Hershey Bears head coach and five-time Calder Cup champion Todd Nelson has joined the Pittsburgh Penguins as an assistant coach, the team announced Friday.
Nelson has been head coach of the Bears since the 2022-23 season, leading the team to back-to-back Calder Cups in 2023 and 2024 and winning the 2024 Louis A.R. Pieri Award as AHL Coach of the Year.
In his three seasons with Hershey Nelson had a regular season record of 141-53-12-10 and a Calder Cup Playoff record of 31-15. The Bears' 2023-24 season set an AHL record for most wins in a 72-game season and had one of the three best winnings percentages in league history (.771).
The 56-year-old also won the 2008 Calder Cup as an assistant coach with the Chicago Wolves and the 2017 Calder Cup as head coach of the Grand Rapids Griffins. He won the 1994 Calder Cup as a player with the Griffins.
His AHL head coaching career includes time with the Griffins from 2015-2018 and the Oklahoma City Barons from 2010-2015.
A native of Prince Albert, Sask., Nelson served as interim head coach of the Edmonton Oilers in 2014-15, an assistant with the Atlanta Thrashers from 2008-2010, and an assistant with the Dallas Stars from 2018-22.
He ranks fifth all-time on the AHL regular season coaching wins list (450) and third on the Calder Cup Playoff wins list (73).
Nelson's winning experience as a coach goes back to his time in the UHL where he won the 2004 and 205 Colonial Cup Trophy with the Muskegon Fury.
In his playing career Nelson was selected by the Penguins in the fourth round of the 1989 draft. He recorded one goal in three career NHL games and 168 points in 302 career AHL games.
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