Nolan honoured by Canada Sports Hall of Fame
Courtesy International Ice Hockey Federation
Garden River First Nation’s Ted Nolan will be receiving the Order of Sport from the Canada Sports Hall of Fame on October 29 in Gatineau, Quebec, where he will be inducted in the Builder category.
After a back injury ended his playing career in his late 20s, Nolan, who is Ojibwe, turned to coaching, becoming head coach of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL)’s Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds, the same team he had played for in his Major Junior career.
With the Greyhounds, he won the OHL’s championship twice, in 1990-1991 and 1991-1992. The next year, they won the Memorial Cup, their first and still only win of the trophy.
When he returned to Major Junior hockey during the 2005-2006 season, he helped the Moncton Wildcats win the then-Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) championship, before losing in the Memorial Cup finals.
Nolan’s first stint in the NHL started in 1994-1995 as an assistant coach with the Hartford Whalers, before taking on the head coaching position with the Buffalo Sabres the next year. In 1996-1997, he was awarded the Jack Adams Trophy as coach of the year.
However, due to conflicts with then-general manager John Muckler - who was fired after the end of the 1996-1997 season in a move perceived as being caused by Nolan - a one-year, low money offer was given to him to stay behind the bench in Buffalo, which he refused.
He would not be back behind an NHL bench before the 2006-2007 season with the New York Islanders, spending two years there before two unsuccessful seasons back in Buffalo from 2013-2015.
Internationally, while never coaching for Team Canada, he was the head coach of the Latvian National Team in the 2014 Olympic Games, leading the team to a quarterfinal appearance.
Nolan chronicled the difficulties he faced in his youth and in hockey in the book Life in Two Worlds: A Coach’s Journey from the Reserve to the NHL and Back published in 2023.
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Nolan founded the Ted Nolan Foundation in 2004, which gives the Rose Nolan Memorial Scholarship, named in honour of Ted’s late mother.
