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Silver Knights add former NHL player Joel Ward to coaching staff

A bit of late news to get to on this Tuesday, but the Henderson Silver Knights have a coaching staff to surround first-year coach Manny Viveiros.

The Silver Knights announced Monday that former NHL player Joel Ward has been named to Viveiros’ coaching staff. Former NHL defenseman Jamie Heward will also be behind the bench for AHL Henderson for its inaugural season, whenever that may be.

Ward played 11 seasons in the NHL with four different franchises; three years came with the San Jose Sharks under now Vegas Golden Knights coach Pete DeBoer. Ward, who retired this year, scored 304 points (133 goals, 171 assists) in his career. He last played in 2018 with San Jose.

This will be Ward’s first coaching stop, and is also a member of the Hockey Diversity Alliance.

“I enjoyed a lot of the X’s and O’s stuff that we had as a team,” Ward told Ben Gotz of the Las Vegas Review-Journal about his time with the Sharks. “There were a couple moments where I went, ‘Oh, I can’t wait to teach some of this stuff.’”

Heward, a former first-round pick (No. 16) in the 1989 NHL Draft, has some familiarity with Viveiros as his assistant for two seasons with the Swift Current Broncos. Heward played 394 games in the NHL and 1,278 total games in leagues across the world.