Ward to remain coach of Flames

Geoff Ward will remain coach of the Calgary Flames.

Ward received a multiyear contract, general manager Brad Treliving said Monday.
"I felt good about everything in terms of where the team was at, how we've come to this point in time, what we've seen in development of people," Ward said. "It was just extremely exciting for me to have the chance to come back and continue to build what we've started. It was a no-brainer for me to want to stay in Calgary."
Ward replaced Bill Peters as coach Nov. 29, when Peters resigned three days after the NHL and the Flames announced they were investigating a claim that he directed a racial slur at a player while coaching in the American Hockey League during the 2009-10 season.
The Flames were 24-15-3 with Ward as coach and finished the regular season 36-27-7 (.564 points percentage). They defeated the Winnipeg Jets in a best-of-5 Stanley Cup Qualifier series and lost to the Dallas Stars in six games in the Western Conference First Round.
"I thought Geoff and his staff did a real good job through a difficult circumstance," Treliving said. "And then getting through that, just really stabilizing our team through the course of the rest of the regular season into what was an unforeseen and elongated pause and then into the playoffs. So really I wanted to take a little bit of time at the end of the season, and Geoff and I spent a considerable time together over the course of a couple of weeks and talking through some things which led us here to today.
"I think it's an opportunity he's worked long and hard at, not just through the course of this season. This is a guy who's got a lot of experience behind the bench at all sorts of levels, long-time assistant and associate coach at the NHL level. I'm ecstatic here today to announce him as the head coach."
Ward said he appreciated the conversations he had that led to him remaining in the position.
"It was a worthwhile process for us to go through," he said. "I enjoyed the discussions that I was able to have with [Treliving] and Don Maloney (senior vice president of hockey operations) and the owners and having to go and talk about what we did and we needed to [do]. So it was very beneficial. And I'm really excited about having the opportunity to come back and continue to work with the group of players that we have on our team and continue to work with the management group that we have and the ownership group in order to push this team forward and ultimately to try to win a Stanley Cup, which is everybody's goal and something I believe we can do. And so I'm very, very honored to be here."
Ward joined the Flames before the 2018-19 season as an associate after spending three seasons with the New Jersey Devils as an assistant. He also was an assistant with the Boston Bruins from 2007-14, helping the Bruins win the Stanley Cup in 2011. He has experience as a head coach in the Ontario Hockey League, ECHL, American Hockey League and Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) in Germany.
Calgary has had four coaches in the past five seasons, including Bob Hartley and Glen Gulutzan.
"Geoff's not the coach here because it's the path of least resistance or just because he was here," Treliving said. "You want to make sure you've got the very best person for the position. So that's why I wanted to step back and have those conversations about where we're at, but not only where we're at but where we're going and how we're going to get there. I wanted to be thorough. ... I'm looking for the best coach for our team and I think Geoff has just now completed 40-some-odd games as a first-time head coach. He's got the ability to become a top, top coach in this League and that's what makes me excited."
The Flames have reached the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs once since 2004, a second-round loss to the Anaheim Ducks after a first-round win against the Vancouver Canucks in 2015.
"We've done an awful lot of good work over the last two years," Ward said. "We've made the playoffs two years in a row. I really like the group. It's an extremely tight team, and when you talk to the players it's probably one of the first things they bring about and it's so necessary in order to ultimately move along and become a championship team. I really felt like over the last couple of years we've put in a lot of really, really solid building blocks and foundations in terms of moving toward winning a championship."