Avs Fire Crackin' In July (Part I)

Just in time for the week following July 4th, the Colorado Avalanche have put on a colorful display of reorganization, hirings, firings, retirements, trades, and free agent signings. With all these rockets blasting in an Avs red glare, it's time to look forward to what this July means and brings to the Colorado Avalanche's next season and beyond.

For those that follow the NHL regularly, there is no doubt that the Avalanche franchise has cooled off in recent years. Nearly a full decade removed from their last Stanley Cup Championship, Colorado has now made significant changes from top to bottom in an effort to better the franchise. No stone has been left unturned. With every member of the franchise going under full review, the organization as a whole has been revamped.

The goal has been to implement a fresh approach to get back to being one of the best professional hockey franchises in the league.

Front Office Moves

Pierre Lacroix, the former General Manager who brought two cups to the Denver market, has more say after stepping down as GM a few short years ago. The Avalanche fell short in the area of continuity while carrying on their tradition of winning hockey.

Lacroix’s new title is President and Alternate Governor, reflecting the fact that owner Stan Kroenke wants the Avalanche franchise to return to their once dominant ways. Pierre Lacroix has taken the direction from Mr. Kroenke to heart by revamping the rest of the front office, coaching staff and team roster. 

Most of the front office moves avalanched only one day after the end of the 2008-09 season. Francois Giguere was fired as General Manager. Next, Director of Player Personnel Michel Goulet stepped down from working with the club. Goulet apparently wanted to become the next GM, however it was not the direction the team wanted to go.

Moreover, incumbent head coach Tony Granato and his staff became an after-thought during the search for a new head coach when Patrick Roy’s name surfaced in serious discussions to become the new bench leader for the Avs. Roy turned down the team apparently due to the fact that the Avalanche are rebuilding.

Welcome the new Head Coach of the Colorado Avalanche

After Patrick Roy turned down the Avalanche for the head coaching position, Joe Sacco, of the Avalanche minor league affiliate Lake Erie Monsters took over the reigns. This all occurred only one day after Tony Granato was let go. 

Granato had been with the Avalanche since the 2002-03 season when he replaced Bob Hartley as head coach. Eventually, Granato was replaced for the 2004-05 season but remained with the franchise as an assistant under Joel Quenneville. After Quenneville was fired Granato had his second stint as head coach with the team for the 2008-09 season.

Granato was a perfect fall guy for the Avalanche since he failed to even get one of the most under-achieving teams of all-time past the second round. In 2003, the Avalanche were stunned by the Minnesota Wild in losing the series four games to three, with the last two games being taken by the Wild in overtime. In 2004, the Avs knocked off one of their arch nemesis, the Dallas Stars in five games but failed to get past the San Jose Sharks.

This past season the Avs were still retooling but failed to make the playoffs.

With these sorts of dubious shortfalls, and attendance dropping rapidly at Avalanche home games in the wake of poor product, poor play, and a worse economy, the team has had little choice but to get serious about the net result.

An additional shot to the Avalanche was Mr. Kroenke’s other team, the Denver Nuggets, finally turning the corner and going to the NBA Western Conference Finals for the first time since 1985.

Joe Sacco brings a solid familiarity of the current Avs roster, having coached a number of them at the AHL level. Sacco has promised a team that will be getting back to the rudiments of Colorado Avalanche hockey.

The goal is to have a team that scores goals and plays solid defense on the other end of the ice. 

Losing The Captain

As this article is being released, Joe Sackic’s uncertain future with the team appears to be at least a little clearer. Super Joe is listed as a Group Three Unrestricted Free Agent and is no longer listed on the teams’ roster. 

Channel 9 KUSA in Denver was the first to report that Joe Sakic is set to retire at a press conference this Thursday at the Inverness Country Club (near Dove Valley where John Elway also announced his retirement).

Joe Sakic is listed as one of 45 invitees for Team Canada’s hockey team for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, Super Joe’s hometown. This had led to some speculation that he may come back. There was also the unfortunate snow blower incident which prematurely ended his 2008-09 season. It seemed like a dubious way to end an otherwise spectacular career and that alone had kept hope alive for Avs fans. 

At this hour however it does appear that Joe Sakic is content with retiring.   

Peter Forsberg has also been a long foregone conclusion as an unofficial retiree, having only played in nine games for the Avs in 2007-08, and two for his team in Sweden Modo this past season.

Just yesterday, former Avalanche defenseman Claude Lemieux announced his second retirement from the NHL after playing for the San Jose Sharks this past season.   

This leaves 37 year old defenseman Adam Foote as the only lasting remnant from the Avs glory days remaining on the current roster. 

The Message of Rebuilding vs. Retooling

Over the last decade, the Avalanche were not afraid to make trades, even if it meant sending great young talent out of town. The franchise has had to learn the hard way from the pains of the past. While the Avalanche was able to acquire great talent, they also ran into a myriad of chemistry and system issues that paralyzed some of the players they brought on board. The lesson learned here is that if you live by retooling, you also die by retooling as well. 

This has led to the new approach in the front office. The Avalanche have now acknowledged they needed to make changes from top to bottom as a franchise. 

The Avs franchise is now officially doing the other “R” word: Rebuilding. 

Much in the way that the experiments with the Denver Broncos have failed to land them back in the Super Bowl, the Avalanche franchise has come to a somber realization on their net output as a franchise since their last Championship season.

Retooling only gets you so far if you’re an aging franchise.  The Colorado Avalanche top-flight youth movement was neglected until DU sensation Paul Stastny showed up on the scene.

The only benefit to the recent woes of the Colorado Avalanche might just be that the team had the third overall selection in this year’s NHL Draft.

(Part II of this article will focus on the Avs 2009 Draft and the Team Roster)