It has now been just over a week since Todd Nelson officially left the Hershey Bears to join the Pittsburgh Penguins coaching staff under new Head Coach Dan Muse. Nelson will run the Penguins power play unit and will certainly have a hand in helping bring some of Pittsburgh’s talent young prospects to an NHL level.

In a goodbye press conference to the media, Nelson talked about how much he enjoyed his time in Hershey and how his three years with the team helped put him back on the map after a tough end to his stint as an assistant in Dallas. He even compared the energy in Hershey to the small Texas town in the movie “Friday Night Lights” where everyone knows how the team is doing and how much he appreciated that.

As I sat on my thoughts about what to write here about Coach Nelson, consistently only two words came to mind. Thank You.

Thank You Coach for helping lead the Bears to one of the best three year runs in their history- compiling a 141-53-22 record in your three seasons here.

Thank You for helping reenergize a fanbase still returning from COVID era regulations and bringing Bears attendance back to the top of the AHL.

Thank You for helping develop some of the Caps brightest young stars in Connor McMichael and Aliaksei Protas and helping get Ethen Frank and Dylan McIlrath back to the NHL.

Thank You for always taking questions after games, whether win or lose, even if I or Luke or Josh were the only guy in the media room post game.

And most importantly, thank you for two more Calder Cups and helping provide some of my best sports memories over the last couple of years.

Best of luck Coach- we’ll miss you, but the door is always open to come back to say hi.