The Wheeling Nailers hockey team made two major announcements on Monday, naming a new head coach and affirming the franchise has struck a deal to maintain an affiliation with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Clark Donatelli, who has been serving as interim head coach, has been named the Nailers' head coach for the 2012-13 season.


At a news conference Monday morning at the Health Plan Pavilion, team president Tim Roberts said 44-year-old Donatelli would officially become the team's head coach on July 1. Team officials said that Donatelli is a man capable of having a winning team while also preparing his players for the AHL and NHL.


With regard to the Penguins affiliation, which is a year-to-year deal, the partnership is a big accomplishment for the front office staff and was never a lock, Roberts said.

"I knew they were shopping us. I knew they went to three or four teams. It's a small world out there, so we had to compete to get this done to keep the Penguins here," he said.


The Nailers were also affiliated the NHL's Montreal Canadians last season as well. Roberts said the status of their relationship is still in the discussion phase.


Donatelli served the better part of last season as the team's interim head coach and led the Nailers to the team's second straight postseason appearance. Roberts also said the Penguins affiliation had a lot of influence in deciding upon a permanent head coach.

"They wanted a coach coaching their players that they were very comfortable with. And that affiliation … when you're sending down eight or 10 guys a year, I understand their perspective on that. That they want their guy getting their guys ready to go to the American League," Roberts said.

And that's something Donatelli said he's ready to do.


"We're here to help whoever wants to get into the next level. In doing that, we got to win a lot of hockey games, because you have a lot of different players. You do it playing well, then you lose them, then you have to go get other guys, then you re-do that all over again. It's a constant battle of producing players, putting them at the next level and still winning all at the same time," Donatelli said.


Now that he's had "interim" lifted from his title, Donatelli said he's ready to set some roots in Wheeling.


"I've got a 10-year-old (who's) going to be moving out here, so hopefully he'll be playing hockey here in town. So I'm really looking forward to it. Having the family out here will be great," Donatelli said.


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