Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Trottier, Irbe highlight Ted Nolan’s Sabres coaching staff

Ted Nolan, Darcy Burchell

FILE - In this Jan. 2, 2014 file photo, Buffalo Sabres interim head coach Ted Nolan disagrees with referee Darcy Burchell during the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Minnesota Wild in St. Paul, Minn. Nolan will oversee the team’s rebuilding plans beyond this season after signing a three-year contract extension on Monday, March 31, 2014. The team lifted Nolan’s “interim” tag from his title by announcing the signing on its Twitter page. (AP Photo/Ann Heisenfelt, File)

AP

Buffalo Sabres coach Ted Nolan has filled out his coaching staff and it has a few familiar faces on it.

The Sabres announced they have hired Bryan Trottier, Danny Flynn, Tom Coolen as assistant coaches and Arturs Irbe as the goalie coach. As you might expect, Nolan is excited about the group he’s put together.

“I’m very happy with the group of talented hockey minds we were able to assemble for our coaching staff,” Nolan said. “Each one of these coaches brings an extensive and different background from the hockey world and I’m confident they will help get our team to where it needs to go this season.”

Trottier we’d heard rumors about him being brought on board from before. Same goes for Flynn, as Bill Hoppe at Buffalo Hockey Beat shared, who once worked with Nolan in junior hockey with the Soo Greyhounds and Moncton Wildcats.

Coolen was a part of Nolan’s staff with Team Latvia and was also a former head coach in Moncton, as Willy Pavlov at The Chronicle Herald shared.

Irbe should be familiar to NHL fans. He spent 13 seasons in the NHL most famously with the San Jose Sharks and Carolina Hurricanes. He led the Hurricanes to the Stanley Cup Final in 2002 before losing to the Detroit Red Wings. He was also the Washington Capitals’ goalie coach from 2009-2011 where he worked with current Sabres goalie Michal Neuvirth.

Follow @JoeYerdonPHT