The saga ends: Bill Peters resigns, Geoff Ward named interim head coach

Folks, the Bill Peters saga has finally, mercifully been brought to a conclusion. Calgary Flames general manager Brad Treliving announced Peters’ resignation at a Friday morning press conference. Associate coach Geoff Ward has been named the team’s interim head coach.

Per Treliving, Peters offered to resign and the club accepted that offer. He declined to get into the specifics of what that resignation means in terms of the contractual and financial impacts – much media chatter in the past days has surrounded potential legal wrangling in that regard.

Ward becomes just the third interim head coach in Flames franchise history – Guy Charron took over after Doug Risebrough resigned in 1991-92, while Al MacNeil coached briefly in 2002-03 after Greg Gilbert was fired. Treliving declined to describe the longer term plan, noting both that stability is important for the team right now but the specifics were still being worked out.

The 57-year-old Ward joined the Flames as associate coach prior to the 2018-19 season after stints with the New Jersey Devils and Boston Bruins. He’s previously worked as head coach in the American Hockey League (Hamilton Bulldogs, Edmonton/Toronto Road Runners), ECHL (Akansas RiverBlades), DEL (Iserlohn Roosters, Alder Mannheim), Gemany second league (EC Bad Nauheim), Ontario Hockey League (Kitchener Rangers, Guelph Storm) and MWJHL (Waterloo Siskins). It’s his first stint of any kind leading a National Hockey League club.

The Flames are 12-12-4 after 28 games, sitting just outside of the Western Conference’s wild card playoff spots. They’re back in action, for their second game with Ward behind the bench, on Saturday when they host the Ottawa Senators.