"Our goal is to win the Cup every year — and I like it that way. You can set expectations high and it makes it fun."
"Our goal is to win the Cup every year — and I like it that way. You can set expectations high and it makes it fun."
THN: First off, how different is it to have external expectations surrounding the Avalanche these days, versus when you first coached the team back in 2016?
Jared Bednar: First of all, it's a real good thing (laughs). Coming into my first year, the team was in limbo and we didn't know exactly how that year would go. It was an aging group that had success in the years prior to me getting there and the game was speeding up. I was fortunate to be back for my second year after how the first one went (Colorado finished with a .293 win percentage), but we changed over around 15 players — we only held onto the young core, guys like Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen.
It was almost a new team. It was a young, exciting, inexperienced group and for me, that year, our goal for those players was to play as hard as we could and do as well as we could with no expectations, really. We wanted to improve on the year before, but to get into the playoffs that year probably exceeded expectations and sped up our timeline with the emergence of some of those young superstars we got. So pretty high expectations from then on and I wouldn't want it any other way, to be honest with you. I feel like for every coach and player, the expectation is to give yourself a chance to win and compete in the playoffs for a chance to win the Stanley Cup. Now we're striving to get back. It's difficult with the salary cap; you're losing guys, Tampa is losing guys, all the top teams lose guys every year. Our goal is to win the Cup every year and I like it that way.
You can set expectations high and it makes it a lot of fun. It's demanding, but it's the way everyone likes it.
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THN: With MacKinnon, Rantanen and Cale Makar, what's it like coaching them now as superstars versus when they were developing as NHLers?
JB: That's a major change. They were young guys, I was a young coach and I see it as us growing up, maturing and improving together. When you see those guys improve in all the areas you wanted them to in order to lead a team to a Cup, that's the new bar for them, which they have met and exceeded on most occasions. They understand what the coaching staff and management expect from above and they strive to achieve that. I also understand what they want and need from me, so it's a two-way street with a lot of trust.
Now the goal is to repeat our Cup success and we know how each other operate. It's a great relationship between our staff and players. It also helps when you get new faces in. I see those leaders and stars as guys who really help mold and shape our culture and help guys get up to speed quicker than maybe expected.
THN: I wanted to ask you about the NHL Coaches' Association; why was it important for you to get involved at the committee level?
JB: The participation of NHL coaches, we're at almost 100 percent. It's grown because we see the value in it. The executive committee rotates around; we go in for a couple of years, so I'm on it right now. But what made me want to get involved is that No. 1, you get a lot of information. As a young coach, I started in the ECHL and you're looking for ways to grow and improve, you're looking for tactics and structure and how to deal with players. You'd call people you know in the business to try to get better. One of the first events I went to was the NHL Coaches Conference, which always takes place during the draft. I just find it to be such a great resource for young coaches — all coaches, really — from different levels, from Canada, the U.S. and Europe; it's packed with coaches who aren't in the NHL. And NHL coaches would be there for presentations and small breakout groups where you can pick their brains and I did that for years. It really helps and you grow relationships with guys in levels above you and talk things through, take things back to your team.
I love those events and we can pass our knowledge on and give back.
Here in Colorado, we're part of the diversity program the NHLCA has. We brought in two female college coaches for our rookie camp and main camp and if they have time in their schedule, they'll visit us for a road game at some point during the season to check in with our coaches. It opens up lines of communications where other coaches can contact you in tough times, or help figure out solutions for any problems they may be having.
THN: I'll finish with a fun one; you briefly played for the Anaheim Bullfrogs of the Roller Hockey International. What was that like?
JB: It was fun. There were a lot of ECHL guys, because we didn't make enough money in the winter to just take summers off, and you wanted to be ready for the next hockey season. I was trying to get to the AHL at the time to make a living in hockey. I was contacted by Anaheim to come out and play and I said 'Yeah, absolutely.' It was competitive. There were some guys who maybe didn't play at the highest level in ice hockey, but they were really good on rollerblades. It was a way to get paid and continue to play hockey but your focus was still on training. And going out to California to spend the summer wasn't a bad deal so it seemed like a no-brainer for me.
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