The Wheeling Nailers have named Mark French the 19th head coach in team history and director of hockey operations, the Nailers governor Don Rigby announced on Monday.
French replaces Mike Bavis, who was head coach for the last two seasons and did not have his contract renewed this offseason.
French was most recently head coach of HC Fribourg-Gottéron in Switzerland from 2017 until October 2019. His notable previous stops include three years as head coach of the Calgary Hitmen in the WHL, one year as head coach of Medvescak Zagreb in the KHL, and five and a half seasons as with the Hershey Bears in the AHL.
French was a two-time Calder Cup champion with the Bears, first as an assistant coach in 2008-09, and again as head coach in 2009-10. In French's first season as head coach in Hershey, the Bears set an AHL record for most wins in a single season, posting a record of 60-17-3. The Bears qualified for the playoffs in each of French's four seasons as head coach.
French's winning percentage with Hershey ranks third in AHL history among coaches who have coached at least 300 games.
As head coach, French played a role in developing future NHL players John Carlson, Cody Eakin, Dmitri Orlov, Mathieu Perreault, Braden Holtby and Michal Neuvirth in Hershey, and Travis Sanheim and Jake Virtanen in Calgary, among others.
"It's an exciting day for the Pittsburgh Penguins, for our larger organization," Penguins assistant general manager Jason Karmanos said in Monday's press conference. "We're really excited to have Mark on board as our head coach in Wheeling. His track record to date includes a lot of success at higher levels, success all over the world coaching hockey. We're really fortunate, we feel, that someone with Mark's credentials applied for this job."
Nailers governor Rigby praised French's record with both winning and player development, and said that he believes French will help the Nailers return to the Kelly Cup playoffs for the first time since 2016.
"Mark's had tremendous success as head coach throughout his career, putting NHL teams on the ice and developing NHL talent." Nailers governor Rigby said. "Successfully coaching in the AHL, CHL and WHL in North America, as well as the NLA in Switzerland and the KHL. I believe Mark will be instrumental in leading our team back to the playoffs -- not to put too much pressure on him -- while working to get our players ready for the next level."
Rigby told me that the organization had been speaking with French for "a substantial number of weeks," and that the interview process this time was slightly impacted by the coronavirus. The team wasn't able to bring in any candidates for in-person visits or interviews, and conducted interviews over Zoom.
"The coronavirus had an impact on us, but once we chatted with Mark we really felt in the entire organization here and in Pittsburgh and Wilkes that he was the right fit for us," Rigby said.
French spoke about the kind of style he expects his teams to play. The system and structure will in part be determined by Pittsburgh, but French stressed competitiveness and speed as being core values for teams he coaches.
"For me, the most important thing is establishing an identity for a team," French said. "I've tried to do that everywhere I've coached, having a clear identity so the players and fans have an understanding of how that team is going to perform on any given night. For me, competitiveness and speed are two things that have always been important to me as the coach. I think that's very representative of the current Pittsburgh Penguins and some of their philosophies."
Rigby said that the hope is still that the 2020-21 ECHL season will be able to start on time in October, but that a lot of uncertainties still remain.
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