The Washington Capitals announced last Monday that they would be promoting Scott Allen from the AHL head coaching position in Hershey to Peter Laviolette’s NHL staff. That left the Bears without a bench boss.
ESPN’s Kevin Weekes reports that the affiliate’s vacancy may be filled very soon and the main candidate, Todd Nelson, has prior ties to both the Caps and Bears.
Keep an eye 👁 on ;
I’m told @Capitals @TheAHL Affiliate @TheHersheyBears are closing in on hiring former @DallasStars Asst Coach Todd Nelson as the new HC in Hershey PA. @espn @NHLNetwork @NHL #HockeyTwitter— Kevin Weekes (@KevinWeekes) July 31, 2022
Nelson played two games for the Caps during the 1993-94 season and scored the only NHL goal of his career in one of those games. He would go on to spend the rest of his career playing either in the minors or in Europe. That latter stint featured a 1995-96 season spent with Hershey where he recorded 50 points in 70 games from the blueline.
The Saskatoon native has coached for over 20 years, which includes stops in the NHL with the Atlanta Thrashers as an assistant coach (2008-10), the Edmonton Oilers as both an assistant and interim head coach (2014-15), and the Dallas Stars for the past four seasons as an assistant (2018-22). In the AHL, he has been an assistant with the Chicago Wolves (2006-08), head coach of the Oklahoma City Barons (2010-15), and head coach of the Grand Rapids Griffins (2015-18) where he won a Calder Cup in 2017.
He left Dallas in mid-May when then Stars head coach Rick Bowness announced he was stepping away from his position.
Headline photo via @zackfisch/Twitter
