Ice hockey: Who is Geoff Ward, the new LHC coach?

The Canadian, who replaces John Fust, now responsible for the sports management of the Vaudois club, was born on February 8, 1962 in Waterloo, Ontario. This former teacher (High school, the equivalent of secondary school in Switzerland) never played hockey at the professional level, but quickly turned to a career as a coach.

In 1989, at the age of 27, he inherited the place of assistant coach of the university team of Waterloo, his hometown in Canada. He played on the university circuit for three seasons, until 1992. He later made his mark as a head coach in the Ontario junior league at the head of the Kitchener Rangers between 1994 and 1998, then as a coach of the Guelph Storm (still in the OHL) during the 1998-1999 season. He entered the professional level at the end of the 90s: he coached the Arkansas River Blades (ECHL, the third level below the NHL), the Hamilton Bulldogs (AHL, the antechamber of the NHL), Toronto Roadrunners and Edmonton Road Runners (AHL) between 1999 and 2005. With Hamilton in 2022-2003, where he replaced Claude Julien during the season, he was named AHL Coach of the Year.

It was in 2005 that Geoff Ward inherited his first NHL job with the Edmonton Oilers as a player development coach. That season, the Oilers were Stanley Cup finalists. He later ranks as assistant coach with the Boston Bruins (2007 to 2014), with whom he won the Stanley Cup in 2011 under head coach Claude Julien and returned to the final in 2013. He then moved to the New Jersey Devils (2015-2018), still in an assistant role, where he accompanies the Valaisan prodigy Nico Hischier (number one in the 2017 draft) during his first season in the NHL in 2017-2018 (20 goals, 52 points ) and primarily manages the power-play of the Devils.

Geoff Ward finally receives, at 57, a first opportunity as head coach with the Calgary Flames, which he partly manages during the 2020-2021 fiscal year before being replaced halfway by Darryl Sutter. The previous season, Ward had acted as interim manager and managed to guide the Flames into the play-off. His last step to date in the NHL will have been an assistant position with the Anaheim Ducks during the 2021-2022 fiscal year.

Geoff Ward had three visits to Germany. In Bad Nauheim, in the second division, at the start of his career (2000-2001 season). A second at Iserlohn (DEL) during the 2006-2007 season. Then a third, very successful, at the head of Adler Mannheim in 2014-2015, with whom he won the title of German champion and was named coach of the year before returning the following season to the NHL with the New Jersey Devils as an assistant coach.

The North American coach has had several experiences on the international scene with the Germany team, of which he was the assistant coach between 2014 and 2018. Ward was not, however, part of the miraculous epic of the Germans during the 2018 Olympics in South Korea (silver medal).

Geoff Ward is portrayed as an excellent communicator and as a highly appreciated coach by the players. In an interview with “The Athletic” in 2019, when he led the Calgary Flames, the players who had worked with him during their career were full of praise for him. Geoff Ward himself insisted on one aspect: the atmosphere that reigns in a locker room. « There’s one thing I always try to do, whether it’s in the coaches’ office or in the players’ locker room, it’s to make the atmosphere light and pleasant. I try to make the players have fun. We all have a job that is very serious and leads to high expectations in terms of results and performance. There’s one thing I strongly believe in: if you’re relaxed, relaxed and have fun in your job, you’re much more likely to be successful in what you do. » A message that Lausanne players should have a lot of fun hearing and which should above all contrast with what they have known for the past three years.