No doubt the situation and hierarchy in Colarado was messed up, and it led to dissent within the ranks.
No one really knows how much input Roy had in hockey matters. You dont know. I dont know. But we all know that Roy left over his perceived lack of input. That's a fact.
He apparently had Zibanejad and Chabot for Duchene lined up, which would have been INCREDIBLE for you guys. You would be contenders right now. But Sakic nixed it. So I personally dont blame Roy for getting frustrated with the lack of roster changes and the hesitation to make moves.
The bottom line is that I remember that you guys were completely over the moon with him after year 1. And even if it went poorly in years 2 and 3 for you guys and Roy, he still has a best load of potential as a head coach in this league. And not many coaches could have made the Avalanche look good....
We have some decent inside guys on the Avs board who have good ideas of where Roy was involved.
Yes, that was an apparent deal that was nixed. But not sure if you’ve noticed, but the Avs were able to get a fantastic haul and are on the very cusp of being contenders right now already.
So while Roy may have brought in Zib and Chabot, he was also responsible for Beauchemin, and playing Nate Guenin big minutes, and playing Marc Andre Cliche, and trading Downiest for Maxime Talbot. Brad Stuart, signed for 2 years...
Lots of terrible moves as well.
The biggest issue arose when Roy pushed for rentals, and then didn’t make the playoffs (boedker trade). After that, Sakic decided to take a calculated and patient approach. Seems to be working just fine for us right now. The organization is as healthy as its ever been since the implementation of the cap.
And again, the Avs roster of top 9 forwards was great. Easily top 10, maybe even top 5 in the league. Roy rode a vexing season from Varlamov.
He’s not a bad coach. He’s not a great coach. He’s like most of them. He’s got good and bad in him. But I’m gonna pretend that he was amazing for use and everything that went wrong wasn’t his fault. The Avs have been in a pretty good upward trajectory since he left.