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Colorado Avalanche Final Word on Why Patrick Roy Left

By Nadia Archuleta

Nov 5, 2015; Glendale, AZ, USA; Colorado Avalanche head coach Patrick Roy looks on during the first period against the Arizona Coyotes at Gila River Arena. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 5, 2015; Glendale, AZ, USA; Colorado Avalanche head coach Patrick Roy looks on during the first period against the Arizona Coyotes at Gila River Arena. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports /
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Patrick Roy’s Role with the Team

colorado avalanche
DENVER, CO – SEPTEMBER 18: Colorado Avalanche head coach Patrick Roy, left, and Executive Vice President Joe Sakic talk to media about the up coming season, September 18, 2014. Avalanche veterans reported today for physicals and media availability at the Pepsi Center. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post via Getty Images) /

The team courted Patrick Roy. Almost from the time Roy retired in 2003, the team started offering him head coach or general manager positions. He turned them down in the beginning because he didn’t have any experience. Later, he wanted to keep coaching his sons in the QMJHL as head coach (and owner and GM) of the Quebec Remparts.

Finally, Joe Sakic, who’d been named executive vice president of hockey operations, and team president Josh Kroenke met Patrick Roy at his favorite local golf course, the Bear’s Club, in Florida. They offered him the head coaching position with a promise that he’d serve as the vice president of hockey operations.

Basically, while their titles changed through the years, the understanding was that Joe Sakic would help Patrick Roy build a team according to a shared vision. Roy would be the front-and-center guy as head coach, giving interviews practically every day during the season. Sakic would be the behind-the-scenes guy.

In that time, the shared vision was to build a big, gritty, speedy team with great skill. They’d build according to a combination of old style — mixing veterans with young bucks — and new style — emphasis on speed and changing systems. They were unofficially patterning the team after contenders like the Anaheim Ducks and LA Kings.

Sakic and Roy are both Hall of Fame players. They have brilliant hockey minds. Together they eschewed advanced stats. Many fans and reporters called them old fashioned for that. However, I’ve long maintained that because of their brilliant hockey vision, they see the game on so many different levels that advanced stats can’t predict.

Anyway, Patrick Roy declared in the first season what his intentions were: to bring a Stanley Cup attitude back to Colorado. They were going to build around a talented group of youngsters — Gabriel Landeskog, Matt Duchene, Erik Johnson, Ryan O’Reilly and the newly-drafted Nathan MacKinnon.

The team was not in a rebuild. They were seeking relevancy from the get-go. The understanding was that Sakic and Roy simply had to augment the core with the right cast of supporting players.

Patrick Roy continued forth with that vision. I believe that, until he started thinking about resignation, he believed the team could be relevant with its existing core and the proper supporting cast. It was Joe Sakic who lost faith.

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