Avalanche Make Right Call with HC

After a disappointing playoff exit, the Colorado Avalanche affirmed their commitment to head coach Jared Bednar. It's been three years of disappointing exits since the team's 2022 Stanley Cup championship, which had posed the question of Bednar's status with the team.

At the end-of-season media session, Avalanche General Manager Chris McFarland expressed his belief in Bednar and confirmed his return next season. It may be a frustrating choice currently, but this is the correct one for the Avalanche.

"One hundred percent confident," McFarland said. "Jared is our head coach."

What McFarland gets right with this decision is staying calm through adversity. Sure, the Avalanche underperformed this season, but to pin it all on Bednar would be a misguided approach. Bednar has to improve in multiple ways, but the Avs cannot panic.

What was abundantly clear in the Avalanche's first-round exit was how good a team the Dallas Stars are. A shorthanded Stars team overcame everything Colorado had and now faces the Winnipeg Jets in Round Two.

The Avs pushed them to a Game 7 despite Dallas being a superior team in multiple ways. Sometimes you get beaten by a better team. It doesn't always mean it's time to tear everything down and rebuild. This organization knows its championship contention window remains open, despite the pessimistic outlook. Bednar is the ideal coach to guide them back to the Stanley Cup, especially as the core of Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, and Gabe Landeskog is still effective.

That is why McFarland got it right with this move. Bednar is a Stanley Cup-winning coach with a 390-246-64 regular-season record and a 50-35 postseason record. Under Bednar, the team has been a perennial playoff team and Cup contender. Instead of panicking and making a decision that could have set the organization further back, the Avalanche made the right call to give Bednar another shot with this group.