WHEELING — The Wheeling Nailers have found their man.

The Nailers announced on Thursday morning that Ryan Papaioannou will be the 21st head coach in team history, replacing the departing Derek Army who joined the coaching staff of the AHL’s Colorado Eagles.

Papaioannou, 41, has spent the last 17 years with the Brooks Bandits in the Alberta Junior Hockey League and British Columbia Hockey League, a team that, under Papaioannou, has won eight total league championships and national Junior championships.

“Ryan Papaioannou comes to the Nailers with an amazing track record of being able to consistently produce a winning team, while developing talented players for the next level,” Nailers President and Governor Brian Komorowski said. “We are looking forward to welcoming Ryan and his family to Wheeling, as we anticipate another successful season both on the ice and in the community.”

Papaioannou is a Calgary, Alberta native, and played six seasons of professional hockey as a goalkeeper, the majority of which came in the Western Hockey League (WHL) in Canada.

“Being the head coach for the Wheeling Nailers is an opportunity that my family and I couldn’t pass up, and an opportunity to get involved with a storied team,” Papaioannou said in a press release Thursday morning. “Wheeling is a great place to raise a family, it’s an organization with a storied history, and the tie with the Pittsburgh Penguins all made this somewhere we wanted to be.”

The Nailers’ new chief is excited to immerse himself into the Wheeling area.

“I think through the process we found that Wheeling and Brooks, they seem to have a lot of similarities,” Papaioannou said during a Thursday press conference. “Throughout the 17 years there, my kids grew up in the arena and I feel like we’re looking for the same experience here. I want my kids to be around the arena. I want my wife to be part of this city.

“We certainly want to be out there meeting people, getting to know the culture of the area. And I think it’s important that we live there in Wheeling. It’s a face and a name that people see and know and, you know, the hockey is one piece, but obviously the tie to the community and having everybody feel involved is another huge piece. So we’re excited for it.”

Papaioannou and his wife Jordana have two sons, ages five and 10.

The newly-minted coach mentioned the Nailers’ association with the Pittsburgh Penguins multiple times during his press conference on Thursday, and detailed how that connection made his new job one that he couldn’t refuse.

“Just their top-down approach,” Pappaioannou said of what he liked about the Penguins’ system. “Using all three teams within the system and really explaining the importance of how they’ll use both Wilkes and Wheeling as places that are important for player development, and an actual expectation that players from Wheeling can matriculate and they can get to the NHL and that’s an expectation.

“I think that part’s exciting, to know that you have the ability to work with players and see them move on both to the American League and to the NHL. And I just think that everyone in the organization, in my dealings, they’ve been upfront, everything’s been very black and white, easy to understand and see the path that they have set forth and all the same values that we’ve had here in Brooks over the years.”

Papaioannou laid out what the Wheeling faithful can expect from his Nailer teams with him at the head.

“I want our team to be offensive,” Papaioannou said. “I want us to be an exciting brand to watch. I think there’s many different ways you can win a hockey game, but I know the style of play that players like, I know what fans like to see. We want to be, you know, high-skilled and offensive. We want to be fast. I think all of that is with respect to being a hard team to play against, and understanding the history of the team in the area.

“I want our intangibles to be really good, and overall, it’s just being able to connect to the players one-on-one. You have to be able to prove to them that you’re there for their individual development. And I think once you do that, you can get a pretty quick and easy buy-in to the team and the team’s success and all the things that have to happen for that to take place. So hopefully we’ll see exciting offensive hockey and a team that can put wins together.”

The Nailers went 43-25 last season, and fell to the Norfolk Admirals in the Kelly Cup Playoffs. In a developmental league where players and coaches alike are hoping to work their way up the ladder, Papaioannou is taking things slow.

“When I first came to Brooks, I didn’t expect to be there for 17 years,” Papaioannou said. “So I’m excited about what’s right ahead of us, which is this upcoming ’25-’26 season. I’ve never really done this with long term goals in mind. I think I’ve always been day to day, month to month, year to year, and really just focus on where I am and what I’m doing.

“At this point in time, it’s getting to Wheeling, it’s learning the team, learning the league, obviously the community. I want to be focused on what we’re doing right there and now and if this leads to something different in the future or bigger, better, however you want to phrase it, I think that’s great. But to me the important piece right now is doing everything we can in Wheeling to develop players, have an exciting product and ultimately to win.”