Joe Sacco Not Sakic the New Coach of the Av's

In a head-scratching move that raised some eyebrows in the hockey community, the Colorado Avalanche who struggled mightily this past season have hired Joe Sacco to be their next coach. Nothing against Sacco who has spent the past two seasons coaching in the American Hockey League it’s just that for a rebuilding young squad they might benefit more from a coach who has NHL experience.

Colorado who finished last in the Western Conference with only 69 points will go through lots of growing pains next year as they have some very young players in Cody McLeod, Paul Stastny and Wojtek Wolski who along with the entire team will be trying to show that last year was just a fluke. Still new Avs General Manager Greg Sherman believes that hiring Sacco who coached the Lake Erie Monsters to 76 points (missed the playoffs) this past year was the right move. “The American Hockey League has proven to be a valuable training ground for NHL head coaches and we’re confident that Joe’s experience at that level will be vital to his success with our organization at the NHL level,” Sherman said. “Our franchise has gone that route very successfully in the past.” This 40 year-old who replaces Tony Granato behind the bench enjoyed a relatively successful NHL career where he scored 94 goals and 119 assists in 738 games with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Anaheim Mighty Ducks and Philadelphia Flyers. Sacco will be joined in Colorado by his former assistant coach in Lake Erie Sylvain Lefebvre. “These two coaches have been at the frontlines of this organization’s development efforts over the last few seasons,” Sherman said. “Joe and Sylvain are familiar with our personnel, especially our young players within the system, and each played a role in implementing the organization’s vision with these players” What might make the challenge in front of these coaches that much more daunting is that 20 year veteran Joe Sakic hasn’t ruled out retiring this summer. Colorado has now missed post season play in two of the last three years and while I’m happy to see guys get promoted to the NHL I just think that the Avalanche need someone behind the bench like a Dave King or even a Craig MacTavish who both have that experience of working with young kids.