AHL: Henderson Silver Knights Name Joel Ward Head Coach

This afternoon, Vegas Golden Knights General Manager Kelly McCrimmon announced that former NHL forward Joel Ward will take over as Head Coach of their AHL affiliate, the Henderson Silver Knights. Ward is the third head coach in the franchise’s seven seasons.

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This marks Ward’s first professional head coaching opportunity. He was an assistant coach for the Golden Knights from 2023-26 and prior to that was an assistant in Henderson from 2020-23. Ward spent 11 seasons playing in the NHL, where he appeared in 726 games between the Minnesota Wild, Nashville Predators, Washington Capitals, and San Jose Sharks. He had 304 points on 133 goals and 171 assists. He was a career minus-two with 30 power-play goals, nine shorthanded goals, and 23 game-winning goals. In 83 career playoff games, he had 52 points on 22 goals and 30 assists. He was a plus-ten with five power-play goals, a shorthanded goal, and four game-winning goals.

Ward is taking over for Ryan Craig, who got promoted to take over the Golden Knights’ head coaching job.  In three seasons, he went 96-95-25. This past season, he made the playoffs for the first time as a head coach. The Silver Knights were eliminated by the Colorado Eagles in the Pacific Division Semifinals in four games after sweeping the San Jose Barracuda in the first round of the playoffs.