Former Sabres coach Ted Nolan to receive Canada’s Order of Sport award

Ted Nolan’s work in hockey and with Canada’s Indigenous communities is being recognized by Canada’s highest honor in sports.

The former Buffalo Sabres coach will receive the Order of Sport award Oct. 29 in Gatineau, Quebec. He is being honored both for his success as a coach in hockey, and for the philanthropic work he does with Indigenous communities through hockey in Canada.

Nolan, 67, is of Ojibwe descent and is from the Garden River First Nation, just east of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. Nolan coached the Sabres from 1995 to 1997 and was named the Jack Adams Award winner as the NHL’s top coach in 1997. He coached the Sabres in a second stint from 2013 to 2015.

He chronicles his playing and coaching careers in “Life In Two Worlds: A Coach’s Journey from the Reserve to the NHL and Back.”

The 2023 book narrates Nolan’s path in hockey as a player, as a coach and as a member of Canada’s Indigenous community. In the book, Nolan also writes about being shut out of NHL coaching for nearly nine years as well as the racism he faced in the sport.

“I never dreamed about playing in the National Hockey League,” Nolan told the CBC earlier this month. “I dreamed about playing hockey. I loved the game and I’ve worked extremely hard at it. Growing up on a reserve, there wasn’t much to do, except pow-wow dancing and baseball and hockey. I just took a real liking to hockey and I got better and better at it.”

Nolan played in the Central Hockey League, American Hockey League and NHL between 1978 and 1986, and scored six goals with 16 assists in 78 NHL games with the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins.

He retired due to a back injury, and that opened the door to his career in coaching. He worked with the Lake Superior State hockey team as he was pursuing his college degree, then coached with the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League from 1988 to 1994.

Nolan led the Greyhounds to the Memorial Cup championship in 1993 and carved his identity as a coach who could relate to his players.

He was an assistant coach with the Hartford Whalers in 1994-95, then became the Sabres head coach prior to the 1995-96 season. Nolan also coached the New York Islanders from 2006 to 2008 after coaching Moncton of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League in 2005-06. He was also behind the bench for Latvia in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and he coached the Polish national team in 2017.

He established the Ted Nolan Foundation and the 3Nolans First Nation Hockey School, which Nolan started with sons Brandon and Jordan. Both assist First Nation children and communities across Canada. Nolan also is a cancer survivor after he was diagnosed with and treated for multiple myeloma in 2022.

Nolan is part of a seven-person class that will receive the Order of Sport award and will be inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame. Nolan joins Canadian women’s soccer star Christine Sinclair; men’s softball pitcher Darren Zack; Olympic alpine skier Erik Guay; Olympic curler Kevin Martin; Martha Billes, the controlling shareholder of Canadian Tire Corp. and co-founder of Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities; and Michelle Stillwell, a Paralympic champion in basketball and wheelchair racing.