Boulding: What Does Jared Bednar Need To Do To Earn Jack Adams Consideration? (+)

If you think Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar is in the conversation for winning the NHL’s Jack Adams Award as coach of the year, you are wildly wrong.

ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski recently polled Professional Hockey Writers Association writers for his monthly Awards Watch column and the top three boiled down to Darryl Sutter with the Calgary Flames, Rod Brind’Amour with the Carolina Hurricanes, and Andrew Brunette with the Florida Panthers. Bednar was mentioned, I hope it’s not merely because he’s the only name I put when asked.

Similarly, NHL.com asked 15 writers and editors their thoughts on the matter and the results were Sutter, Gerard Gallant with the New York Rangers, and Brunette. Bednar had 12 points, including one first-place vote, but was on the outside looking in.

Yes, I know that the NHL Broadcasters’ Association gets the only say in this matter, but the groupthink here is something to keep an eye on. So many of these awards tend to be doled out based on reputation, conversation, and recency bias. And if the league-leading Avalanche aren’t being discussed with one quarter of the season left to play, it’s hard to imagine what else the club can do to move that needle.

You have to think that taking Colorado from one of the worst seasons in the salary cap era to being not only a perennial playoff player but a Stanley Cup favorite is worthy of the recognition, but it’s not something that Bednar has been recognized for on a league-wide level.

The same can be said of Tampa Bay Lightning bench boss Jon Cooper, who has somehow never won the award despite having a consistently dominant team—one that recently won back-to-back Stanley Cups!

Which brings us to the issue of whether a team as stacked with talent as the Avalanche (or Lightning) hurts the prospects of the head coach being named leader of the season. When considering the Hart trophy, it’s certainly a factor if a guy like Nathan MacKinnon has talent like Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog and Cale Makar playing alongside him compared to Connor McDavid having basically just Leon Draisaitl.

And it’s definitely worth thinking about when pondering coaching achievement. Not to take away from Sutter’s achievement in turning around the Calgary Flames in his short time behind the bench, or what Brunette has done with a solid Panthers team since taking the reigns from Joel Quenneville, but what does Bednar need to do to impress those not watching the club each and every day?

The Avs have the most players with 60-plus points (Nazem Kadri, Rantanen, Makar, MacKinnon), 50-plus points (add Landeskog) and 40-point defensemen (Makar and Devon Toews). The club leads the league in points (91), wins (43), and points percentage (.746), and experienced its best record (42-13-5) through 60 games in franchise history. The squad became the second-fastest to reach 40 wins (in 54 games) in NHL history—behind only the 2015-16 Capitals (53rd game).

Colorado was the first team to 70, 80, and 90 points and the first team to 30 and 40 wins.

Sure, the schedule hasn’t been the toughest in NHL history, but it’s all talent and not coaching, right? The fact that Kadri is having the best year of his career, leading the team in points, has nothing to do with utilization, right? Toews leading the NHL in plus/minus (+46) while playing with Makar, who is having one of the best starts for a defenseman in NHL history, has nothing to do with Bednar, correct?

Listen, making a decision on coach of the year is tough. Patrick Roy may have forever changed the way people look at the award after a meteoric rise to win 2013-14 and then an equally impressive fall from success afterward. The Jack Adams should be as much about consistency as anything else.

Show me a coach that can produce the same or better results over a period of time and I’ll tell you if they deserve to be rewarded for that (hint: they do). Hockey is such a variable sport, and there are surprise ups (looking at you 2020-21 Montreal Canadiens) and downs (ditto 2021-22 Vegas Golden Knights). Being able to replicate success with roster changes should be as important as anything else.

So while Bednar isn’t on the lips of those at least publicly discussing the awards race, he certainly deserves to be in the conversation. And he’ll be the first to tell you that it doesn’t matter much to him (or the team) right now.

When Bednar was asked, following Sunday’s victory over the Flames, whether he’s paying attention to the standings, his answer told you all you needed to know about his mindset this season.

“[Being ready for playoffs] is the main focus. I mean sure, we’d like to be first overall. I just think, you try to win every night. That’s what you do. So if you finish first overall, it’s like, “Great job guys.” It doesn’t mean anything,” he said. “We don’t know where everyone’s going to slot. We haven’t talked about preferred matchups. None of that. We’re playing to win. We’re playing to win now and we’re playing to win in the playoffs. I’ll be honest with you, because we’ve been so good in where we’ve sat I haven’t even looked at the standings all year. I haven’t felt the need.”

“I circle games against other teams; Calgary, Tampa, Carolina, the teams that we know are having great seasons that you’re going to have to face.”

That’s the mentality for the Avs, and that’s the focus for Bednar and his staff. Winning is everything, and so is playing well enough to win no matter what the lineup is or who the opponent may be.

It speaks volumes about where this team is at and how they got there, including without MacKinnon for stretches and now without Landeskog (and Sam Girard), and it’s a shame that it’s going unnoticed by the hockey media at large.