{"id":589786,"date":"2026-06-03T01:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T01:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/589786\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T01:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T01:12:14","slug":"why-avalanches-joe-sakic-has-no-choice-but-to-keep-jared-bednar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/589786\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Avalanche’s Joe Sakic has no choice but to keep Jared Bednar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Super Joe made his Bednar.<\/a> Now he\u2019s got to lie in it. For one more year, at least.<\/p>\n

Count to 10. Deep breath. Exhale. Slowly. Put the pitchforks down<\/a> and ask yourself this question:<\/p>\n

Who could the Avalanche get to coach their team \u2014 right now \u2014 who would be better \u2014 again, right this very second \u2014 than Jared Bednar<\/a>?<\/p>\n

David Carle? Best coach in the time zone. I was in that camp a year ago, my friend.<\/a>\u00a0 The driver of DU\u2019s hockey dynasty is allegedly not ready to walk through that door.<\/p>\n

Jay Woodcroft? Can he draw up a defense? No thanks.<\/p>\n

Craig Berube? Too much Maple Leaf. Pass.<\/p>\n

Kris Knoblauch? Nah.<\/p>\n

Bruce Cassidy? Sure, but there\u2019s a catch: He\u2019s technically off the market. The Golden Knights, classy to the last, refuse to let their former coach out of a contract that runs through 2027 \u2014 even though they\u2019d relieved him of his duties with eight games to go in the regular season.<\/p>\n

After Carle or Cassidy, whom the Vegas brass have locked up in in dungeon near Circus Circus, the pickings look awfully slim.<\/p>\n

Which, we\u2019ll grant you, isn\u2019t the sexiest reason to run it back with Bednar. But we\u2019ll give you another reason: Joe Sakic is inheriting something of a hot mess, at least as championship-level teams go.<\/p>\n

Sakic built the best house on the NHL\u2019s block four years ago. But when he handed the keys over to Chris MacFarland, the maintenance costs went through the roof. Which, by the way, now leaks when it rains.<\/p>\n

When MacFarland left the Avs\u2019 general manager post to run the Nashville Predators on Tuesday, he left a pile of bills on the kitchen table and the basement unfinished. Colorado has roughly $3 million of cap space available for \u201926-27 and only 17 players under contract. The Avalanche don\u2019t have a first-round pick until 2029.<\/p>\n

MacFarland took a Kyle Schwarber approach to roster management \u2014 C-Mac swung hard and swung from his heels, but the misses could be heard for miles. Trading Mikko Rantanen was supposed to ease the cap strain for \u201926-27 and \u201927-28, but the Avs landed back on that track anyway thanks to the Martin Necas contract. Swapping out Rantanen and Bo Byram didn\u2019t age well. Neither did hanging onto Samuel Girard for as long as they did.<\/p>\n

Cale Makar is expected to undergo surgery that will almost surely delay the start of his \u201926-27 season. Also, he\u2019s eligible for a contract extension on July 1 that could almost double his current cap number of $9 million. Necas is making $11.5 million a year through 2034 to be a playoff ghost. Brock Nelson, your 2C, is making $7.5 million a year to play defense.<\/p>\n

Captain Gabe Landeskog turns 34 in November; Scott Wedgewood turns 34 in August. Devon Toews turns 33 next February. Valeri Nichushkin will be 32 in March. Nazem Kadri will be 36 in the fall. Nelson and Josh Manson will turn 35 in October.<\/p>\n

According to Spotrac.com estimates<\/a>, the Avs are on a track to use 56.1% of their expected \u201926-27 cap space on players 31 years of age or older. That\u2019s a lot of old dogs to try and teach new tricks.<\/p>\n

\"HeadHead coach Jared Bednar of the Colorado Avalanche speaks to Parker Kelly (17), Jack Drury (18), Martin Necas (88) and Nazem Kadri (91) during the second period of Game 4 of the NHL Western Conference Final against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on Tuesday, May 26, 2026. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz\/The Denver Post)<\/p>\n

Bednar isn\u2019t nearly as divisive a winner as Sean Payton, but he\u2019s getting closer by the summer. Like Sunshine Sean, Bedsy offers a high floor, good-to-brilliant regular seasons, and inevitable playoff heartbreak brought on by a combination of stubbornness and the inability to adapt on the fly. Every time that second title looks close, something happens that snatches the dream away.<\/p>\n

A decade of Bednar has produced one Stanley Cup title, two conference final appearances and four second-round exits. For a team whose core has at least two future Hall-of-Famers in Nathan MacKinnon and Makar, and featured a third in Rantanen for most of Bednar\u2019s era, that feels like a slightly underwhelming return on the trophy front. Very good suddenly feels very stale.<\/p>\n

Fun fact: Seven of the last nine Western Conference championship coaches got to the Stanley Cup Final within their first 12 months on the job \u2014 including John Tortorella in Vegas, who\u2019d only landed the gig in April.<\/p>\n

Counter: Six of the last nine Eastern Conference-winning coaches were on their jobs six years or longer when they reached the Cup Final.<\/p>\n

The last eight Cup championship-winning coaches did so with about four seasons with their current team already under their belts, on average. A quick-strike hire might get you there, but they usually don\u2019t get over the line \u2014 the Final coach with the most tenure with a franchise has won three of the last five Cups and five of the last eight.<\/p>\n

Bedsy also hasn\u2019t lost the locker room, for whatever that\u2019s worth. MacKinnon trusts him, which is no mean feat. Logan O\u2019Connor has told me in multiple chats over multiple seasons that players appreciate Jared\u2019s steady, calm voice during a nine-month grind.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis work ethic and his preparation is something that there is zero complacency in what he does day-to-day,\u201d O\u2019Connor, the former Pios star, said last spring. \u201cHow (Bednar) operates, the meetings he runs, the message he delivers, what he expects from players, having good relationships with players \u2014 I think he creates a clear picture of how he wants us to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that goes from first line to fourth line, individuals to power play to penalty kill. I think you know exactly the expectations that he has for you. And then it\u2019s on us to go out there and execute those expectations. I think he just has the utmost respect from us players. And it\u2019s no surprise that he\u2019s had as great of a run as he has, given the volatility in the (coaching) market. And we all love playing for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Sakic and the Kroenkes, the question of Bednar, whose current contract extension expires at the end of next season, is largely this:<\/p>\n

Do you prefer something safe and predictable \u2014 50-plus wins in the regular season, followed by a second-round postseason exit \u2014 or the crap shoot of a new coaching hire?<\/p>\n

Do you want to be hockey\u2019s version of the \u201990s Atlanta Braves? Or do you want to roll the dice? After being shamed on The Strip, we\u2019re about to find out if Super Joe\u2019s still in a gambling mood.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Super Joe made his Bednar. Now he\u2019s got to lie in it. For one more year, at least.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":589787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5116],"tags":[193,1650,9794,1034,1116,1651,192,144,5277,147,900,1543,1035,551,5,1117,4444,1544,17396,1180,1038,513,270,1262,2409,231,517,2054,4,1340,2565,1653,20139,43,350,14,3922,2071],"class_list":["post-589786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-colorado-avalanche","tag-avalanche","tag-avalanche-takes","tag-bo-byram","tag-brock-nelson","tag-cale-makar","tag-chris-macfarland","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-avalanche","tag-coloradoavalanche","tag-dallas-stars","tag-david-carle","tag-devon-toews","tag-gabe-landeskog","tag-gambling","tag-hockey","tag-jared-bednar","tag-joe-sakic","tag-josh-manson","tag-kyle-schwarber","tag-latest-headlines","tag-logan-oconnor","tag-martin-necas","tag-mikko-rantanen","tag-more-avalanche-news","tag-nashville","tag-nashville-predators","tag-nathan-mackinnon","tag-nazem-kadri","tag-nhl","tag-samuel-girard","tag-scott-wedgewood","tag-sean-keeler","tag-sean-payton","tag-sports","tag-sports-columnists","tag-stanley-cup","tag-valeri-nichushkin","tag-western-conference"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=589786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/589786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/589787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=589786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=589786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=589786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}