Seattle, Wash. – Wenatchee Wild head coach Don Nachbaur is about to shatter a WHL record that has stood for more than three decades.
Standing behind the bench Tuesday, November 11, as his Wenatchee Wild faced the Seattle Thunderbirds at accesso ShoWare Center, Nachbaur became the coach of record for the 1,411th time in his WHL coaching career, moving into a tie for first all-time with longtime Edmonton Oil Kings and Portland Winterhawks head coach Ken Hodge.
Hodge had stood alone atop the leaderboard for most games coached in WHL history since his last campaign behind the Winterhawks bench in 1992-93.
Nachbaur, a 66-year-old product of Kitimat, B.C., will move into sole possession of the WHL’s all-time games coached record Friday, November 14, when his Wenatchee Wild visit the Portland Winterhawks. On Saturday, November 15, back in Wenatchee his accomplishment will be celebrated as the Wild welcome the Prince Albert Raiders to Town Toyota Center.
A three-time winner of the Dunc McCallum Memorial Trophy for WHL Coach of the Year (1995, 2008, 2011), Nachbaur’s ties to the WHL run deep. His WHL journey began in 1977-78 as a centre for the Billings Bighorns. Nachbaur played two seasons in the WHL, appearing in 137 regular season games and registering 146 points (67G-79A). He went on to be selected by the Hartford Whalers in the third round (60th overall) of the 1979 NHL Draft and enjoyed a 15-season professional playing career, including 223 NHL games and 469 AHL games, followed by four seasons in Austria to conclude his playing days.
Retiring after the 1993-94 season, Nachbaur immediately stepped behind the bench, joining the Seattle Thunderbirds as head coach in 1994-95. He guided the T-Birds to a record of 42-28-2 in his first season and was named WHL Coach of the Year, setting a standard of success that has since defined his coaching career.
Now in his second season as head coach of the Wenatchee Wild, Nachbaur has spent 20 seasons as a head coach in the WHL, including six with the Thunderbirds (1994-95 to 1999-00), six with the Tri-City Americans (2003-04 to 2008-09), and seven with the Spokane Chiefs (2010-11 to 2016-17).
In 2007-08, he coached the Tri-City Americans to a Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy on the strength of a 52-16-2-2 record, resulting in Nachbaur’s second WHL Coach of the Year honour.
In 2010-11, Nachbaur’s Spokane Chiefs went 48-18-4-2, earning him his third Dunc McCallum Memorial Trophy as WHL Coach of the Year.
No matter how you cut it, Nachbaur has been a steward of the game and a journeyman in the best of ways. He spent parts of two seasons as an assistant coach with the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings, logged miles in the AHL with the Philadelphia Phantoms, Binghamton Senators, Stockton Heat and Calgary Wranglers, and even coached in Slovakia and Switzerland. He has represented Hockey Canada at the U18 level and was a member of the coaching staff at the 2013 IIHF World Junior Championship.
