There's no doubt in my mind there was a disconnect between Treliving, Hartley and Ward. Whether Ward outwardly refused to streamline the systems, I don't know. Regardless, I think that's the primary reason he was canned.
His short tenure with the Giants was a combination of a couple primary factors IMO. I've mentioned before how technical Ward was. It wouldn't surprise me if his systems and jargon was simply too advanced for 16-20 year old kids. That's one reason.
I think the other reason was he commanded a bit too much out of athletes of that young age. It wouldn't surprise me if he was trying to run the Giants like a professional club, which has its upsides and downsides. But if pushed too far, it'll leave a sour taste in managements' mouth. I think this might've happened. For example, Ward sees the dressing room as a "sacred place" for players, so media should be limited from going in there. So with the Heat he set up a media room, which was where all the interviews took place. When he requested to set up his designated media room in Vancouver and was denied, it didn't go over so well either way.
That's just a couple of examples as to why it didn't work. I do believe the best place for Ward is coaching 20+ year olds, meaning college or AHL level. That's Ward's niche and I think he's good at it.
When it comes to Huska, I just think the learning curve was/is too great for him to become a head coach in the AHL. I think the best thing would've been to bring him in as an assistant under an established coach who was willing to enact Hartley's systems all while taking Huska under his wing.
To be clear, I'm not saying Ward was The Master Monk of AHL Coaches. He had his flaws as a coach right down to some of his philosophies, but I think he did a superior job to what Huska has accomplished now in two seasons. Ward had some bad teams and some bad seasons, but I never saw as many breakdowns in systems with Ward's teams as I've seen with Huska's teams. Rookies didn't look nearly as lost under Ward as they do under Huska.
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