As Joe Sakic thanked the Columbus Blue Jackets for the improbable opportunity to hire away their American Hockey League coach, his voice had the timbre of someone whose wealthy relative surprised him by posting his bail.

“It was a time-sensitive matter,” said the Colorado Avalanche general manager, with a virtual exhale.

Yeah, no [expletive]. Patrick Roy quits on Aug. 11, and two weeks later Sakic announces that Jared Bednar is the new coach of the Avalanche. The same Jared Bednar that coached the AHL Lake Erie Monsters to a Calder Cup in June, and the same Jared Bednar that won the Kelly Cup with the South Carolina Stingrays in 2009. He has a 251-158-42 career record in six seasons as an ECHL and AHL head coach.

“You have to be doing something right,” said Sakic.

It’s fairly obvious what Sakic liked about Bednar.

Bednar doesn’t have NHL head coaching experience, much like Marc Crawford and Bob Hartley didn’t when they were hired to coach Sakic with the Avalanche, both leading him to Stanley Cup rings. Bednar has paid his dues in the bush leagues but has never indicated that an NHL job is somehow owed to him, nor that any significant personnel decision-making power should be afforded him. Which is, let’s say, a nice change from the predecessor. He was available.

We can’t stress that last point enough: This is a coach many considered to be a top-flight AHL prospect, with the potential to make the leap to the NHL. But he was stuck behind John Tortorella – a John Davidson hire – in Columbus. He was going to have to leave the organization to take the next step. It’s just incredible that the Jackets allowed him to take it with a month before the season.

“He did a great job for us, both in player development and, obviously, in winning games,” Blue Jackets GM Jarmo Kekalainen said, via Puck Rakers. “I’ve always said it publicly that I’m all about getting people ahead in their careers and their lives. We’re not going to stand in the way of that. This could be the best chance (Bednar) has to get an NHL coaching job, with the timing of winning the Calder Cup.”

That’s doing your guy a hell of a solid.

But beyond why Sakic liked Bednar, there’s the other aspect of this hiring that you have to admire, which is that Bednar, in theory, is an incredible fit for the Avalanche.

The easy analysis is to say that this is addition by subtraction. Roy had diminishing returns, showed an inability to adapt defensively (with a stubborn luddite approach to analytics) and it was obvious in the post-resignation fallout that some of the team’s young core felt his selective discipline as head coach was unfair. (The vets loved him; the rest of the team, less enamored.)

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But what matters isn’t what you subtract; what matters is what you add.

Bednar gets it when it comes to how you have to play in today’s NHL. It’s not enough to demand speed and aggression – Roy did, quite frankly. Your best use of that speed is going to come from your structure at even strength, which even a fleeting glance at the Pittsburgh Penguins under Mike Sullivan would have revealed.

“The game is getting faster and faster every day,” said Bednar on Altitude 950.

“Get everyone on the same page in the structure, in the system. When everyone knows what they’re doing, you can play fast. Puck support’s a big thing for me. Moving around the ice as a group of five. All the players become faster and better players within the group.”

He says defense is as important as offense, especially in pace and speed: “Defend in numbers and defend quickly.”

The Colorado Avalanche averaged the fourth-most shots against per game at 32.7 during Roy’s three years as head coach. That’s simply unacceptable in today’s game for an alleged contender.

Bednar gets the analytics thing, or at least gives it more lip service than Roy was willing to do.

“The information that’s out there, you have to look at it. It’s information that can help your team build on its strengths, and improve its weaknesses. So I think you have to pay attention to it. It can help decipher some of the areas you can improve on but also build on the strengths of your team. So I like to have that information, and look at it, and apply it to out system and how we play. It helps reinforce what we do on the ice,” he said.

As for his temperament and ability to work with the players, Patrick Williams (who covered Bednar in the AHL) had this take:

Bednar: Consistent standards. Won't play favourites. Performance rather than status determines who plays. https://t.co/BCVZMYqFVi — PATRICK WILLIAMS (@pwilliamsNHL) August 25, 2016





More Bednar: Drama-free. Player-friendly but don't cross him. Smart. Forward-thinking but w a traditonal foundation. https://t.co/BCVZMYqFVi — PATRICK WILLIAMS (@pwilliamsNHL) August 25, 2016

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