I actually visited here to note that good buddy Heiko Oldorp advised me of this rumor back around the Olympics and he wasn't around at the time so I spotted Geoff Ward and Doug Houda in the lunch line (as they were accustomed to do before home games -- always carryout with them) so I snuck up on Ward somewhere around the vegetable trays and told him something like, "Heiko told me there's a story going around in Germany that you're going to coach Mannheim. Any truth to that?"
Ward acted surprised and shook his head with a smile. "So," I say, "that means there's nothing to this?" He said something like "first I've heard about it" and shook his head no in a dismissal manner.
Gotta admit I bought his response. If it was a big, fat lie at that time, he's a pretty solid actor.