via the Calgary Flames,
The Calgary Flames announce today that they have named Geoff Ward as the franchise's 20th head coach.
Ward, a native of Waterloo, Ontario was named the Flames interim head coach on November 29, 2019, leading the Flames to a 25-15-3 record (during that period the Flames ranked eighth in the League, fourth in the Western Conference with a .616 P%) and a trip to the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Flames eliminated the Winnipeg Jets 3-1 in the in the Qualifying Round.
He first entered the NHL in 2007 as an assistant coach with the Boston Bruins and captured hockey glory in 2011 winning the Stanley Cup with the Bruins. Ward then moved on to be an assistant coach with the New Jersey Devils from 2015-2018 before signing on as an associate coach with the Flames on May 31, 2018.
Ward began his coaching career as an assistant coach at the U. of Waterloo from 1989-91. He then moved onto junior hockey, first as an assistant coach with the Niagara Falls Thunder (1991-92) of the OHL, then head coach of the Waterloo Siskins (1992-93), the Kitchener Rangers (1993-98) and Guelph Storm (1998-99). He made the jump to the AHL in 2001-02 as both an assistant coach and head coach of the Hamilton Bulldogs until 2002-03 when he moved with the Oilers AHL affiliate to Toronto in 2003-04.
To go along with his extensive resume in North America, Ward also has three coaching stints in Germany, winning the DEL Championship in 2015 with Manheim as head coach and was an assistant for the German National Team from 2015-2018.
Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.
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