Heward Broncos 2

Jamie Heward starts his role as new Director of Player Development and Assistant Coach for the Swift Current Broncos today.

The former NHLer will have a few different duties.

"He'll be here a lot," said Broncos Coach and GM Mark Lamb. "He'll be with us all of training camp. We'll look at the schedule, we'll look over certain times when we want him here, certain times when we want him on the road scouting the WHL and working with our draft picks."

Full Interview with Mark LambLamb started his coaching career doing a similar type of job with the Edmonton Oilers and believes it's a very good learning opportunity for both Heward and their young players.

"It's great... to get involved and you're doing a few different things," Lamb said. "You're working with some scouts, you're working with some coaches so the experience you're getting just with that job... you get a lot. The value to our players with his experience going down and seeing those guys, teaching them some of the things that he's done just in his career is really going to help our guys."

Lamb had thought of trying this kind of a coaching position before and felt Andy Schneider's decision to leave the Broncos for a scouting job with Columbus made this the right time to give it a shot. Meanwhile, four trainers from BodyFit will split up Schneider's strength and conditioning duties.

Heward's first day on the job co-incides with the first day of on-ice sessions at training camp.

Scrimmages go at 4pm and 6pm tonight, Friday and Saturday. The Black/White game goes Sunday at 1pm.

Click here for the Broncos press release

Click here for our previous story on Heward