Report: Former Jack Adams winning coach will lead Polish national team

The veteran NHL bench boss is looking to turn the team into a top division contender.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 6 years ago
Report: Former Jack Adams winning coach will lead Polish national team
Keystone Press

The Polish Ice Hockey Federation has announced that it has hired Canadian coach Ted Nolan as its head coach. Nolan is a former Jack Adams Award winner as the NHL’s top coach from his time with the Buffalo Sabres and has also spent time behind the bench for the New York Islanders.


Nolan also spent four years as head coach for the Latvian national team where he led the team to its biggest success in team history. Hockey fans may remember the Nolan-led Latvians defeating Switzerland to advance to the quarter-finals of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. There, they came within a hair of eliminating team Canada, which would have undoubtedly been the biggest upset in international hockey history.

Nolan was in Warsaw for the announcement and admitted that the job will be no easy task, but that it’s a challenge he’s looking forward to. “I love challenges. I’ve always been an underdog my whole life. When this opportunity came and seeing where Polish hockey has been for a while, hopefully I can make a difference and rise up to a higher level. I’m really looking forward. It’s probably my biggest challenge to date and my biggest excitement to date.”

The objective for Nolan and his new team will be to ascend from the IIHF’s Division 1 Group A to the top rungs of international hockey. Their first challenge will be the 2018 IIHF World Championships in Budapest next spring. 

Source: IIHF