|
Allaire, Army, Farrish let go |
|
Rick Sadowski
Colorado Avalanche Blogger •Avalanche Insider • RSS
• Archive
• CONTACT
|
|
|
Finish with an abysmal 22-56-4 record and 48 points, and changes are inevitable.
Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic has made it plain he plans to shake up the roster this offseason.
On Tuesday, the Avalanche announced on Twitter that assistant coaches Francois Allaire, Tim Army and Dave Farrish won't return next season.
Head coach Jared Bednar inherited all three after he replaced Patrick Roy, who abruptly resigned last Aug. 11.
Nolan Pratt and video coordinator Brett Heimlich remain on staff. Pratt, who was hired last summer before Roy quit, was Bednar's assistant in 2015-16 with the AHL champion Lake Erie (now Cleveland) Monsters.
Head coaches generally prefer to hire their own assistants, so the three departures shouldn't have come as a surprise, especially in light of the fact that the Avalanche have missed the playoffs three years in a row.
Aside from finishing 21 points behind 29th-place Vancouver in the overall NHL standings, the Avalanche were:
-- 30th on power plays at 12.6 percent; the league average was 19.1 percent.
-- 29th in penalty killing at 76.6 percent; the league average was 80.9 percent.
-- 30th in goals-against average, 3.34.
-- 30th in goals scored, 166.
-- 30th in goals allowed, 278.
Allaire spent four seasons with the Avalanche. He is a longtime goalie coach who worked with Roy during their time in Montreal.
Army worked with the forwards and on the power play, and was on the bench during games. He was hired six years ago when Joe Sacco was head coach.
Farrish spent two seasons with the Avalanche. He was originally hired as a defensive coach and helped Pratt in that area during practices but was in the press box during games while Pratt was on the bench with Bednar and Army.
*****
Sakic and two other former Avalanche players, defenseman Uwe Krupp and forward Teemu Selanne, were inducted into the International Ice Hockey Federation Hall of Fame during a ceremony in Cologne, Germany
Patrick Francheterre, Tony Hand, Dieter Kalt, Saku Koivu and Angela Ruggiero were the other honorees.