The Avalanche youth movement will continue in the wake of their first-round playoff series loss to Nashville, which advanced Sunday in a 5-0 win in Game 6 at the Pepsi Center.
It will continue under coach
Jared Bednar, who reached an agreement last week with general manager
Joe Sakic on a contract extension through the 2019-20 season.
“He’s done an amazing job, the entire staff,” Sakic said Monday at a news conference at the Pepsi Center. “Working with the players, the respect that the coaching staff and the players have for one another, they did an amazing job in keeping this team at an even keel and never letting it slip.
“We have a great working relationship. I really believe in him, his entire staff. It’s a great group, they work well with the players. He’s done a tremendous job and he’s earned everything he’s got.”
Bednar was hired Aug. 25, 2016, two weeks after
Patrick Roy resigned unexpectedly. A rugged defenseman during a nine-season playing career in the minors, Bednar was a highly-successful coach in the American Hockey League and ECHL; he won a championship in each league.
After the Avalanche finished last in the NHL with a 22-54-4 record and 48 points in his first season in 2016-17, they went 43-30-9 this season and clinched the second wild card in the Western Conference.
“We knew it was going to be a tough year that we had to get through,” Sakic said of last season. “I liked the way he coached last year, the way he held our guys, especially our young guys, accountable. I knew while speaking to him through the course of the year the plans going into the summer, what we’re going to expect from the players, getting ready for training camp.
“We were already talking about that well before the year ended. We really believe in Jared, we think he’s a great coach and he’s done a tremendous job.”
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Sakic said the goal is to continue building a roster that is even younger and faster. The Avalanche already were the youngest team in the NHL with an average age of 25.8.
“The key for us is we’re going to stay the course,” Sakic said. “We had an amazing year from our guys. We have a young team, we expect growth from them. We’re going to stay young. In the next couple years we may even get younger. If we can, even try to get a little bit quicker and faster.
“We love the way we play the game, it’s fast and entertaining. You see the Pepsi Center in the last couple months with the new generation of fans, the building’s been alive back to what it was. It’s exciting. We know the fans are excited about this group of players. The dressing room had great chemistry and we want to make sure that whatever we do, the chemistry in the dressing room is good.”
Center
Nathan MacKinnon, still only 22, “totally elevated his game,” Sakic said. MacKinnon finished fifth in the NHL with 97 points (39 goals, 58 assists) in 74 games and is expected to be a Hart Trophy finalist.
“It started last year when his focus was to compete and go head to head with other teams’ top players and trying to win those battles,” Sakic said. “He’s become a much more complete player. That’s what I love about his game. You see when he touches the puck, he’s electrifying. He’s got to be one of the top two or three most exciting players in the game.
“If you want to bring somebody to their first hockey game, you want to bring them to watch Nathan MacKinnon play because he’s unbelievable what he can do with the puck. The pressure he puts on teams when he’s skating out there in the neutral zone with that high-end speed. He did an amazing job staying focused all year and taking his game to the next level. He’s a winner, he wants to win and he hates losing. That’s what’s good about him.”
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Sakic, his staff and the Avalanche’s pro and amateur scouts eventually will evaluate player personnel and prepare for the NHL draft and free agency.
“But make no mistake, we’re not going to chase it, we’re going to stay the course and keep letting this team grow because they deserve it,” he said. “If there’s free agents out there that we may want to look at and speak to, we definitely will. I don’t plan on just going into free agency and trying to sign a bunch of free agents.”
The Avalanche will have a new AHL affiliate next season with the Colorado Eagles, who play in Loveland, north of Denver. The Avalanche and St. Louis shared the San Antonio Rampage of the AHL this season. The Eagles are currently playing in the ECHL playoffs.
“We’re all excited about having our players 45 minutes up the road,” Sakic said.
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