapids and Tyson foods oh and fareway(awesome broasted chicken)
farming and dirt track racing are the only 2 things that state cares about lol