Geoff Ward

Geoff Ward, 2007

Geoff Ward (born April 8, 1962 in Waterloo , Ontario ) is a Canadian ice hockey coach who has been the interim head coach of the Calgary Flames since November 2019 .

Career

Ward never played professional ice hockey himself, but began his coaching career in 1989, when he was 27. At that time he started as an assistant trainer for the team at Waterloo University . He fulfilled this job until 1993, before he took over as head coach of a junior team for the Waterloo Siskins , which he was able to lead directly to the title win. The following four seasons Ward coached the OHL team of the Kitchener Rangers . In the 1998/99 season he was at Guelph Storm on the gang, then he hired a class higher in the East Coast Hockey League with the Arkansas RiverBlades , with whom he was eliminated in the play-offs .

In 2000 he came to Germany for the first time. But at EC Bad Nauheim he was released shortly before the playoffs - too late in the opinion of many Nauheim fans.

He returned to North America and has worked for the Edmonton Oilers organization ever since . First he was active as an assistant coach for the Hamilton Bulldogs in the AHL , before he was promoted to head coach during the 2002/03 season, since his predecessor Claude Julien was coach of the Montreal Canadiens . He led the Bulldogs to the final of the Calder Cup and was then honored together with Julien with the Louis AR Pieri Memorial Award for best trainer. With the Toronto Roadrunners Ward retired the following season in the qualifying round. Since the Roadrunners had to move to the vicinity of Edmonton during the lockout year, Ward also moved to Oilers Town.

In the 2005/06 season Ward was "Development Coach" of the Oilers and responsible for the draft picks that play in many leagues in North America. In the play-offs he also took on scouting tasks, so that he too has a share in making it to the Stanley Cup final .

But since he wanted to stand behind the gang as a coach, he decided to move to Germany again and signed a contract with the Iserlohn Roosters in the DEL . On May 15, 2007, the Roosters announced that the contract with Ward was terminated because Ward wanted to return to his home country. At the beginning of August he joined the Boston Bruins as an assistant trainer, where he worked under Claude Julien, as he did with the Hamilton Bulldogs. After 7 years and a Stanley Cup win with Boston, Ward signed a 3-year contract as head coach at Adler Mannheim in June 2014 , succeeding Hans Zach .

In 2015 Ward was elected Trainer of the Year in the DEL and won the DEL championship with Adler Mannheim on April 22, 2015. He then made use of his release clause and moved back to the NHL, where he was henceforth the assistant coach of the New Jersey Devils . After the 2017/18 season, he moved to the Calgary Flames in the same role . There, in November 2019, he took over from head coach Bill Peters , who had resigned from his position.

Geoff Ward has a wife and four children.

Achievements and Awards

• 2003 Louis AR Pieri Memorial Award (together with Claude Julien )
• 2011 Stanley Cup win with the Boston Bruins (as assistant coach)
• 2015 Trainer of the year in the DEL
• 2015 German champion with the Adler Mannheim

Club statistics

season	team	league		annotation
1994/95	Kitchener Rangers	OHL		Head coach
1995/96	Kitchener Rangers	OHL		Head coach
1996/97	Kitchener Rangers	OHL		Head coach
1997/98	Kitchener Rangers	OHL		Head coach
1998/99	Guelph Storm	OHL		Head coach
1999/00	Arkansas RiverBlades	ECHL		Head coach
2000/01	EC Bad Nauheim	2nd BL		Head coach
2001/02	Hamilton Bulldogs	AHL		Assistant coach
2002/03	Hamilton Bulldogs	AHL		Head coach
2003/04	Toronto Roadrunners	AHL		Head coach
2004/05	Edmonton Roadrunners	AHL		Head coach
2006/07	Iserlohn Roosters	DEL		Head coach
2007/08	Boston Bruins	NHL		Assistant coach
2008/09	Boston Bruins	NHL		Assistant coach
2009/10	Boston Bruins	NHL		Assistant coach
2010/11	Boston Bruins	NHL		Assistant coach
2011/12	Boston Bruins	NHL		Assistant coach
2012/13	Boston Bruins	NHL		Assistant coach
2013/14	Boston Bruins	NHL		Assistant coach
2014/15	Adler Mannheim	DEL		Head coach
2015/16	New Jersey Devils	NHL		Assistant coach
2016/17	New Jersey Devils	NHL		Assistant coach
2017/18	New Jersey Devils	NHL		Assistant coach
2018/19	Calgary Flames	NHL		Assistant coach

Web links

• Geoff Ward at hockeydb.com (English)
• Geoff Ward at eliteprospects.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ del.org: DEL Player of the Year: Kevin Clark as the big winner. March 7, 2015, accessed March 24, 2015 .