Colorado Avalanche: Patrick Roy was Right about the Core

Was Patrick Roy right about the Colorado Avalanche core? Are they insufficient to lead the team to the playoffs — or even relevance?

When Patrick Roy resigned from the Colorado Avalanche in August, the reasons weren’t exactly known. The main issue seemed to be his disconnect with general manager Joe Sakic. Roy didn’t feel as if Sakic was listening to him when it came to roster moves, and he grew increasingly frustrated. Instead of dealing with it, he bailed.

While I still don’t agree with how he left, through the first quarter of the Avalanche season fans have to wonder: Was Patrick Roy right?

Roy wanted to make big moves in the offseason. With the free agent pool lacking high-end talent, that meant trading someone from the core group of Matt Duchene, Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon, Tyson Barrie, Erik Johnson and Semyon Varlamov.

MacKinnon and Johnson were never in trouble. MacKinnon had signed a seven year extension a month prior to Roy leaving and Roy was part of the team that drafted MacKinnon with the #1 overall pick. Johnson signed a seven year extension a year prior, and while his play hadn’t exactly been up to the standards of a #1 defenseman, it was obvious that Roy liked him.

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Varlamov didn’t appear to be in much trouble either. Even though Varlamov had failed to come up big for the team in big games, and Roy wanted more out of his #1 goaltender, Roy knew the daily struggles of a goalie. Roy knew what it was like to be hung out to dry by your coach and organization, and didn’t want to do the same thing to Varlamov.

Landeskog seemed in a bit of trouble, but Duchene was in real trouble. While Landeskog’s name had been floating in the rumor mill for a week or two during the offseason, Duchene’s name had been in the rumor mill since the start of last season. His 30-goal celebration and subsequent tongue lashing from Roy only fueled those rumors. It looked like Duchene would definitely be traded in the offseason, but Sakic wanted to stand pat with his core group up front.

The one name that Roy wanted gone more than anyone was Barrie. Reports have indicated that Roy saw Barrie as a bottom two defenseman, and that he liked Nick Holden, Barrie’s defensive partner for the better part of three seasons, a lot more. Roy didn’t want the Colorado Avalanche to pay Barrie, a restricted free agent, the money he wanted. It’s probably not a coincidence that Roy walked just weeks after Barrie signed his extension.

Through 21 games, the Avs core hasn’t exactly performed up to standards. MacKinnon leads the team with 15 points. Only the Calgary Flames have fewer points from their leading scorer. Rene Bourque, of all people leads, the team with eight goals. Yes, Bourque has more goals than MacKinnon, Landeskog, and Duchene. Tyson Barrie is an embarrassing -10, which is sixth worst in the league. To make matters worse, Holden has more points (12) than Barrie (10) on the season.

We’ve seen this core in action for over three seasons now, and outside of a magical playoff run in Roy’s first year, they haven’t been able to put it all together.

Not only did Roy want to shake up the core, he wanted to bring in Alexander Radulov. While Radulov’s contract demands may have limited the Colorado Avalanche’s ability to sign him, the fact that Montreal is the top team in the league and Radulov is second in scoring for them, probably makes Roy smile a bit.

None of this excuses Roy’s shortcomings as a coach or reflects on Bednar’s coaching ability.

It’s the coach’s job to get the most out of his players, and it’s unfair to say that Bednar has gotten a real chance to get the most of out this group. Roy had a chance, and didn’t exactly succeed.

Next: State of the Avalanche

But maybe he didn’t succeed because this Colorado Avalanche group simply isn’t good enough. And he knew that.

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