Las Vegas NHL team hires NHL veteran Kelly Kisio as pro scout

Las Vegas’ expansion franchise added two more to its scouting staff Friday, announcing the hiring of NHL veteran Kelly Kisio as a professional scout and former USA Hockey Peter Ward as an amateur scout .

Kisio has spent the past 18 seasons with the Calgary Hitmen in the Western Hockey League, working in multiple roles including as their general manager, president of hockey operations and alternative governor. Kisio also spent four seasons coaching the Hitmen while he was their general manager.

Before joining the Hitmen, he worked for the Calgary Flames as an amateur scout and had a 13-year NHL playing career with the Detroit Red Wings, New York Rangers, San Jose Sharks and Flames.

Ward joins the team after spending a year as an NHL agent/advisor for Newport Sports Management, Inc. Before that, he served as the assistant director of player personnel and the director of player personnel with the U.S. National Team Development Program. While with USA Hockey, the U.S. won gold at the IIHF World Under 18s six times.

Before that, he was both a scout and assistant coach in the Eastern Junior Hockey League and served as the U.S. Director of Scouting in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

In recent weeks, Kent Hawley, Erin Ginnell and Bruno Campese have also joined the franchise as amateur scouts while Scott Luce was named the director of amateur scouting. Dan Labraaten and Peter Ahola have been added as a European scouts while David Conte has been added as a professional scout and Vaughn Karpan the director of player personnel.

Betsy Helfand can be reached at bhelfand@reviewjournal.com. Follow on Twitter: @BetsyHelfand