Looking for the next Avalanche coach, the Avs are probably going to go with an internal solution. That has been the style of the Avs for finding new coaches. This presents several options and today I have three bloggers from the Avalanche community adding their two cents to this issue.
Please welcome Cheryl Bradley (@Cherycbradley), Kevin Goff (@AvsGuildKevin) and Joey Suyeishi (@Avrilanche) to the first Hockeybuzz Avalanche roundtable. Each blogger comes from their own site, lending their words to this collaborative effort.
Bradley comes from the legendary site Mile High Hockey; Goff writes for The Avalanche Guild and does work for the Bleacher Report, as does Suyeishi.
All three have taken a stance on the coaches. Joe Sacco is in the last year of his contract so the question is who will be the next coach? Bradley has done a surprising take on Patrick Roy for next coach. Goff was going to do Randy Carlyle until about a week ago and hence has changed from Carlyle to do an old favorite, Bob Hartley. Suyeishi has been generous to lend his words of wisdom to play devil’s advocate for keeping Joe Sacco while I am taking current Lake Erie Monsters coach David Quinn.
Without further ado, here are the arguments for each coach.
Aaron Musick- David Quinn
Eventually the Avs will have to stop promoting coaches from their minor league club to coach in the NHL but this is not the time.
Current Lake Erie Coach David Quinn is currently in his third year with the team, posting a 108-90-6-16 record over three seasons. The record isn’t greatly inspiring but what he has done with a team that has been on the shallow of the talent pool is nothing short of impressive.
Quinn has also spent five years at Boston University learned from legendary coach Jack Parker. Quinn learned everything about how Parker works and what it takes to be a consistent winner. Before that, the thing that really would help the Avs, is the fact he built the hockey program at the University of Nebraska-Omaha.
If you think rebuilding a program is hard, try building one from scratch and now the UNO program is a strong, thriving program because him.
However, the greater evidence of what he has done cultivating talent is what his players have done after being called up. Almost every player that the Avs have called up has had an impact, notably Kevin Shattenkirk and Stefan Elliott.
Elliott came up this year and played fantastic, better than he did in any preseason game this year. Elliott had this aura of confidence, as though he felt ready. One is an aberration, two is a pattern, three is a consistency and the Avs have had more than three Monster players step into the NHL and play outstanding.
David Van der Gulik got called up this year and played so well, he pushed Kevin Porter off the roster and even pushed veteran Chuck Kobasew for a fourth line role. Elliott, Van der Gulik, Shattenkirk, Greg Mauldin, Cameron Gaunce. This Is just a few of the names that have come in and played well.
Quinn is outstanding at preparing players for the NHL and also for getting the most out the players he has. Last year, when the Avs were decimated by injuries, it cost Lake Erie a lot of young players. Even in spite of the losses, Quinn put the Monsters in the playoffs.
It doesn’t matter who he has, he will get the most out of them. There is a story that has become something of legend. The Monsters came out for a game slow. It was a back-to-back game and the Monsters were tired. Quinn didn’t care, he was pissed and a trash can was the vessel that he chose to take his anger out on.
He kicked the can and, as assistant coach David Oliver said, “put it through the uprights from 62 yards.”
Quinn’s tirade had his players dodging trash as Quinn went off trying to get his guys to wake up. Well, it worked; the Monsters came back to win.
That kind of emotion has been missing from the Avs’ locker room and the Avs need that. The Avs are a team that has been wonderfully inconsistent and Quinn is just the guy to get the most out of his team from game-to-game, period-to-period. That is why Quinn should be the next Colorado Avalanche coach.

Joey Suyeishi- in defense of Joe Sacco

Ever since the Colorado Avalanche's abysmal finish to the 2010-2011 season in which they won only five total games in February, March, and April combined, Avalanche fans have been calling for Head Coach Joe Sacco's job.

Let's wind the clocks back a few years. In the summer of 2009, Tony Granato and his entire regime were gone. The Avs public's first choice to be the next head coach was former Avalanche great, Patrick Roy.

Nonetheless, Roy turned down the position to stay with his QMJHL team, the Quebec Remparts. The Avs went on to hire runner-up, Joe Sacco, who had been coaching their AHL affiliate, the Lake Erie Monsters.

Sacco handled being the obvious second choice very professionally and took an Avalanche team who was expected to be among the league's worst into the playoffs that same year. Under him, 18-year-old rookie centers Matt Duchene and Ryan O'Reilly excelled and goaltender Craig Anderson, who had been a journeyman backup throughout his career, blossomed into one of the most successful goaltenders in the NHL that season.

The eighth place Avalanche gave the heavily favored San Jose Sharks a run for their money until finally succumbing to them in six games. Sacco was a finalist for the Jack Adams Award for coach of the year.

With 2009-10 being a successful year and 2010-11 being a disappointing one, it stands that this season, the third and final of Sacco's contract, is certainly the pivotal one. Now there's still a quarter of the season left before the final verdict is in on this year's Avalanche team, but here is what Sacco does have going for him:

During the three years of Sacco's tenure, the Avalanche have had one of the youngest teams in the NHL as well as one of the lowest payrolls in the league. While it's certainly been a controversial topic in Denver, the Avalanche management has gone to a strictly "build from within" team policy.

The days of acquiring big-name players at the trade deadline seem to be long over. While the Avs will have to eventually ante up and pay their young, up-and-coming stars (Duchene, Johnson, and O'Reilly will all need to be re-signed after this season), and next year's salary cap is currently a mystery, you can certainly make the argument that Sacco is working with what he's got.

The Avalanche have a plethora of young talent, but are lacking experienced veteran leadership. Captain Milan Hejduk has had a disappointing year and Jean-Sebastien Giguere was signed as a backup. Guys like Duchene, O'Reilly, Johnson, and Landeskog will grow into the future leaders and superstars of this team, but at the moment, no coach is going to be able to make these guys, whose average age is barely over 21, into overnight superstars who can compete with the best in the NHL...for now at least.

Now I'm certainly not saying the Sacco deserves a hefty five-year contract extension, but he's been very maligned throughout Avalanche Nation for the last year, but let's see what the rest of this season holds and what he can get out of this young squad. He knows that this is it and the for the next month, he and the team are going to have to put it all on the line.

Kevin Goff- The return of Bob Hartley


Joe Sacco is not the answer for the Colorado Avalanche moving forward. He’s done a decent job helping a young team find ways to win games and play an exciting brand of hockey, but if the Avalanche want to return to a team that will be in the Stanley Cup conversation every year then a change is needed.

Colorado, as an organization, seems to operate with a kind of “keep it in the family” style of hiring.

About the farthest out they’ve ever gone was when they hired Joel Quenneville as the head coach even though it had been a long time since he served as an assistant coach for the Avalanche.

So who should be the next guy if the Avalanche does move forward from Joe Sacco?

The Avalanche should look back in their history for this answer, and right one of the biggest wrongs that has ever happened in this organization.

The Colorado Avalanche should hire Bob Hartley. Bob Hartley is still the all-time winningest coach in Colorado Avalanche history (193 wins).

With Bob Hartley as the head coach, the Avalanche were part of the Western Conference Finals for four straight years, also winning the Stanley Cup in 2001 in one of the most dramatic Stanley Cup Finals the NHL has ever seen.

Hartley is also the only coach in franchise history to record 40 wins in each of his first four seasons as coach.

Skeptics of this idea could easily point to the fact that during those years the Avalanche had a loaded roster from top to bottom and you couldn’t possibly expect those results from Hartley again.

However, when Hartley went to Atlanta, he took a team that had yet to get rid of their expansion label and turned them into a divisional champion.

It’s true that Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg are no longer on the roster and no Patrick Roy in net. But there is a Matt Duchene, a Ryan O’Reilly and a Gabriel Landeskog.

The players are different and younger than the ones that led Colorado to NHL dominance years ago, but a similar potential for talent is there and they need a coach that will get the most out of them.

Hartley’s style as a coach is one that will benefit the Avalanche in the long run and suit the players that are currently in the system.

Hartley is known as a disciplinarian in the dressing room and on the ice and was always active behind his bench. Hartley could frequently be seen talking to players or barking at officials, which would be a welcome change to the quite face-making approach of Joe Sacco.

Hartley’s on-ice product is also one that would benefit the young guns on the Avalanche.

Hartley is all about pushing the pace and allowing the team to use their speed and talent to create offense. The difference that he would bring is an aggressive fore-check that would also up the physical play of his team and cause more turnovers in prime areas.

This combination of speed and aggression would likely sit very well with the likes of Matt Duchene and Gabriel Landeskog. Erik Johnson and the more active Avalanche defensemen would also likely see an impact in their game as well and we could very well begin to see Stefan Elliott become one of the premier offensive defensemen in the league.

The most important factors about the Avalanche hiring Bob Hartley, aside from the fact that he never should have been fired in the first place, is his ability to coach and the respect that he will command.

He had the same players that Marc Crawford had but was able to get more out of them night in and night out every single game of the year.

He pushed his players, and he challenged them. Hell, he made Patrick Roy so mad that Roy destroyed the video room because Hartley told him that he gave up a soft goal in a game that the Avalanche won by several goals!

Hartley says the things that need to be said to his team and that makes him a respected coach.

As far as gaining the team’s confidence from the beginning, all he has to do is walk into the locker room and show the players his Stanley Cup ring.

The conversation that I would imagine goes something like this:

Hartley walks into the locker room and has all the players sit down. Hartley shows the ring without saying a word. “You want one of these? Well I know how to get you one.”

Can you imagine the eyes of the young guys on this team? Can you imagine the immediate motivation and respect given to this guy?

The Avalanche organization is at a place in the franchise’s history where two things can happen. They can stay the course with their current coach and wallow in mediocrity. Sure, they may make the playoffs as a lower seed but the inconsistency will continue and the team will have a hard time maturing into a winner.

Or they can go out and get a proven coach that they know will give the players the tutelage that they need so that they can learn to become a winner.

The Avalanche can become that winner if they go and re-hire Bob Hartley to be their next coach.

Cheryl Bradley- Why Roy is not the answer

The Avalanche is an organization that relies heavily on promoting from within. In fact, all of the team’s head coaches since 1995 were somehow tied to the franchise before coaching the burgundy and blue. It’s no wonder, then, that the Avs have already offered Patrick Roy the head coaching job.

Prior to hiring current coach Joe Sacco, Pierre Lacroix asked Roy to take the helm. After two weeks of mulling it over, Roy refused. His official reason was because of family and his appreciation for the life he’d created in Quebec.

Unofficial reports came out that he wanted more than the organization was willing to give. He currently co-owns, manages and coaches the QMJHL’s Quebec Remparts, giving him freedom he couldn’t get in Colorado. Various sources indicated without that kind of autonomy, Roy simply wasn’t interested.

For him to get the job this summer, one party would have to give. If Roy accepted the coach-only position, his frustration over not having full control would spill out somewhere, with the players being the most likely recipients. If Lacroix fired current General Manager Greg Sherman, giving full power to Roy, arrogance might limit how much guidance he’d accept from guys like head scout Rick Pracey. Either way, it would be bad for the Avalanche.

Admittedly, Roy’s tenure with the Remparts has been fantastic. After taking over as head coach in the 2005-2006 season, Roy has maintained a winning percentage of .550 or above, culminating in a 305-135-30 record overall. He stresses offense above all else. With guys like Matt Duchene and Peter Mueller on the roster, an offense-focused style might seem to fit with the Avalanche identity. However, recent roster changes by Sherman show that the team’s identity is evolving, and defense is more of a priority even among the forward corps.

If Roy’s style relies too heavily on run-and-gun, like that which was unsuccessfully employed in recent seasons, the team will lose the tenacity that is making it harder to play against. Moreover, the achievements Roy’s experiencing at the junior’s level may not translate to the NHL.

A coach really must rise up the ranks in order to gain the skills needed to handle an adult professional hockey team. Coaching 17- to 19-year-olds does not properly prepare someone for coaching 20- to 35-year-olds.

The iconic images of a fiery and intense Patrick Roy will burn forever in the minds of Avalanche fans. His passion for winning and his exceedingly high expectations, both for himself and his teammates, played a huge part in bringing two Stanley Cups to the city of Denver. Those qualities are reasons many people give for wanting Roy to be the next head coach of the Avalanche.

They believe that he can instill them in this team and, by doing so, propel them to the next level. But they’re wrong. The Avalanche boasts the youngest team in the league, full of players who need solid guidance to reach their full potential. A consistently negatively-charged environment will not accomplish that.

There are times when the line must be drawn, the gauntlet thrown down; however, there’s a strong possibility that Roy would rely too heavily on this tactic, one he often employed as a player. His tendency to speak his mind, regardless of the consequences, could have a devastating effect on the cohesion a team must have in order to win. The Hall of Famer could lose the locker room, and no amount of yelling, intimidation or chest-thumping would get it back.

Roy was an otherworldly player. He was electric and insane and phenomenal on the ice. He is beloved in Denver, and rightly so. He will be a hero to Avalanche fans forever. A stint behind the bench would only sour that image of him while setting back the team too far. The Avalanche family, fans included, should continue to love the guy as a former player, not risk hating him as a coach.

Thank you to Cheryl, Kevin and Joey for their contributions. Hope you enjoyed reading their entries as much as I did. The next coach won't be an easy choice, especially now that Carlyle is gone.

If you were Greg Sherman, who would hire to coach the Avs and help them contend?

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