Don Nachbaur

Don Nachbaur
Born	(1959-01-30) January 30, 1959 Kitimat, BC, CAN
Height	6 ft 0 in (183 cm)
Weight	200 lb (91 kg; 14 st 4 lb)
Position	Centre
Shot	Left
Played for	Hartford Whalers Edmonton Oilers Philadelphia Flyers
NHL draft	60th overall, 1979 Hartford Whalers
Playing career	1979–1994

Donald Kenneth Nachbaur (born January 30, 1959 in Kitimat, British Columbia and raised in Prince George, British Columbia) is a retired professional ice hockey player. Nachbaur is currently the head coach of the Spokane Chiefs of the Western Hockey League.

Playing career

Nachbaur played in the NHL with the Hartford Whalers, Edmonton Oilers, and Philadelphia Flyers, Nachbaur played professional hockey for 14 years, including parts of eight seasons in the National Hockey League with the Hartford Whalers, Edmonton Oilers and Philadelphia Flyers. In 223 career NHL games, he scored 23 goals, added 46 assists and recorded 465 penalty minutes. He was Hartford’s third-round selection (60th overall) in the 1979 NHL Entry Draft.

Nachbaur played 469 games in the American Hockey League where he scored 174 goals, added 187 assists for a total of 361 points. He accumulated 1,452 penalty minutes. He won the Calder Cup with the Hershey Bears in the 1987-88 season.

Nachbaur played for EC Graz in Austria from 1990 to 1994 where in 182 games he scored 106 goals and added 103 assists for 209 points.

Nachbaur played his junior career with the Billings Bighorns of the WHL. In two seasons, where he played 162 games (Regular Season and Playoffs), he scored 87 goals, added 89 assists for 176 points and accumulated 350 minutes in penalties. Nachbaur still shares the WHL record for most goals in a playoff game where he scored 5 goals on April 20, 1978, at Vancouver, against New Westminster Bruins. Bighorns won 7-4.

Coaching career

Nachbaur is currently the head coach of the Spokane Chiefs of the Western Hockey League. Nachbaur left his post as coach of the Binghamton Senators over the summer of 2010, citing personal reasons. He was given an unprecedented 5-year contract offer to come to Spokane, which he accepted.

Nachbaur had been head coach of the Western Hockey League’s Tri-City Americans for the last six seasons, earning a .592 winning percentage with 235 wins, 155 losses, 25 overtime losses and 17 shootout defeats over the span of 432 regular-season games. His teams made the playoffs in each of his seasons behind the bench, advancing as far as the conference final in 2007-08. The Americans won the WHL’s U.S. Division regular-season title in each of his last two seasons, the first time in franchise history they accomplished the feat. Nachbaur became just the 10th Western Hockey League coach to win 400 games on November 29, 2008 when the Americans beat the Vancouver Giants 5-3.

Nachbaur has twice been named WHL coach of the year, first in 1994-95 when he led the Seattle Thunderbirds to a 42-28-2 record and again with Tri-City in 2007-08, when the club recorded a franchise record 108 regular-season points with a 52-16-2-2 record.

Before his move to bench boss for the Americans, Nachbaur served as an assistant coach from 2000-01 to 2001-02 with the American Hockey League’s Philadelphia Phantoms. The 54-year-old Nachbaur began his coaching career in 1994-95, when he was named head coach of the Seattle Thunderbirds. He won WHL coach of the year that season and remained in Seattle as their head coach for six more.

External links

Biographical information and career statistics from NHL.com, or Hockey-Reference.com, or The Internet Hockey Database