Terry Frei
In the past week, I’ve had cause to think of Patrick Roy and the Avalanche’s track record for selecting defensemen in the NHL draft.
It came up as an offshoot of Roy tossing his hat — or mask — in the ring for the Canadiens’ GM position.
One issue tied to Roy’s suitability for the job is whether as an NHL GM he could be flexible enough to temper his preference for big, physical defensemen in a game suited more every year to skating and hybrid skills, even on the blue line.
It’s one of the first things anyone discussing the Montreal job should address with him.
Specifically, I wonder how he would have felt and whether he would have signed off on the Avalanche selecting Cale Makar with the NHL’s fourth overall choice in 2017 and taking Bo Byram at the same spot in 2019?
At the time he was drafted, Makar was headed to UMass after two seasons with Junior A’s Brooks Bandits of the Alberta Junior Hockey League. He was far from unknown, but it took a leap of faith — and highly optimistic projections — to draft Makar that high.
Remember, Roy also was a vice president of hockey operations, and although he said the title was unimportant to him, it clearly was in terms of expectations.
He expected to have more input than he had in the assembling of the organizational roster, and he quit when he concluded (correctly or otherwise) that the “head coach” title described the limits of his influence. He didn’t expect to be, and didn’t want to be, just another disposable NHL coach working with what he was given. His August 2016 resignation came suddenly and without significant foreshadowing, which infuriated ownership.
To be fair, Roy had the undersized Tyson Barrie — notably, a third-round pick — in his D-corps for all three of his seasons behind the Colorado bench. He lived with Barrie’s defensive deficiencies and physical limitations while taking advantage of his offensive skill. But at the No. 4 overall spot, even in the usual draft-and-watch NHL, which is where Makar went, you’re of course hoping for elite talent.
The issue in these cases would be if the 5-11, 187-pound Makar, the 6-1 and 190-pound Byram and even the 5-10, 170-pound Samuel Girard — acquired in the Matt Duchene trade — could have worked for Roy as half of his top 6 D. That is, if he would have accepted the drafting of Makar and Byram so high.
Give Roy credit: The man has paid his dues as a GM and coach at the major junior level with the Quebec Remparts, both before and after his coaching stint in Colorado.
He has witnessed the evolution of the game there, too, in what long has been known as the wide-open QMJHL.
I think he would adapt as a GM in 2021 … or whenever the Canadiens get around to hiring a replacement for Marc Bergevin.
Indeed, why not Roy?
The issues of physical prototype preferences and prospect evaluation overlap, but not completely.
All of this also reminded me of Roy’s justfied and rather open disdain for the Avalanche’s track record at drafting defensemen — of any style — in the years that would have given Roy a stronger and deeper D-corps as the Avalanche coach.
He talked about it often in assessing the state of his roster and the Avs’ outlook.
It could come after an artful Roy preamble, along the lines of, “If you asked me if I wished …” that preceded his answer.
It could be just his frustration showing.
Consider the roll call of defensemen the Avalanche drafted in the first two rounds from 2003 on.
Before Makar, the list (especially beyond Kevin Shattenkirk) is underwhelming, and also consider that such elite D-men as the now-retired Shea Weber and P.K. Subban were second-rounders.
Of course, the Avs were using first- and second-round picks along the way on such past, present and future Avs as Matt Duchene, Ryan O’Reilly, Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, Tyson Jost, Makar, Martin Kaut, Justus Annunen, Sampo Ranta, Byram, Alex Newhook and Oskar Olausson. So they had success in the draft … just not on the blue line.
AVALANCHE
DEFENSEMAN DRAFT CHOICES
FIRST TWO ROUNDS
POST-2003
2006
2nd round, #51 overall: Nigel Williams, USNTDP
2007
1 14 Kevin Shattenkirk, USNTDP
(NOTE: The Avs traded Shattenkirk to the Blues in the 2011 Erik Johnson deal.)
2 45 Colby Cohen, USNTDP
2008
2 50 Cameron Gaunce, St. Michael’s
2009
2 49 Stefan EIliott, Saskatoon, WHL
(NOTE: Colorado also drafted D Tyson Barrie in the third round.)
2011
1 11 Duncan Siemens, Saskatoon (WHL)
2013
2 32 Chris Bigras, Owen Sound (OHL)
2015
2 40 Nicolas Meloche, Baie-Comeau (QMJHL)
2017
1 4 Cale Makar, Brooks (AJHL)
2 32 Conor Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie (OHL)
2019
1 4 Bo Byram, Vancouver (WHL)
2 47 Drew Helleson, USNTDP
2020
1 25 Justin Barron, Halifax (QMJHL)
2021
2 61 Sean Behrens, USNTDP
Terry Frei ([email protected]) is a Denver-based author and journalist. He has been named a state’s sports writer of the year seven times in peer voting — four times in Colorado and three times in Oregon. His seven books include the novels “Olympic Affair” and “The Witch’s Season.” Among his five non-fiction works are “Horns, Hogs, and Nixon Coming,” “Third Down and a War to Go,” “March 1939: Before the Madness,” and “’77: Denver, the Broncos, and a Coming of Age.” He also collaborated with Adrian Dater on “Save By Roy,” was a long-time vice president of the Professional Hockey Writers Association and has covered the hockey Rockies, Avalanche and the NHL at-large. His web site is www.terryfrei.com and his bio is available at www.terryfrei.com/bio.html
His Colorado Hockey Now column archive can be accessed here