Ted and Brandon Nolan sign on to Ontario’s NAHC squads

Members of the two Ontario squads for this year’s National Aboriginal Hockey Championships (NAHC) have plenty of reasons to be excited.
For starters, officials from both clubs believe they have assembled rosters that will challenge for top spot in their respective categories at the national tournament.

Caption: Ontario’s silver medal girls’ team is seeking gold with top-shelf roster and coaching staff for this year’s National Aboriginal Hockey Championships in Mississauga.
 
Photo: Marcia Trudeau

This year’s NAHC will run from May 2 to May 7 in Mississauga, Ont.
And Ontario team officials are ecstatic with a pair of individuals they managed to convince to help out with some coaching.

Ted Nolan, a former National Hockey League player and coach, will serve as an assistant coach with the Ontario female team.

And Nolan’s son Brandon, who played five seasons of pro hockey including a brief stint with the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, will be an assistant coach for the Ontario male squad.

Gloria Hendrick-Laliberte had first approached the elder Nolan about helping to coach the Ontario girls’ team for the 2015 NAHC, which was held in Halifax.

“We had talked about it last year, but he was still working (with the Buffalo Sabres),” Hendrick-Laliberte said.

Nolan though had expressed an interest in working with the program in the future if his schedule allowed it. He was available for this year’s NAHC since the Sabres relieved him of his head coaching duties last April.

Nolan will be assisting Karen Bell. Both live on the Garden River First Nation, near Sault Ste. Marie.

“I just got Karen to go over and knock on his door and ask him,” Hendrick-Laliberte said of how the club was able to land Nolan’s coaching assistance this year.

Hendrick-Laliberte believes having Nolan, who won the Jack Adams Trophy as the NHL’s Coach of the Year for his work with the Sabres during the 1996-97 season, will be a huge asset.

“I think it will give the girls a lot of confidence,” she said. “It will help them and it will help out our coaching staff.”

Marian Jacko of the Wikwemikong First Nation on Manitoulin Island will also serve as an assistant coach for the club.

The Ontario girls’ squad returned with silver medals from the last two national tournaments.

This year’s team features 10 returnees. No doubt the club will be looking to capture the gold medal this time around.

“It would be great if we could do that,” Hendrick-Laliberte said. “I think we have the team to do it. We have an older team this year. They are more experienced. And they are all rep players and they all get good coaching.”

Saskatchewan won both the girls’ and boys’ titles a year ago and will be looking to defend their crowns.

Once again other provincial entries in both categories will be teams from Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and the Quebec-based sides dubbed Eastern Door and the North.

Also participating in both divisions will be Team North, comprised of players from the country’s three territories, and Team Atlantic, featuring players from Canada’s four eastern-most provinces.

As for the Ontario male team, it will feature seven returnees on its roster. The squad placed fifth in each of the past two NAHC and will be eyeing a medal, preferably gold, this time around.

“I’m excited to get this group together to see what we can do,” said Wes Marsden, the team’s general manager.

The club’s roster includes 10 players who toiled for various Junior A franchises during the 2015-16 campaign. Ontario’s lineup also has three others who were playing at the Junior C level this season and one Junior B player.

Regional scouts helped to identify the players named to the roster. But because of the vastness of the province, Ontario team officials were not able to stage a tryout camp.

“Ontario is so big,” Marsden said. “It’s not like Nova Scotia where they can bring guys into Halifax for a weekend tryout.”

Marsden though is pumped about the fact Brandon Nolan will be on the team’s coaching staff.

“We’re more excited about what he can bring off the ice as well,” he said. “Sure he was a professional player who made it to the NHL so he’ll be able to help us with our powerplay and penalty killing. But he’s also going to be a good voice to talk to about life after hockey. That will not only be for our team but for also any other team that wants to take advantage of this.”

Chandon Hill of Six Nations will be the head coach of the Ontario boys’ club while Denis Commanda of the Nipissing First Nation will also be an assistant coach.