TAKING NOTE EXCLUSIVE!

Don Nachbaur is on the move.
Nachbaur, the head coach of the Tri-City Americans for the last six seasons, is to be introduced today (Friday) as head coach of the Binghamton Senators, the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators.
A source familiar with the situation said that Nachbaur, 50, was in Ottawa on Thursday and got the deal done there. The source requested anonymity because the official announcement hadn’t yet been made.
Last season, Binghamton had two head coaches, both of them products of the WHL. When the season began, Cory Clouston, a former head coach of the Kootenay Ice, was Binghamton’s head coach. When Ottawa fired head coach Craig Hartsburg, Clouston was promoted to the NHL club. At the same time, Curtis Hunt, an assistant coach on Hartsburg’s staff, was reassigned as the head coach in Binghamton. Hunt left that job earlier this summer to return as head coach of the WHL’s Regina Pats. (To further the WHL connection . . . Hartsburg now is head coach of the Everett Silvertips.)
A native of Kitimat, Nachbaur almost left the Americans last summer to coach the Kamloops Blazers, who ultimately signed Barry Smith, a former assistant coach with the Vancouver Canucks.
On Nov. 26, the Americans gave Nachbaur a one-year contract extension through 2009-10.
Nachbaur, who also has been head coach of the Seattle Thunderbirds, is the seventh-winningest coach in WHL history. His 432 victories were second among active coaches, behind only Don Hay of the Vancouver Giants, who has 445 victories.
The Americans have won 148 games – and the last two U.S. Division regular-season pennants – over the last three seasons.