New York Islanders get new head coach

It's been almost a decade since Ted Nolan sat behind the bench of a National Hockey League (NHL) team but that's just where he'll be next season.

On June 8, New York Islanders owner Charles Wang announced Nolan was the team's new head coach.

Nolan, who hails from Garden River First Nation, has had a long and storied hockey career, both as a player and a coach. He played in the Ontario Hockey Association and American Hockey League and spent three seasons in the NHL in the early 1980s as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings.

In 1988 he joined the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds as head coach and stayed until the end of the 1994 season, leading the team to three consecutive Memorial Cup tournaments and helping them win the cup in 1993. He spent one season as assistant coach with the Hartford Whalers before joining the Buffalo Sabres as head coach. In 1997, the Sabres took the northeast division title and Nolan was named NHL coach of the year. Nolan spent this past season as head coach and director of hockey operations for the Moncton Wildcats of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League where he led the team to its first-ever league championship.