PORTLAND, Ore. — The Portland Winterhawks have brought back Mike Johnston as coach and general manager of the Western Hockey League team.

Johnston previously held the same positions with the Winterhawks from 2008 to 2014, before taking over as head coach of the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins for 2014-15.

The Penguins went 43-27-12 and lost in the first round of playoffs that season. Pittburgh fired Johnston on Dec. 12, 2015, when the team was 15-10-3.

"You never really script where you're going to go," Johnston said Wednesday at a news conference in Portland. "The big thing for me was, in the end, I really wanted to be a head coach right now.

"That head coaching decision was the primary one. This is a great opportunity to be a head coach in a great league."

The Winterhawks fired coach and GM Jamie Kompon in April after two seasons in Portland. The Winterhawks lost the conference final in 2015 and were ousted in the first round this spring after a 34-31-6-1 regular season.

Johnston's record during his previous stint in Portland was 231-114-10-10. The Winterhawks reached the WHL championship series three times with him behind the bench.

But the league severely disciplined both Johnston and the Winterhawks in 2012-13 for offering improper benefits to players and for recruiting violations over a four-year period.

Johnston was suspended as coach and GM for that entire season, with those responsibilities transferred to Travis Green. The Winterhawks won the WHL title in 2013 and lost the Memorial Cup final to the Halifax Mooseheads.

The Winterhawks were fined $200,000. They were forced to give up draft picks in the first five rounds of the 2013 bantam draft as well as their first-round picks until 2017, although the league later reinstated their first-round pick for 2017.

"Right now, the team is in a position where we're starting to bring some young guys back into the fold and start to rebuild and re-tool and move this team up in the direction we want it to go," Johnston said.