New-look Giants expected to name ex-NHLer Heward as assistant coach
The Vancouver Giants will announce the hiring of former NHL defenceman Jamie Heward as their assistant coach in the coming days, according to sources.
Heward, 47, played 394 regular season games in the NHL after being selected in the first round, 16th overall, in the 1989 NHL Draft by the Pittsburgh Penguins.
He spent four seasons on the blue-line in the WHL with his hometown Regina Pats. Among his teammates then was defenceman Michael Dyck, who was named head coach of the Giants on June 28. Heward has spent the past six seasons as an assistant coach and director of player development for the Swift Current Broncos.
Heward, like Dyck and new general manager Barclay Parneta, has done work for Hockey Canada.
Heward has twice been an assistant coach at the Under-17 World Hockey Challenge.
The Broncos had the WHL’s second-best record in the regular season this past year, thanks to a 48-17-5-2 finish, and went on to win the playoff crown, beating the Everett Silvertips in six games in the final. They dropped all three of their games at the Memorial Cup, including to the Regina Pats, who were the tournament hosts.
Swift Current head coach Manny Viveiros got a job with the Edmonton Oilers as an assistant coach in May, and there’s been a mass exodus of staff since.
Associate coach Ryan Smith is now an assistant coach with the Medicine Hat Tigers. Assistant general manager Jamie Porter also resigned from Swift Current.
The Broncos hired Dean Brockman as their head coach and director of hockey operations in June. He had been fired as head coach of the Saskatoon Blades in March. The Blades missed the playoffs in the Eastern Conference, after finishing 35-33-3-1.
With Vancouver, Heward replaces Dean Chynoweth, who was Jason McKee’s top assistant last season. Chynoweth, 49, joined the Giants last summer and was on a one-year contract. He was recently named an assistant coach of the Carolina Hurricanes.
Parneta hired Dyck, 49, after firing McKee June 15.
McKee, 39, had just finished his second season with Vancouver. He led them to a 36-27-6-3 record, which was the sixth-best mark in the Western Conference and put Vancouver in the playoffs for the first time in four springs.
It was a 35-point improvement from his rookie season, when Vancouver traded away veterans at the deadline for prospects and draft picks en route to a 20-46-3-3 standing.
The Giants lost in seven games to the Victoria Royals in the first round this spring.
Parneta, 47, was hired by Vancouver on May 23 to replace Glen Hanlon, 61, who left the team on May 14 to pursue other opportunities. It’s believed he’s going back to coaching in Europe.
Parneta had been the assistant general manager of the Tri-City Americans. He was a scout with the Giants in their early years. Dyck was an assistant coach with Vancouver at that time.
Dyck left the Giants in November 2005 for the bench-boss job with his hometown Lethbridge Hurricanes, and he led them to the WHL final in 2008, where they lost to the Spokane Chiefs.
On Friday, the Giants also named former Kamloops Blazers GM and longtime Edmonton Oilers scout Bob Brown as senior adviser.
The Giants open the regular season Sept. 21, playing host to the Everett Silvertips at the Langley Events Centre.