The Colorado Avalanche have decided that Jared Bednar will be the franchise’s seventh head coach. Bednar was in competition with Lane Lambert, and Kevin Dineen who were both assistants’ with the Washington Capitals and Chicago Blackhawks respectively.
BREAKING: The #Avs have hired Jared Bednar as the new head coach. pic.twitter.com/aFNk6FS8U7
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) August 25, 2016
Bednar was most recently the head coach of the AHL affiliate of the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Lake Erie (now Cleveland) Monsters. With a successful season culminating in an AHL Calder Cup victory last season, Bednar has shown that he has a winning pedigree. Including his time spent with the South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL (with whom he won the ECHL’s Kelly Cup) Bednar has a 251-158-42 record as a head coach, good for a .603 win percentage. The lack of NHL experience could be a cause for concern for Avalanche fans, especially considering some of the other candidates who were available, but Bednar looks up for the task and ready to compete at the highest level.
The Avalanche were in need of a new coach after Patrick Roy suddenly stepped down from his role in a move that shocked the hockey world. Roy was the team’s sixth head coach in franchise history and had shown a winning pedigree of his own as a winner of four Stanley Cups, and as the coach of the Quebec Remparts in the QMJHL, winning a Memorial Cup in 2006.
Roy was also a first-time head coach at the NHL level, showing a potential trend for the Avalanche front office after making it known that they would be hiring a first-time head coach once again, early on in the process.
