Abby To Coliseum

Leaving Abby to move with the Heat was not the most sensible thing to do for anyone, but the team did it, quite possibly not the Head Coach.

Rumors run wild that former Head Coach of the Abbotsford Heat Troy Ward will replace Don Hay taking over behind the bench at the Coliseum for the upcoming season.

It took a while by clearly they wanted to get the right person for the job and if this is true, Troy is a great fit for the job.

After flirting with the likes of Travis Green, Tim Hunter, Steve Hamilton and Jim Hiller in their bid to find Don Hay’s successor behind the bench, the Giants turned the coaching reins over to Troy Ward, the former Abbotsford Heat bench boss.

The Giants have called a press conference for Thursday morning.

The Giants announced that they had let Hay, their skipper for the past 10 seasons out of the final year of his contract making it official on May 1st.

For whatever reason and not the smartest reason the Flames announced in June that Troy’s contract would not be renewed after he was behind the bench for three full seasons.

The Heat were forced into a move that see’s them relocate to Glen Falls, N.Y., this off-season and Calgary hired former Kelowna Rockets skipper Ryan Huska to coach the Adirondack Flames.

Even though he wasn’t their first choice, Ward does put check marks in a lot of boxes the Giants found important.

GM Scott Bonner wanted a Coach that could bring in players and Troy spent three seasons on staff at the University of Wisconsin (2002-05) and also worked in the ECHL.

Getting any player to come to your team was essential and as a Head Coach with the Trenton Titans (2000-01) and Victoria Salmon Kings (2005-06).

He was with the Penguins for three seasons as an NHL assistant (1997-2000) and given his presence with the media he is a great fit.

He coached former Giants J.D. Watt and Lance Bouma  to name only two and worked with Paul Albers during his time as an assistant with the AHL’s Houston Aeros.

He should have had a position with the Canucks but they went with Willie and everyone knew that he (Willie) would bring in his own man to work with him. .

The team is or might go from one system to another one put in place by Troy and as long as they let him coach the change is a great fit for the organization.

Ward did have two players in the AHL top-15 in scoring this season with No. 12 Max Reinhart (63 points, 66 games) and No. 15 Ben Street (60 points, 58 games).

Hamilton and Hunter were the two coaches that Vancouver initially interviewed to replace Hay and Hamilton, the assistant coach with the Edmonton Oil Kings, pulled his name and is the head man with the Oil Kings.

The Giants weren’t able to come to terms with Hunter, the former Canuck winger, after lengthy discussions, which means he wanted too much money or too much control.

Hiller apparently pulled out of contention as well as he is or would like to be in the “big league'” sooner than he thinks.

Referring to Green – well he finally chose to accept an offer to return to the Canucks’ AHL farm club, the Utica Comets.

For those who simply do not know Troy – he is a pro and will do a first class job for the Giants, the Players and be involved in the community.

My two cents worth – foolish move by the Flames not to keep him on, but great for the Giants.

Great hire!!!!