The Calgary Flames announced on Monday that they have removed the interim tag from Geoff Ward, officially naming him the team’s head coach.
Terms of the contract were not announced by the team, but Pierre LeBrun reports Ward’s contract is a two-year deal.
He is the team’s fourth different head coach since the start of the 2015-16 season.
Ward had been serving as the Flames’ interim coach since late November when he took over for former coach Bill Peters. Peters had resigned from the team after his previous misconduct (including the use of a racial slur against former player Akim Aliu in the AHL, as well as physical incidents in Carolina) had been revealed. Before taking over on an interim basis Ward had been serving as an associate head coach with the Flames.
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With Ward behind the bench the Flames closed out the 2019-20 regular season with a 24-15-3 record to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
That regular season record under Ward’s watch was the fourth-best mark in the Western Conference during that time.
The Flames ended up beating the Winnipeg Jets (3-1) in the qualifying round before being eliminated in the First Round by the Dallas Stars.
This marks the first time in more than a decade that the Flames qualified for the playoffs in consecutive seasons.
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Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.