Milwaukee Admirals add former star, NHL player Matt Donovan to coaching staff

Matt Donovan in 2019.Photo byChina Wong/AHL/Flickr

The National Hockey League's Nashville Predators have announced the addition of Matt Donovan to the coaching staff of the team's American Hockey League affiliate, the Milwaukee Admirals. Donovan was previously a player in the Predators organization, briefly appearing in the NHL with the club, but for the bulk of that time was himself a member of the Admirals.

Donovan joins fellow ex-NHL player Greg Rallo as an assistant coach with the Admirals. The staff is led by head coach Karl Taylor.

During his youth, Donovan played junior hockey with the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders of the United States Hockey League, with whom he was named an All-Star in 2009. Donavan had been selected in the 2008 NHL Draft by the New York Islanders for the future. He also helped the United States boys' junior team win the World Junior A Challenge that year, followed by the World Junior Championship two years later.

At the collegiate level, Donovan played with the University of Denver. In 2011, he was listed as an All-Star for the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. Eventually, Donovan began his professional career with the Islanders' AHL affiliate, then known as the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.

Over the next few years, he bounced back and forth between the AHL and NHL, helping the Sound Tigers win a Northeast Division title in 2012 and earning a 2013 All-Star nod along the way. After a brief stint with the Rochester Americans, the AHL affiliate of the Buffalo Sabres, Donovan joined Frolunda HC of the Swedish Hockey League. With that organization, he won the 2017 Champions Hockey League tournament.

For the rest of his playing career, Matt Donovan primarily took to the ice with the Milwaukee Admirals. He notched a second All-Star selection in 2019 and was a member of the Admirals team that won the 2020 Reguar Season AHL Championship in a year where no playoffs were held.

Donovan returned to Sweden for a short stay with HV71. He also played in Germany with Adler Mannheim of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga before making one last stop in the AHL with the Carolina Hurricanes' partner, the Chicago Wolves.