Jamie Heward is moving up in the coaching world
Regina's Jamie Heward is joining the Henderson Silver Knights — the new AHL affiliate of the Vegas Golden Knights — as an assistant coach.
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Regina’s Jamie Heward has found a silver lining amid the COVID-19 pandemic — courtesy of the Vegas Golden Knights.
While the hockey world is still at a relative standstill, the extended off-season has presented a fresh opportunity for Heward, who recently accepted an assistant-coaching job with Vegas’s new AHL affiliate, the Henderson Silver Knights.
“I’m really excited to make the next step,” says Heward, who spent the past two seasons as an associate coach with the WHL’s Vancouver Giants. “It’s something that crosses your mind as you’re entering into coaching: ‘How far can you go and where is coaching in the Western Hockey League going to lead?’ Moving up to coach pro is something I decided I wanted to do four or five years ago. This is the next progression.”
Heward, an ex-NHL defenceman, got started as a part-time assistant with his former junior team, the Regina Pats, after retiring as a player in 2009. He later moved on to the Swift Current Broncos, serving as an assistant coach and director of player development.
Heward’s role with the Broncos peaked after they hired head coach Manny Viveiros in 2016. Less than two years later, they won a WHL championship.
Now Heward is set to reunite with Viveiros, who’s the new head coach of the Silver Knights.
“The fact that he felt I could come in and help him is a great honour,” says Heward, a two-time assistant with Canada’s under-17 program. “You don’t realize how big of an impact you have on somebody until he phoned and said, ‘Hey, I know we work well together. Do you want to give it a shot in Vegas?’ To get to the next level, you need somebody to give you a break. You need somebody in your corner. It has worked out really well that I’m going to get the opportunity with him.”
Viveiros left Swift Current after winning the league title to become an assistant with the Edmonton Oilers. When Edmonton replaced its coaching staff just a year later, Viveiros landed on his feet with the WHL’s Spokane Chiefs.
Now he’s headed to Henderson, which is part of the Vegas metropolitan area.
“I always told myself that I wasn’t going to make a move somewhere just for the sake of moving,” explains Heward. “It had to be the right one and working with the right person. There’s a comfort level for me and I think it breeds success if you’re working with the right guy.”
Heward enjoyed a similar comfort level with the Giants, working alongside former Pats teammate Mike Dyck. Heward says he had “a really good situation” with the Giants but couldn’t turn down an opportunity to work under Golden Knights president George McPhee (his former general manager with the Washington Capitals) and current Vegas GM Kelly McCrimmon (an old acquaintance from the Brandon Wheat Kings).
McPhee and McCrimmon built the Knights into an immediate powerhouse, reaching the NHL final as an expansion team in 2018.
“What they’ve done is nothing short of almost astonishing,” says Heward, who played for seven NHL teams and four AHL clubs during his 18-year pro career. “(The Knights) are the talk of the NHL as far as how things are run really well there. I’m super excited about going into that franchise. They’re first class all the way.”
Heward is planning to report to Vegas sometime after Christmas for the Golden Knights’ training camp. The NHL is still finalizing a start date, which will help determine when its affiliates drop the puck.
“I’ve talked with Kelly and George — they’re confident that (the AHL) is going to start,” Heward says. “They want to make sure that their young guys get going. What that looks like, nobody is really 100-per-cent sure. It could be 40 games, it could be 60 games, it could be 20 games. But I think there is going to be a really concerted effort to make sure once the NHL starts that they get going. What that means for other franchises in (American) states that are hard hit (by COVID) right now, who knows? But I’m confident they’re going to get going.”
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