Just a day after the Pittsburgh Penguins announced the end of their relationship with the ECHL’s Wheeling Nailers, the minor league squad has now lost it’s coach.
Friday evening, the AHL’s Abbotsford Canucks announced it had hired Ryan Papaioannu as the team’s new head coach. Papaioannou spent one season with the Nailers after being hired to that position by the Penguins, and guided the team to the ECHL’s North Division Title.
The change came as he was an employee of the Penguins and not on the payroll of Nailers. It also looked unlikely that he would be given a position on the Pens’ new ECHL affiliate, the Florida Everblades.
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