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<p>Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan once described former teammate Clark Donatelli as a &#8220;buzz saw&#8221; as a player and a &#8220;great personality&#8221; in the locker room.</p><p>Now, Donatelli will bring those elements to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins bench.</p><p>On Tuesday, the Penguins named Donatelli as the the team&#8217;s new head coach. He replaces Jay Leach, who served in an interim capacity after Sullivan - who started the season as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton&#8217;s coach - was hired by Pittsburgh on Dec. 12. Leach had a record of 3-0-0-1 and was named Wilkes-Barre/Scranton&#8217;s associate coach.</p><p>Donatelli becomes the 10th head coach in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton history after spending the last four seasons with the Wheeling Nailers. where he coached such players as former WBS Penguins fan favorite Bobby Farnham and Shavertown native Patrick McGrath and compiled a career record of 147-119-32. This season under Donatelli, the Nailers were in second place in the North Division with a record of 14-10-1-2. Donatelli, 50, is Wheeling&#8217;s all-time leader in coaching wins and is the only coach in Nailers history to take the team to consecutive playoff appearances.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m really excited to come to Wilkes-Barre to coach,&#8221; Donatelli said. &#8220;It&#8217;s a natural progression to the next step. I got the news from (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton general manager) Jason Botterill this morning.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m very happy to have this opportunity.&#8221;</p><p>He inherits a Wilkes-Barre/Scranton team that is in first place in the Atlantic Division with a 21-5-0-1 record and has the second-best win percentage (.796) in the AHL.</p><p>Donatelli doesn&#8217;t intend to change a system that&#8217;s working.</p><p>&#8220;The immediate plan is to keep things the way they are,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They&#8217;re off to a great start and I want to continue what they&#8217;re doing.&#8221;</p><p>Donatelli said he applied for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton head coach job in the summer after John Hynes departed for New Jersey and, through his time with Wheeling, is very familiar with the Pittsburgh organization and many of the players. Thirteen of the 27 players currently on the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton roster have played for Donatelli at Wheeling at some point in their careers.</p><p>&#8220;Clark Donatelli brings a wealth of head coaching experience and has been with the organization for five years,&#8221; Botterill said. &#8220;Donatelli has helped develop 11 players in Wheeling that are currently on the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton roster. Coach Donatelli and associate coach Jay Leach will make a dynamic team that will continue the path set by Mike Sullivan.&#8221;</p><p>Donatelli served one season as the Nailers&#8217; assistant coach before taking over as head coach mid-season in 2011-12. In his five years total behind the bench for Wheeling, Donatelli&#8217;s teams qualified for the Kelly Cup Playoffs four times.</p><p>After three years playing at Boston University from 1984-87, where he and Sullivan were teammates, Donatelli embarked on a seven-year pro hockey career that included 35 NHL games with Minnesota and Boston. Donatelli also spent six seasons in the IHL.</p><p>In addition to his pro hockey r&#233;sum&#233;, Donatelli had extensive experience playing for the United States. Donatelli represented the United States three times in the IIHF World Championships, captained Team USA in the 1985 World Junior Championship, and made the U.S. Olympic squad in 1988 and 1992, serving as team captain in &#8217;92.</p><p>That experience is something that Donatelli used to develop players during his time in Wheeling, and it&#8217;s a process he said begins in practice.</p><p>&#8220;Development has to do with consistency and details in the game, and it starts in practice and leads into the game,&#8221; Donatelli said. &#8220;It&#8217;s a process they&#8217;ve been doing at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for many years.&#8221;</p><p>New Jersey Devils head coach John Hynes worked closely with Donatelli during his years as Wilkes-Barre/Scranton&#8217;s bench boss. Hynes said when he sent players to Wheeling to work on their games, he had faith in Donatelli to help them improve and get back to the AHL.</p><p>&#8220;He really understands the process of how to get players better, to help them through adversity and get them playing with confidence again,&#8221; Hynes said. &#8220;He did a great job with every player we sent to him.&#8221;</p><p>After Donatelli got the news from Botterill that he was Wilkes-Barre/Scranton&#8217;s new head coach, the first person he called was his wife. The first person he reached out to in the organization was Leach.</p><p>&#8220;He&#8217;s been doing a great job and I&#8217;m going to lean on Jay,&#8221; Donatelli said. &#8220;We&#8217;re both going to learn.&#8221;</p><p>Next up for Donatelli is getting the Penguins ready for a game in Hershey on Saturday against the rival Bears.</p><p>&#8220;I got the opportunity to be behind the bench (for the Penguins) when they played Hershey in an exhibition game. It&#8217;s an intense history between the two teams and I&#8217;m excited,&#8221; he said.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">New Wilkes-Barre/Scranton head coach Clark Donatelli led Wheeling to the ECHL postseason four of the last five seasons. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/web1_Donatelli1-1.jpg</photo0><caption0>New Wilkes-Barre/Scranton head coach Clark Donatelli led Wheeling to the ECHL postseason four of the last five seasons. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><subheadMeta>Donatelli spent last four years with the Wheeling Nailers</subheadMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Tom Venesky</p><p>tvenesky@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Tom Venesky at 570-991-6395 or on Twitter @TLTomVenesky</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins hire Clark Donatelli as new head coach