Hinote Talks Return To Avalanche, Passion For Development On Podcast: ‘I Couldn’t Be More Excited’

If there’s one thing the Colorado Avalanche have struggled with over the years, it’s been drafting and developing young players and graduating them from the AHL to the NHL.

Dan Hinote, the new Associate Head Coach for the Colorado Eagles, wants to help change that.

Speaking on the “It’s All Your Fault” podcast, which is a podcast that follows the Nashville Predators, Hinote talked about why he left Nashville and is now back with the Avalanche. The biggest reason why he ended up back in Colorado? His passion for developing youngsters as not just players, but human beings.

“At the end of the year, and even during the year, I feel and felt like I need to do more. I need to have a bigger impact. I want to have a bigger impact. On the planet, on the hockey players, on the NHL culture, all of it,” Hinote said. “And that was a new thing that just kind of popped into my soul – ‘you need to do more, you’re not doing enough for the good of the world.’ And hockey is my world. So how do I do more? There’s nowhere to go other than to a head (coach) position, and the thing about what I realize is that the part of the game that I love coaching the most is the development side. I had 10 years to not perfect it, but work on it. I’ve gotten there. I feel like I have a good recipe, I’ve had good results for a lot of guys that were kind of up and down and have now kind of solidified themselves as NHL’ers through this process, so I know it works. That’s kind of what it came to.”

Hinote had nothing but good things to say about Barry Trotz and Andrew Brunette, but noted that the Predators are “going to be a little bit of an older team.” It sounds like he’s really looking forward to the next step in Colorado.

“I want to make sure that these guys are going to live a great life when hockey is done, and I want them to have a great career. And to me, you have to build that foundation of leadership through all the work internally first. I want to build their foundation for this permanent leadership through every facet, and you can do that in the AHL,” he said. “You can get to them on their nutrition and their sleep and their money and their relationships, and all the things that can tie into their life. If you can get them a good foundation while they’re in the (AHL), then they’re going to thrive once they make it, because all of those other things are in order.”

Maybe Hinote will be the guy who helps turn things around on the development side of things for the Avalanche. Guys like Oskar Olausson, Jean-Luc Foudy, Sean Behrens, and Ivan Ivan should spend a significant amount of time in the AHL this year with Hinote, and he’s probably a good guy to learn from. The 47 year old was a 7th round draft pick who managed to win a Stanley Cup and play over 500 games in the NHL. He knows a thing or two about what it takes to make it in the big league, and he’s ready to get going.

“It kind of feels like I (get to) go home for this next season and work with some great human beings,” he said. “I couldn’t be more excited.”