Tim Speltz was hired as the first General Manager in Silver Knights history on August 31, 2021, joining the franchise for its second AHL season and leading the team to its second consecutive playoff berth. The 2021-22 campaign was Speltz’s first season working in the American Hockey League, but he has been working with high-level prospects and in player development since 1988.

Speltz spent 25 seasons (1990-2016) as the general manager of the Western Hockey League’s Spokane Chiefs, leading the Chiefs to two WHL Championships (1991, 2008) and two Memorial Cup Championships (1991, 2008). Speltz was also named the WHL’s Executive of the Year twice, winning the Lloyd Saunders Memorial Trophy in 1996 and 2000. He was also named the CHL’s Executive of the Year in 1996. In 2022, Speltz was honored with the WHL’s Governors Award.

Under Speltz’s leadership, the Chiefs achieved four 100-point seasons, ten seasons with 40 or more wins, and two 50-win seasons. The Chiefs won 142 playoff games, made the playoffs in 23 of 25 seasons, and went to seven conference finals and four WHL Finals. Speltz’s Spokane teams featured such players as Ray Whitney, Pat Falloon, Bryan McCabe, Jared Spurgeon, Tyler Johnson, and Kailer Yamamoto.

For two seasons (1988-1990), Speltz was the general manager of the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers,

Following his tenure with the Chiefs, Speltz joined the Toronto Maple Leafs as Director of Western Area Scouting in August 2016. Speltz would remain with the Maple Leafs until the end of the 2020-21 season, and he served as the Head of Amateur Scouting for three seasons from 2018-21.

Internationally, Speltz was part of Hockey Canada’s management group for the 2014 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup, as well as for the Canadian U-20 program.

Speltz lives in Henderson with his wife, Lynn. They have two daughters, Jenna and Hannah.

Joel Ward was hired to become the third head coach in Silver Knights history on June 25, 2026. Ward returns to the team where his coaching career began, having served as an assistant coach on the Silver Knights’ inaugural coaching staff and remaining with the team from 2020-23.[/caption]

The North York, Ontario native served as an assistant coach with the Vegas Golden Knights from 2023-26, working under Bruce Cassidy and John Tortorella. This will be Ward’s seventh season in the Golden Knights organization.

In 11 NHL seasons as a player, Ward was a reliable two-way forward, appearing in 726 NHL games with the Minnesota Wild, Nashville Predators, Washington Capitals, and San Jose Sharks. He totaled 304 points in the NHL.

He made the post-season seven times in his NHL career, including a run to the Stanley Cup Final with the San Jose Sharks in 2015-16. During that playoff run, Ward posted seven goals and 13 points in 24 games. Ward also netted the overtime-winner in Game 7 of the 2012 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals with the Capitals, eliminating the defending Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins at TD Garden. In 83 career Stanley Cup playoff games, Ward totaled 22 goals, 52 points, and a plus-10 rating.

Prior to becoming a full-timer NHLer, Ward appeared in 209 AHL games across three seasons with the Houston Aeros, posting 38 goals and 86 points from 2005-08 and making the Calder Cup Playoffs twice.

Ward played four seasons of college hockey in the Canadian University system, skating in 96 CIS games from 2001-05 at the University of Prince Edward Island. In 2005, Ward was named CIS (AUS) Most Valuable Player, a First-Team All-Star, and the CIS Most Sportsmanlike Player. He was also named the CIS (AUS) Most Sportsmanlike Player in 2004 and 2005.

Representing Canada at the 2014 World Championship, Ward notched six goals and nine points in eight games.

Ward joins the Silver Knights with his wife, Kathleen, and their sons, Robinson and Bo.

Jamie Heward will serve his sixth season as an assistant coach with the Silver Knights in 2025-26, specifically managing the defensemen and the penalty kill. Heward was hired on November 23, 2020, following an extensive coaching career in the Western Hockey League.

Heward served as an associate coach for the Western Hockey League’s Vancouver Giants from 2018-20, after spending the prior six seasons with the Swift Current Broncos working as both Assistant Coach and Director of Player Development. Internationally, Heward has served as an assistant coach for Canada at two World Under-17 Hockey Challenge tournaments in 2015-16 and 2016-17. Heward was a member of the coaching staff for Swift Current’s 2018 WHL Championship season.

Before embarking on his coaching career, the Regina, Saskatchewan native spent two decades playing professional hockey after being selected by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round, 16th overall, in the 1989 NHL Draft. A forward-turned-defenseman, Heward played in 394 NHL games from 1995-2009, playing stints with Toronto, Nashville, the NY Islanders, Columbus, Washington, and Tampa Bay.

Heward also played in 206 AHL games over that span with St. John’s, Philadelphia, Syracuse, and Norfolk. He was named a First-Team AHL All-Star in 1996 with St. John’s and in 1998 with Philadelphia. With the Phantoms in 1998, Heward led all defensemen in scoring and won the Eddie Shore Award as the AHL’s Outstanding Defenseman, helping lead the Phantoms to a Calder Cup Championship.

He played 185 IHL games with the Muskegon Lumberjacks and Cleveland Lumberjacks from 1991-94 after playing four WHL seasons with the Regina Pats. Heward also played three seasons in Switzerland and one in Russia. He represented Canada at four Spengler Cups and four World Championships, winning two World Championship gold medals.

Heward lives in Henderson with his wife, Ticia. They have two children, Blake and Irelyn.

Alex Loh joins the Silver Knights for his first season as an assistant coach in 2025-26, hired on July 16, 2026. Loh will primarily handle the forward group and the power play on Joel Ward’s staff.

Loh has been a member of the Vegas Golden Knights organization since 2022, most recently serving as the head coach of the ECHL’s Tahoe Knight Monsters for the past two seasons. Loh led Tahoe to a 76-55-13 record and two playoff appearances during his tenure.

The Morrisville, Vermont native joined the organization as an assistant coach with the Savannah Ghost Pirates, then the Golden Knights’ ECHL affiliate. He became the interim head coach in Savannah in February 2024.

Before joining the Silver Knights, Loh spent seven seasons with the ECHL’s Adirondack Thunder. He served as an assistant coach from 2015-18 and as Head Coach and Director of Hockey Operations from 2018-22. Loh also worked in the AHL for the Portland Pirates as a video coach from 2012-15.

He was an assistant coach at Colby College for one season in 2011-12, and he coached three seasons of high school hockey in Vermont from 2008-11.

Fred Brathwaite begins his sixth season with the HSK. He was named the first Goaltending Coach in Henderson Silver Knights history on January 3, 2021. He previously served as Goaltending Coach for the New York Islanders in 2017-18. Brathwaite also worked as the goaltending coach for Hockey Canada with their U-18 team for three seasons and held the same role with Canada’s U-20 team. He was a goalie coach for his former club, Adler Mannheim of the German Professional League (DEL) during the 2013-14 season.

Brathwaite spent nine seasons playing in the NHL from 1993-04, appearing in 254 games and posting an 81-99-37 record with a 2.73 goals-against average and a .901 save percentage. Brathwaite came into the league with the Edmonton Oilers in 1993 and went on to play with the Calgary Flames, St. Louis Blues and Columbus Blue Jackets. He also spent time with the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch and Chicago Wolves, Ak Bars Kazan and Avangard Omsk of the Russian Superleague (now the Kontinental Hockey League), and Adler Mannheim of the DEL.

The Ottawa, Ontario native won Goaltender of the Year honors in the RSL in 2005-06 and won Player of the Year in 2008-09 in the DEL with Adler. Before embarking on his pro career, Brathwaite won a Memorial Cup and an OHL Championship in 1990 with the Oshawa Generals.

Sumit Singh returns for his third season with the Silver Knights as Video Coach, and his fourth season in the Golden Knights Hockey Operations Department. Singh was hired on September 14, 2023 after spending the 2022-23 season as the video coach with the Savannah Ghost Pirates, the Golden Knights’ ECHL affiliate. Prior to joining the Golden Knights, the New York City native worked for Union College’s Division I Men’s Hockey program from 2018-22. He served as a student manager until 2020 and ultimately earned the role of interim Director of Hockey Operations and Video Coordinator for the Dutchmen. Singh is the first US-born member of the Silver Knights coaching staff.

Jared Crooks begins his second season as the Silver Knights’ Manager of Team Services. Crooks joined the Silver Knights in February 2025 after serving parts of five seasons with the Western Hockey League’s Seattle Thunderbirds. Crooks began his tenure with the Thundersbirds during the 2020-21 season as Video Coach and then was promoted to Assistant General Manager, a role he served from 2021-2025. He also served as an Assistant Coach in the Alberta Collegiate Athletic Conference at his alma mater, Grant MacEwan University, in 2014-15. Crooks totaled 27 goals and 67 points across five seasons at Grant MacEwan from 2008-13.

A native of Vermilion, Alberta, Crooks is responsible for organizing all scheduling for the team, as well as travel accommodations and meals for the Silver Knights on the road. Crooks also manages administrative duties for the Silver Knight Hockey Operations Staff. He lives in Henderson with his wife, Erin, and their son, Oliver.

Email: [email protected]

Todd Richardson is the staff’s longest-tenured Vegas resident, having joined the team for its inaugural season after 16 years working for Cirque du Soleil. Richardson joined Cirque du Soleil in 2004 and served as the Head Therapist at Viva Elvis and Michael Jackson: One. Richardson was also a therapist for Mystere and “O”.

A native of Melville, Saskatchewan, Richardson attended the University of Alberta in Edmonton for both his undergraduate and graduate studies between 1990 and 1998, during which time he worked in both hockey and football. He worked as a therapist, and became Head Athletic Therapist, while working with the Edmonton Eskimos of the Canadian Football League from 1998-04. Richardson was a member of the Eskimos’ 2003 Grey Cup Championship team.

Richardson lives in Henderson with his wife Nadine, sons Josh and Evan, and dog Shadow.

Joey Amundson returns for his third season as the team’s Strength and Conditioning Coach. Amundson joined the Silver Knights after serving as Strength and Conditioning Coach for the ECHL’s Savannah Ghost Pirates during the 2022-23 season.

Prior to joining the Golden Knights organization, Amundson was an Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach at the University of Minnesota-Duluth in the summer of 2022, as well as a Graduate Strength and Conditioning Fellow at Boston College from August 2021 to May 2022. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, and his master’s degree at Merrimack College.

Hayato Ikeda returns to the Silver Knights for his sixth season working in professional hockey and with the Golden Knights organization. A native of Madison, Wisconsin, Ikeda worked in 2019-20 as a Graduate Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach at Merrimack College, and as an Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach with the school’s Division I Men’s Hockey program. Ikeda also worked in prior internships with the Strength and Conditioning programs for the Division I football program at the University of Wisconsin. He interned at EXOS, a health and wellness company.

Ikeda earned his B.S. in Athletic Training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his M.S. in Exercise and Sports Science at Merrimack College. He is a certified Athletic Trainer and a certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. Ikeda lives in Henderson with his wife, Melody.

Jorge Lopez begins his fifth season as the Head Equipment Manager for the Henderson Silver Knights. Lopez joined the HSK late in the summer of 2021 following a three-year stint with the Western Hockey League’s Seattle Thunderbirds.

Lopez has spent 16 years as an equipment manager, beginning in 2008-09 with the Central Hockey League’s Laredo Bucks. Lopez, a native of Laredo, Texas, was an assistant equipment manager for two seasons with the Bucks before earning his first job as a head equipment manager in 2010-11 with the Southern Professional Hockey League’s Huntsville Havoc. Lopez would return to serve one season as the head equipment manager in Laredo before moving to the AHL as an assistant with the Texas Stars. During his three seasons with the Stars (2012-15), Lopez won a Calder Cup in 2014.

He would go on to serve as a head equipment manager with the ECHL’s Utah Grizzlies (2015-16), the Fayetteville FireAntz (2016-17) and Mississippi River Kings (2017-18) of the SPHL, and WHL Seattle (2018-21).

Lopez lives in Las Vegas with his fiancée, Rachel, and their children, Leo and Emery.

Jaron Hamilton will serve his second season with the Silver Knights, and first as Assistant Equipment Manager, having joined the team prior to the 2023-24 campaign. Hamilton has worked with with both the Silver Knights and Golden Knights equipment staffs over the last three years. A Florida native, Hamilton studied Sports Management at Florida International University.