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Avs hire Bednar as coach

August 25, 2016, 2:11 PM ET [77 Comments]
Rick Sadowski
Colorado Avalanche Blogger •Avalanche Insider • RSSArchiveCONTACT
UPDATED after afternoon conference call

The Avalanche have gone to Jared Bednar as their new head coach, signing him to a three-year contract.

The Avalanche made the announcement Thursday morning, two weeks after Patrick Roy abruptly resigned his positions as coach and vice president of hockey operations. Bednar becomes the seventh head coach in Avalanche history and 15th in Quebec/Colorado franchise history.

A fresh face and a fresh approach. I like it.

Bednar, 44, led the Lake Erie (now Cleveland) Monsters -- the Columbus Blue Jackets' AHL affiliate -- to a 43-22-6-5 regular-season record and the Calder Cup championship last year. They finished second in the Central Division and went 15-2 in the playoffs.

"I look around the league and there's a lot of great coaches that have come up through the American Hockey League," Sakic said Thursday afternoon. "I won two Stanley Cups with coaches that didn't have (NHL) head coaching experience when they came in (Marc Crawford in 1996 and Bob Hartley in 2001). I look at the track record and I place a lot of value in winning championships.

"It's tough to win in any league, and to be able to win you've got to be doing something right. Comfort wise, I just think this is the best fit for our team and to get them to the next level. The next level is learning how to win and I believe Jared's going to get them there."

A defenseman during a nine-season minor-league career, Bednar has coached 14 seasons, six as a head coach and eight as an assistant in the AHL and ECHL. He was head coach of the ECHL's South Carolina Stingrays for two seasons and won the Kelly Cup as league champions in 2009.

Bednar, who is from Yorkton, Saskatchewan, has a 251-158-42 career record as a head coach. He coached the Springfield Falcons, who moved to Cleveland before last season, in 2014-15. He also coached the Peoria Rivermen from 2010-12.

"I was certainly happy to be considered and I'm ecstatic to have been named head coach and I'm looking forward to getting to work," Bednar said. "When I started coaching my ultimate goal was obviously to get to the NHL and to coach at the highest level and getting an opportunity to compete for a Stanley Cup. That was my goal going into it and I worked real hard trying to achieve those goals, and this is another step in that direction.

"It's something that I take a lot of pride in, something I've worked really hard for and it hasn't been an overnight thing. It's taken some time and all my stops along the way have helped prepare me for this. I take this very seriously, I've been preparing for this my whole career. I'm a competitor, and that's what I put into it on a daily basis and I've worked extremely hard for it. I know that our team will do the same thing. It's one of those things where your preparation and the work you put into it comes back to you."

Bednar said he's watched tape of Avalanche games from last season and he wants them to play an up-tempo, aggressive game all over the ice, and to take advantage of their speedy forwards.

"I have a style of play that I think works in today's game," he said. "I think we have to be an aggressive team. The game's getting faster every day and I think you have to play an up-tempo style, you have to attack and that's not just offensively, it's defensively as well.

"It's an exciting group with a group of forwards especially that are dynamic guys, really fast. The league's getting faster every day and we have to put a structure in place to get these guys playing an up-tempo style and have support all over the ice as well and kind of bring the group together and then move forward from there."

The Avalanche earlier this summer hired Monsters assistant Nolan Pratt, another defenseman, to a staff that includes Tim Army, Dave Farrish and Francois Allaire.

Bednar will arrive in Denver for a formal news conference and to have his first meetings with the coaches. Sakic said Bednar will decide whether to retain any or all of them.

"At the end of the day your coach has to be happy," Sakic said.

Forward Trent Vogelhuber, who played for Bednar, signed a two-way contract with the Avalanche this summer as a free agent.

"(Bednar) has the perfect balance you need out of a coach," Vogelhuber told the Columbus Dispatch. "He's a players' coach and he makes you feel like he's not just your boss, but when it needs to be knuckled down, he's stern and provides discipline. He knows when to be which guy. He's such a good guy to play for, because you know he's got your back, and so you want to have his."

Bednar had 47 goals and 152 assists in 582 minor-league games with Huntington and South Carolina in the ECHL, Grand Rapids in the IHL, and St. John’s and Rochester in the AHL.

Bednar played three seasons in the WHL from 1990-93 with Saskatoon, Spokane, Medicine Hat and Prince Albert.

Bednar is the first Colorado head coach without previous ties to the organization, following Crawford, Hartley, Tony Granato, Joel Quenneville, Joe Sacco and Roy.

The other candidates were Chicago assistant Kevin Dineen, Washington assistant Lane Lambert, San Jose assistant Bob Boughner, and Utica coach Travis Green.



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