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LAS VEGAS — The Vegas Golden Knights announced Wednesday they have hired former Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme as an assistant coach.
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Ducharme, 50, was Montreal’s head coach from February 2021 to February 2022, including the team’s run to the 2021 Stanley Cup Final. Before taking over from Claude Julien, he had been an assistant coach with the Canadiens since April 2018, and before that he led the Drummondville Voltigeurs and Halifax Mooseheads of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. He won a Memorial Cup with the Mooseheads in 2013, and a silver (2017) and gold (2018) medal as head coach for Team Canada at the world junior hockey championship.
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Also hired as an assistant coach by the Golden Knights is Joel Ward, who was assistant coach with the American Hockey League’s Henderson Silver Knights. Ward, 42, played 11 seasons in the National Hockey League, with Minnesota, Nashville, Washington and San Jose.
“We are extremely pleased with the additions of Dominique and Joel to our coaching staff here in Vegas,” Golden Knights General Manager Kelly McCrimmon said in a statement released by the team. “Dominique brings a wealth of coaching experience into our organization and has proven to be a successful leader at multiple levels. Joel has excelled in Henderson during the first three years of his promising career as a coach and we’re excited for him to be taking his next step with us.”
