North Bay’s Karl Taylor had a memorable season with the Texas Stars, who fell in the seventh game of the Calder Cup final to the Toronto Marlies in the American Hockey League’s championship series.
Today, the Nashville Predators rewarded Taylor with an opportunity as the NHL team named Karl Tayler as the new head coach of the Milwaukee Admirals, Nashville's American Hockey League affiliate.
"Karl comes highly recommended to us with a diverse skillset to coach and develop players, and we are happy to promote him to a position where he will take care of our top prospects," Poile said in a release.
"We always say the road to Nashville runs through Milwaukee, and are confident that Karl will continue that legacy.”
Back in early June, Taylor told BayToday.ca’s Ken Pagan that he was hopeful of another head coaching opportunity somewhere down the line.
See related: Calder Cup would be a nice reward for North Bay’s Taylor
“Obviously, anytime you play deep into a season, opportunities can come up for different people,” Taylor said.
“For me, I’m interested in getting back into a head coaching position and hopefully something comes up in the near future, whether it’s in this league or maybe back to the Canadian Hockey League to follow that path, we’ll see. You try not to think about that at this time because we’re trying to keep things dialed into what we’re doing,” added Taylor during an interview prior to Game three of the best-of-seven Calder Cup final.
Prior to joining Texas, Taylor spent one season as an assistant coach for the Western Hockey League's Portland Winterhawks in 2013-14, where they finished second in the WHL's regular-season standings with 113 points (54-13-5 record). Taylor helped guide the Winterhawks to the WHL Finals as the 2014 WHL Western Conference Champions, where they fell to the Edmonton Oil Kings in seven games.
Before jumping to the WHL, Taylor served as an assistant coach with the AHL's Chicago Wolves in 2011-12 and was a head coach in the ECHL for six seasons from 2005-11. He was at the helm of the Reading Royals from 2005-08, making the playoffs in two of his three campaigns, amassing a 112-82-22 record in the process. Taylor then became the first head coach of the ECHL's Ontario Reign from 2008-11, leading them to the playoffs in their inaugural season. He finished second in the John Brophy Award voting for ECHL coach of the year in 2008-09.
Taylor played three seasons in the Ontario Hockey League with the Windsor Spitfires, London Knights and North Bay Centennials, tallying 35 points (16g-19a) in 137 games from 1988-91.
Following his junior career, he played for the University of New Brunswick from 1991-95, serving as an alternate captain in his final three seasons. Taylor also spent time as a head coach at Red Deer College in Alberta and the University of Waterloo before landing his first professional coaching job.
