The Nailers made a huge change in the offseason, as Derek Army moved on to become an assistant coach with Colorado in the AHL. In his place, Wheeling brought in Ryan Papaioannou from the Brooks Bandits. What do you think of this hire?
It’s never fun as a fan to watch the winningest coach in franchise history move on. Coach Army really made his mark here in Wheeling, as both a player and a coach, and despite this being an exciting opportunity for him under head coach Mark Letestu (former Pittsburgh Penguin player), I guarantee you he will long be remembered by the members of Nailers Army.
After a two-month search for a new leader in conjunction with the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Nailers announced the hiring of Coach Papaioannou (pronounced pa-pah-waw-noh) in August who comes in after coaching the Brooks Bandits at the Canada Junior “A” level for the last 16 years. He was able to amass a record of 907-217-48 during his time there, good for a 0.774 win percentage, along with eight league championships between the AJHL and BCHL and four Centennial/RBC Cup Championships as the national champion of Junior “A” in Canada.
Even though it definitely hurts to lose such a great guy in Coach Army, having the opportunity to bring in someone who has experienced so much success as a head coach in Coach Papaioannou is a fantastic opportunity for the Nailers. Winning championships is the name of the game in all sports, so having someone who has managed to do it as many times as Ryan has gives you hope that he can bring that winning culture with him to Wheeling.
Not only that, but his history of developing players (most notably Cale Makar of the Colorado Avalanche, widely recognized as the best defenseman in the NHL currently) makes you wonder what he can do with the players here as well for the Pittsburgh organization. I’m excited to see what he can do with the guys here, not just this season, but in the years to come.
The Nailers were able to play one preseason game again this year, losing 3-0 to Greenville last weekend in the Diamond Anniversary Pro Classic in Johnstown. What happened in that game that Wheeling can build off of once the regular season begins?
It’s always hard to judge from one preseason game how things will flow into the regular season. The coaches use these games as a chance to see how certain players will perform in game situations, as all they’ve seen out of them to that point is how they play against one another in scrimmages. Getting the chance to test yourself against a live opponent is a completely different experience.
Neither team was able to establish much in the first period, as it wasn’t until there was just over two minutes left in the second period before the Swamp Rabbits (dressed for the evening as the Johnstown Chiefs) were able to finally break through. Greenville tallied two more in the third to come away with the victory. Jaxon Castor managed to stop all 15 shots he saw before leaving the game and ceding the net to Jake Smith, who made 16 saves on 18 shots.
I’m sure Coach Papaioannou has broken down the film from the game to see what worked and where the team can still use some additional instruction. Seeing Castor play so well to begin his third season of hockey in Wheeling is a promising development, despite the roster changes that have occurred since then (but more on that shortly). While it would have been nice to see Wheeling at least get on the board, the Nailers can now figure out how to put their offense in a better position to hopefully break through once the regular season begins.
The Nailers now begin their 72-game regular season schedule this weekend with a Saturday game in Cincinnati. What does Wheeling need to do to begin the season with a win?
There’s something a bit comforting about opening the season against a very familiar foe, a former division rival that the Nailers will get to make the acquaintance of a total of five times this season. The Cyclones come into this season after a 2024-25 season that saw them miss the playoffs, finishing sixth in the seven-team Central Division with a 29-32-11 record. Cincy made a lot of moves this offseason in the hopes of improving their roster at the expense of multiple other teams in the league. Since the beginning of September, the Cyclones have either signed or traded for eight players who were on other teams in the ECHL last season, as well as resigning three others who were already with them last year.
A team obviously can’t win or lose much more than just one game in their first game of the season, but this one feels a little more important than in the last few years. Changes to the coaching staff and the roster make this a new look Wheeling Nailers team, and setting the tone early in the season will allow fans to get a feel for what expectations should be the rest of the way. I’ll personally be interested to see how the Nailers set up and run their offense, what they do in terms of pressing the puck and forechecking, and what the special teams are able to do. As I said before, Coach Papaioannou comes in after experiencing a lot of success at his previous post. What can he do here to make this team just as successful as his last stop? This is the first step to showing that to the Wheeling faithful.
In addition to the coaching change, the Nailers made a number of moves to their roster heading into the 2025-26 season. What player(s) are you looking forward to seeing what they can do in Wheeling this season?
Cincinnati isn’t the only team to experience a lot of roster turnover this season, as Wheeling only returns eight players who suited up for the Nailers last season, three of whom were in uniform for the opener last October. Wheeling will also have ten players to begin the season who are here on NHL or AHL contracts, a significant jump from where they were just a few years ago. Having that many players who have filtered down through the organization just improves the skill level on this roster to begin the year and gives me hope that we will find a way to be even more competitive than we were last season, when we finished second in the North Division.
Of the returning players, I will be interested to see what Brent Johnson can do on defense after joining the team last year for three games after finishing his career at The Ohio State University, Logan Pietila who earned 27 points in 69 games as a rookie last season, and (of course) Matthew Quercia who is entering his fourth season in Wheeling after scoring 20 goals and amassing 188 penalty minutes last season. It will be interesting to see if any or all of these players are called upon to be leaders in the locker room and/or wear letters on their sweaters to begin the year.
When looking at the new players coming to Wheeling, I’m most intrigued by Maxim Pavlenko, a goaltender sent to us from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton who has spent the last two seasons playing in the VHL in Russia. The Nailers had a goaltender last season making his North American debut after playing in Russia, and things ended up going pretty well for him both at this level as well as in the AHL. Of the rest of the roster, I want to see what we have in Randy Hernandez, who had 20 points in 65 games as a rookie with Atlanta last season and played for Coach Papaioannou for two seasons before, and Zach Urdahl who comes in after playing four seasons in college at Wisconsin and Omaha, leading Omaha in goals with 13 in the 2023-24 season.
The North Division welcomes the newest member of the ECHL this season, as the Greensboro Gargoyles begin play as an expansion team. Do you think being in the same division as the new club is beneficial to the Nailers?
I think it’s a very good sign that the ECHL continues to grow year after year, introducing the Bloomington Bison in the Central Division last season, which is what pushed Wheeling to the North Division, as well as the Tahoe Knight Monsters to the Mountain Division. This year, the Greensboro Gargoyles join the league in the North Division, with additional expansion coming in the next two years in the form of the New Mexico Goatheads in the 2026-27 season followed by a team in Augusta, GA for the 2027-28 season.
Last year was a real mixed bag for the expansion squads, as Tahoe managed to finish third in the Mountain Division and advance a round in the Kelly Cup playoffs before bowing out to the Kansas City Mavericks. On the other hand, Bloomington finished dead last in the Central Division with a 31-35-4-2 record, so it will be interesting to see which direction Greensboro goes in this season.
The Nailers won’t have to wait very long to find out about them, as Wheeling heads to Greensboro for a three-game series November 6-8, followed by the Gargoyles first visit to the Friendly City December 5-7. These two teams will face each other a total of eight times this season (the only other series is a two-gamer in Greensboro December 19-20), so they should get quite familiar this year. If they end up going in the same way as the Bison did last year, it can be very helpful to Wheeling, assuming they perform well in those eight contests. I look forward to seeing what they are able to do on the ice in their inaugural season.
