The unfortunate sweep the Colorado Avalanche suffered in the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs has prompted a wave of knee-jerk reactions around the media and fan base.
And if there’s anything everyone should avoid is making rash decisions following a catastrophic event. An example of such a rash decision would be moving on from Jared Bednar.
As much as some online chatter has suggested that Bednar has to go, the biggest question should be: Who would take over?
When teams make coaching changes, it’s generally because their hand has been forced or there’s a great candidate lined up. A good example of that is the New York Islanders. They wanted to dump Patrick Roy this season, but didn’t have anyone to replace him with. Once they got Peter DeBoer, they moved on from Roy.
The Vegas Golden Knights were an example of a desperate move. They chucked Bruce Cassidy and brought in John Tortorella. Torts is hardly a bad candidate. And it was the best the Golden Knights could do given the desperate situation they were in earlier this season.
Neither case applies to the Avalanche. Jared Bednar isn’t suddenly a bad coach, nor are the Avs in a desperate situation where they have to make a move.
Unless there was some incredible coaching candidate available, and I will address the David Carle situation in a future article, there is just no logical reason to move on from Jared Bednar. Doing so would be an unfounded decision seeking to give off the impression that this season was somehow a failure.
But let’s just run the facts for a minute. The Avalanche won the Presidents’ Trophy. They coasted into the playoffs, swept their first-round series, and knocked off one Stanley Cup contender in the second round. That's a fantastic season by any measure.
They simply ran out of gas in the third round, with injuries catching up to them. That was pretty much what happened to the 2024 New York Rangers. They were the Presidents’ Trophy winners, swept the first round, got past a tough team in the Carolina Hurricanes in the second round, then slammed into the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference Final.
That’s hardly a lost season.
Now, if the Avalanche plummet next season and miss the playoffs like the Rangers did, then we’ll need to have a serious conversation. The Rangers fired their coach and brought in Mike Sullivan.
There seems to be no indication of that happening next season. So, the wisest thing the organization can do at this point is just run it back. There will be some free agency questions on the horizon.
But that seems trivial at this point. The major issue will be extending Cale Makar. Once that matter is off the board, we can think about the minutiae ahead of next season.
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