Milwaukee Admirals' Karl Taylor named AHL coach of the year

MILWAUKEE — The American Hockey League announced today that Admirals Head Coach Karl Taylor is the winner of the Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award as the AHL’s Outstanding Coach for the 2019-20 season.

The award is voted on by fellow coaches and members of the media in each of the league’s 31 cities.

Under Taylor’s guidance, the Admirals finished with their best record in 19 seasons of play in the AHL, going 41-14-5-3 (90 points, .714%) and capturing the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy as regular-season champions. Milwaukee allowed a league-low 2.24 goals per game and ranked seventh in scoring (3.35) – the third-highest goals-per-game differential (+1.11) in the AHL in the last decade – and established a team record with a 13-game winning streak from Nov. 2 to Dec. 1. Milwaukee’s special teams were outstanding in this season as well, ranking second in the league on the power play (25.2 %) and sixth in penalty killing (85.5 %).

Taylor, who coached the Central Division team at the 2020 AHL All-Star Classic, sent nine of his Admirals players to the NHL to compete with the Nashville Predators this season, and has overseen the development of Predators prospects such as Yakov Trenin, Alexandre Carrier, Eeli Tolvanen, Tommy Novak, Rem Pitlick, Jeremy Davies and Second Team AHL All-Star goaltender Connor Ingram.

A 49-year-old native of North Bay, Ont., Taylor is the 21st head coach in Admirals history and joined the club following four seasons as an assistant with the Texas Stars, where his teams reached the Calder Cup Playoffs three times and made a trip to the Finals in 2018. He also served as an assistant with the Chicago Wolves in 2011-12, and was a head coach in the ECHL with Reading (2005-08) and Ontario (2008-11).

He joins fellow North Bay, ON native Claude Noel (2003-04) as the only other winner of this award since the Admirals joined the AHL in 2001.