The guy they call “Snack” is back behind the bench in the Western Hockey League.
The Wenatchee Wild announced Thursday that they have hired former Prince George resident Don Nachbaur as head coach, replacing Roy Sommer.
Nachbaur, 65, has been a WHL head coach for 19 years. He won the league’s Dunc McCallum Award as coach of the year three times, with Seattle Thunderbirds (1995), Tri-City Americans (2008) and Spokane Chiefs (2011).
His 692 wins ranks third all-time in the WHL behind Don Hay (750) and Ken Hodge (743).
Nachbaur was born in Kitimat and grew up in Prince George, where he played his minor hockey before he left to begin his junior career as a high-scoring centre with the Merritt Centennials and Billings Bighorns. The Hartford Whalers drafted him into the NHL in 1979 as their third-round, 60th overall pick.
He played 234 NHL games and had 24 goals, 71 points and 456 penalty minutes.
After a 16-year pro career that included NHL stops in Hartford, Edmonton and Philadelphia and a four-year stint in Austria, Nachbaur retired in 1994 and began his WHL coaching career that year as head coach of the Seattle Thunderbirds.
Six successful years in Seattle led to him being hired as an assistant with the Flyers' AHL affiliate. He also served six years as head coach of the Tri-City Americans and spent one year as head coach of the AHL Binghampton Senators before returning to the WHL to take over the Chiefs' bench in 2010.
“When speaking to some WHL general managers, you hear a lot of the same things being said about Don Nachbaur,” said Wild general manager Bliss Littler, on whl.ca. “He is the best, or one of the best, head coaches they have ever worked with.
“Besides being a tireless teacher, Don prides himself on helping to make the player a better person and a better hockey player who is ready for the next level when his WHL career is over. With Don, you get a head coach who understands that everything matters when you’re a WHL head coach – that includes practice, to the strength coaching and off-ice workouts, to the education advisor making sure the players are working hard in the classroom, to working with the housing coordinator and billets to make sure the players are being looked after.
“Don is a head coach who will hold the players and staff accountable to being the best version of themselves every day.”
He coached the Chiefs for seven seasons before he went to Europe to coach in Slovakia and Switzerland. Nachbaur was then hired as an NHL assistant with the Los Angeles Kings in 2017 and was with the Kings for 1 ½ seasons. He then joined the Calgary Flames in 2021 as an AHL assistant with the Stockton Heat (2021-22) and Calgary Wranglers (2022-24).
The Wild is heading into its second season in the WHL, having moved to Washington state last summer from Winnipeg. The team finished fourth in the Western Conference with a 30-34-4-0 record and lost a six-game first-round playoff series to Kelowna.
“I am very excited to be a member of the Wenatchee community and looking forward to working with Bliss, the players, and staff,” said Nachbaur.
“Our fans will be proud of the commitment we make toward being a hardworking, competitive and entertaining team.”
