Avalanche move on from key staffer in surprising decision

At least one change is coming to the Colorado Avalanche’s bench for the 2025-26 NHL season. President of hockey operations Joe Sakic and general manager Chris MacFarland shared that the team is moving on from assistant coach Ray Bennett, via Meghan Angley of Guerrilla Sports.

Bennett had been an assistant coach for the Avalanche since the 2017-18 season, primarily running the team’s power play. It’s somewhat of a surprise, given Colorado’s powerplay never finished outside the top-10 (outside of the 2019-20 season), and finished their Round 1 loss to the Dallas Stars with a 30.4% success rate. Given his success with the Avalanche, the Boston Bruins, Philadelphia Flyers, New York Islanders and Anaheim Ducks could all look to Bennett for additional help with a man advantage.

Bennett is likely the only coach departing Colorado’s bench this offseason. Surprisingly, the pair of front-office leaders were asked about head coach Jared Bednar’s status, to which MacFarland replied, “100% confident Jared (Bednar) is our head coach.” Bednar has managed a 390-246-64 record in 700 games as the Avalanche’s head coach, including a Stanley Cup championship in 2022.

Other notes from the Central Division:

• Although the Minnesota Wild became the first professional team in North American sports to lose in the opening round of the playoffs for the eighth time in 10 years, no changes are coming to their coaching staff. According to Michael Russo of The Athletic, general manager Bill Guerin doesn’t expect any coaching changes for the Wild this offseason, which extends to their head-coaching situation for their AHL affiliate, the Iowa Wild.
• Passing along a statement from their director of scouting, Alex Daugherty of The Tennessean, reiterated that the Nashville Predators want to select one or two goaltenders during this summer’s draft. The news is surprising, given that Nashville relatively recently extended starting netminder Juuse Saros to an eight-year extension and traded heir-apparent Yaroslav Askarov to the San Jose Sharks. Although some netminders could be taken in the first round, any of them would be a reach for the Predators with the fifth overall selection.