Joe Sakic isn’t sounding any alarms about Jared Bednar’s contract, and that alone should tell Avalanche fans plenty.
Speaking Monday on Altitude Sports Radio, Sakic said Colorado is still talking with its head coach about an extension, but there’s no sense of panic as Bednar heads into the final year of his three-year deal.
“No, we’re continuing. We’re gonna talk about it and see if we can get to an agreement here. ... We’ll try and get to an extension, and hopefully we can work something out, but there’s no urgency either.”
That stance lines up with the way Sakic handled another major Avalanche negotiation earlier this summer. There was plenty of outside noise around Cale Makar’s future, but Sakic stayed steady throughout that process. Makar eventually signed an eight-year, $163.2 million extension that keeps him in Colorado through the 2034-35 season.
Bednar’s situation is different, but the importance is obvious. He’s been behind the Avalanche bench since 2016 and has piled up a résumé that includes championships at the ECHL, AHL and NHL levels. The biggest of those came with Colorado’s 2022 Stanley Cup run, and he remains the winningest coach in franchise history.
That kind of track record makes the case for keeping him around.
Even so, Monday’s message from Sakic was clear: this does not have to be rushed. Colorado will keep negotiating, and both sides seem content to let the talks unfold without forcing the issue.
Bednar has taken heat over the last couple of seasons because of the team’s playoff shortcomings, but the organization still wanted him back. The players did too.
For now, the Avalanche are letting the process breathe. And if Sakic’s recent history is any guide, that’s probably a good sign.
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Still, the latest MLB.com poll has him fifth with 37 points and just one first-place vote, a slot behind Cincinnatis Sal Stewart and a few other names drawing more of the spotlight. For Colorado fans, the gap between what Rumfield has actually done and where he sits in the voting is the sort of thing that tends to linger, especially when a player keeps producing and the recognition still feels a step slow to arrive. [Read more 🡒]