Adam Nightingale, top left, discusses plays with Red Wings players Anthony Mantha, lower left, and Christorpher Ehn during a Detroit game in November 2019. (Photo courtesy Lansing State Journal)

Adam Nightingale, 42, was named the Spartans’ coach on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, and replaces Danton Cole, like Nightingale a former MSU player after Cole compiled a 58-101-12 record over five seasons.

Nightingale played for the Marquette Simmons AA Midget travel team in the 1996-97 season under coaches Mic Zorza and Mike Donnelly, according to Nightingale’s father, Ron Nightingale, of the northern Lower Peninsula community of Levering.

Adam Nightingale then played for the Marquette Electricians AAA Midget Major team the following season, 1997-98, under coach Joe Burcar.

Ron Nightingale even remembers the families his son was billeted with, Bill and Polly LaBelle in 1996-97 and Mike and Kay Donnelly in 1997-98.

Adam Nightingale

Michigan State athletic director Alan Haller made last week’s announcement about Nightingale.

“Adam has a passion for the school and the program,” Haller said in a statement accompanying the announcement. “His combination of skill development, player development and recruiting ties promises to make the next era of Spartan hockey a successful chapter in the storied history of a proud program.”

In a column in the Lansing State Journal on Friday, sportswriter Graham Couch talked to Nightingale soon after his hiring at MSU.

“On Thursday, when new Michigan State hockey coach Adam Nightingale began to think about the whirlwind that’s been his last couple weeks, his lip quivered, he teared up and stopped talking,” Couch wrote in the State Journal’s online edition.

“He was thinking about his wife, Kristin, whom he met at Michigan State two decades ago and who, by his side, has followed his vagabond-ish hockey career as a player and coach — from his first gig, making $16,000 a year, to coaching the Detroit Red Wings, to their most recent and longest family stop, living in Canton, Michigan, while Nightingale coached the U.S. National Team Development Program, and now back here, to East Lansing.

“‘My wife sent me a nice text (when I got the MSU job),’ Nightingale said during a roundtable meeting Thursday with reporters. ‘She just said, “You know, God’s timing is perfect.” And she’s right.’

“‘When you’re a coach, a lot of times it’s a selfish profession, because you’re moving, you’re moving all the time, a lot of hours. And just, you don’t get here without support.’

“Nightingale, his wife and three children — ages 14, 11 and 9, the youngest born while he was the director of operations at MSU — will move again soon. He’s hoping this time for a long while.”

“Nightingale has been MSU’s coach less than a week. He got the call Sunday in Germany — where he’d been coaching the USNTDP (U.S. National Team Development Program) Under-18 team at the World Championships. His hiring was announced Tuesday, about the time he landed after 22 hours of flying.

“Waiting for him were 750 text messages, both well-wishers and coaches hoping to be part of his staff. He quickly took his NCAA coaches’ recruiting exam, then drove to Chicago to begin recruiting for MSU.”

“Wednesday, he met with his team via Zoom — many of them had already left campus after the semester. Next Monday (today), he’ll be formally introduced.”

After his two seasons in Marquette, Nightingale is listed on the Elite Prospects website, www.eliteprospects.com, as having played 102 games for the Soo Indians of the North American Hockey League for the next two seasons. He then played for Lake Superior State for two seasons, 51 games in 2000-02, before having to taking a year off when he transferred to MSU, playing there from 2003-05 in 67 games.

He then went on to play minor league hockey for the Gwinnett Gladiators, Greenville Grrrowl and Charlotte Checkers of the ECHL from 2005-08, playing a total of 78 games.

Despite listed as a center and right wing, he was never a prolific scorer. Though he totaled 56 points, including 20 goals, in his second year in Sault Ste. Marie, he never reached 20 points in a season in college or the minors.

After playing for the three ECHL teams, Nightingale began what has become an extensive coaching career. In 2010 at MSU, he began four years there as the director of hockey operations before he was named head coach of the Shattuck St. Mary’s 14-Under AAA elite team in Minnesota for the 2014-16 seasons. During that time, he also served as video coach of the USA Under-20 team.

He then began four years of NHL coaching, with the Buffalo Sabres in 2016-17 as video coach and with the Detroit Red Wings from 2017-20, first as video coach before being promoted to assistant coach his final season.

He had several more stints with Team USA squads as a video coach while with the Sabres and Red Wings.

Nightingale then took a head coaching position with the U.S. National Under-17 team in 2020-21, also assuming the top spot with the USNTDP Juniors team and as assistant coach with Team USA.

He took over the head coaching job with the U.S. National Under-18 Team in 2021, again taking a stint as head coach of the USA Under-18 team during that season. During this latest coaching position, he lived in the Detroit suburb of Canton.

Steve Brownlee can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 252. His email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.