On January 30, 2009, Nightingale signed an AHL contract with the
Hartford Wolf Pack. He was re-signed by Hartford on August 23, 2010. After five seasons with the affiliates of the
New York Rangers organization, Nightingale was signed to an AHL contract with the
Syracuse Crunch on July 5, 2012. On July 22, 2013, Nightingale continued his journeyman career by signing a one-year contract with the Rockford IceHogs, an AHL affiliate of the
Chicago Blackhawks. On February 5, 2015, the
Grand Rapids Griffins signed Nightingale to a
professional try out. Nightingale recorded one assist in six games with the Hartford Wolf Pack, and one assist in 20 games with the
Norfolk Admirals. Most recently he spent 13 games with the
Toledo Walleye of the
ECHL, where he recorded three points. On February 9, 2015, Nightingale was released from his professional try out, and returned to the Norfolk Admirals. On August 26, 2015, the Toledo Walleye re-signed Nightingale to a one-year contract. Following the conclusion of the
2016–17 season with the
Chicago Wolves, and having appeared in 472 regular season AHL games, Nightingale announced his retirement from professional hockey on August 31, 2017. In the
2017–18 season, Nightingale briefly came out of retirement, playing a solitary game with the
Quad City Mallards of the ECHL on January 21, 2018, before returning to his assistant coaching role with the
Omaha Lancers of the
United States Hockey League. == Coaching career ==