Will Joel Ward be the NHL’s second Black coach? His peers are ‘no doubters’

The NHL has only seen one black head coach in its 109-year league history, not even a full season. Dirk Graham, who broke another barrier as the league’s first Black captain, took over the Chicago Blackhawks in June 1998 but lasted 59 games before being fired with a 16-35-8 record.

If Joel Ward gets his way, he will follow. And it will be too late.

“I think there should have been a lot more ahead of me,” Ward he told Athletic last week. “As a player, you go through it, and then it seems like coaching isn’t the way for a lot of guys who play for whatever reason.”

A former NHL defenseman who scored 133 goals and 304 points in 11 seasons with four NHL teams, including the San Jose Sharks during their run to the 2016 Stanley Cup Final, Ward has used his platform to promote inclusion and anti-discrimination in sports as a co-founder of the Hockey Diversity Alliance, which hosted its second Federation event of the year “Youth Festival”. At the same time, Ward is busy preparing for an opportunity few Black members of the hockey world have received, which will bring the 45-year-old closer to his ultimate goal.

In June, following six years as an assistant in the Vegas Golden Knights organization, the last three of which were spent on their NHL bench, Ward was named head coach of the American Hockey League’s Henderson Silver Knights. The 45-year-old succeeds Ryan Craig, who was promoted to head coach of the Golden Knights after the team opted not to hire John Tortorella last season following a loss to the Carolina Hurricanes in the Cup final.

Ward said it’s an “honor” to be entrusted to the Golden Knights to “lead their young men and develop players” with a top-level minor league organization, becoming the second Black head coach in AHL history. (The first was Graham, who led the Springfield Falcons from 2004-06.) However, Ward doesn’t plan on staying in the AHL forever.

“At the end of the day, I’d like to coach in the National Hockey League,” he said.

As a publisher, Ward’s work was far from guaranteed. He entered the league with the Minnesota Wild in the 2006–07 season as an undrafted free agent out of the University of Prince Edward Island, a rare product of Canadian university hockey to reach the sport’s highest level. Despite spending the next year in the minors, he continued to be a solid player for the Nashville Predators and Washington Capitals from 2008-2015, highlighted by 24 goals and 49 points with the Capitals in 2013-14.

Shortly after officially retiring in 2020, Ward was one of nine black participants in that year’s NHL Coaching Association Global Coaches Clinic. In November, after sending his letter to Golden Knights hockey president George McPhee, who previously signed Ward as a free agent with the Capitals in 2011, he was hired as an assistant coach for the Silver Knights.

Now that Ward is back in Henderson, he can apply what he’s learned from the various NHL coaches he’s played under and worked with, including former Capitals coach Barry Trotz; current Golden Knights assistant John Stevens; and Peter DeBoer, who saw Ward’s coaching ability during their time together in San Jose.

“I think on every team that you coach, you always look around, and there’s always a couple of guys in that room that you go, ‘Boy, I think that guy is going to be a great coach one day,'” DeBoer, who is now with the New York Islanders, said. Athletic. “There’s no doubt that Joel was on my list. The reason he played was because of his hockey IQ. He wasn’t the fastest guy there, but he understood the systems. He understood his role very well. And he was a selfless teammate.

“I think, to be a coach, I think you have to have those qualities.”

After stepping onto the Golden Knights’ bench in July 2023, Ward’s previously scouted rivals, organized the Golden Knights’ forward line and conducted practices during voluntary skating under then-head coach Bruce Cassidy. He held similar roles after Cassidy was fired in April, guiding the forwards alongside Dominque Ducharme as Tortorella leaned on Vegas’ assistants to help the team get back on track.

While some of his predecessors might be considered firebrands, Ward describes himself as a “good-spirited guy” when it comes to coaching players.

“I’m not going to be too volatile or random or anything like that,” Ward said. “(I’m) just telling the truth, sharing my knowledge. I’ve gotten a lot of respect (from the players) for my actions. So understanding, building relationships, that’s what it’s about for me. Having good relationships on and off the ice, I think it’s going to help me gain the trust of the players. And once you do that, I think you get a lot from the players going forward.”

Cassidy leans heavily on Ward’s recent NHL experience, watching him grow from giving one-on-one instructions to players to commanding the attention of the entire locker room with his voice.

“I haven’t played many NHL games,” Cassidy said Athletic. “So, to have a guy who’s been there and done it, and use that to work in the room. That was his biggest asset, and I think he understood that.”

Coaches like DeBoer and Cassidy spent years coaching kids at the junior level before moving on to NHL roles. Both praised Ward for following this path, even if it meant returning to the AHL after already serving on the NHL bench.

“It’s probably the next best league in the world to train professionals,” Cassidy said of the AHL. “And it really prepares you to be an NHL head coach. I mean, just look at the guys in the NHL. I bet, off the top of your head, you can say half of them were American League head coaches.”

In fact, 21 of the 32 current NHL coaches served as AHL bench managers before making the jump. Five of them, including the Golden Knights’ Craig, took those gigs after earning assistant titles at the NHL level. Two of the league’s top coaches, Paul Maurice and Mike Sullivan, spent years coaching in the NHL before resurfacing in the AHL, returning to the big leagues shortly thereafter.

Cassidy moved up from the ECHL, International Hockey League and AHL before getting his first NHL job, in Washington during the 2002-03 season. After being fired by the Capitals, and following a stint as an assistant with the Blackhawks, Cassidy went back to work. During that time, he moved from the Ontario Hockey League to the AHL and, eventually, to the bench of the Boston Bruins before replacing Claude Julien as their head coach in the 2016-17 season.

There are several examples for Ward to follow, proving that the path to becoming an NHL head coach is not always straightforward.

“He’s doing it the right way,” DeBoer said of Ward. “He’s not looking for a quick way to get into the NHL. He’s willing to ride the buses to the kids and pick up pucks as an assistant coach. He has the same mentality as a coach that he had as a player, that he’s willing to work for it. And I have no doubt, in the end, he’ll be rewarded for that, just like he did as a player.”

The son of Bajan parents, Ward knows how rare it is for black coaches to find any position in professional hockey. When the late Paul Jerrard worked for the Colorado Avalanche (2002-03), Dallas Stars (2011-13) and Calgary Flames (2016-18), he was the only Black assistant coach in the league; so did the Devils’ Mike Grier (2018-20). And aside from Ward and Tampa Bay Lightning goaltending coach Frantz Jean, the NHL had no active Black members on its 32 teams for the 2025-26 season.

But Ward hopes his journey, wherever it is, can inspire young people to follow in his footsteps.

“I’ve learned a lot during my career with a lot of great coaches,” said Ward. “It would be a shame if I had all this information and didn’t get a chance to share it with others.”