In his three seasons as the Head Coach, Roy lead the Avalanche to a 130-92-24 record while also capturing the Central Division title in 2014.
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After three years as the Colorado Avalanche’s head coach, Patrick Roy has announced that he will step down from the position prior to the 2016-17 season.
“In recent weeks I have been thinking about the additional contribution that I could bring to the team to give it the necessary depth and bring it to a higher level”.
The Patrick Roy era in Denver came to an abrupt end on Thursday when the Hall of Fame goaltender resigned as coach and vice-president of hockey operations.
“These conditions are not now met”, Roy concluded.
Today, I am informing you of my decision to leave the Colorado Avalanche organization.
I am grateful to the organization of the Colorado Avalanche, with which I remain on good terms, for allowing me to lead this great team. Roy also has played owner of the team since 1997. He was named coach of the year his first season after leading Colorado to 112 points and a first-place finish.
Roy was critical of some of his players previous year, blasting forward Matt Duchene for his exuberant celebration of his 30th goal in a 5-1 loss.
It’s safe to assume that part of Roy’s “say” would include dumping one of his best players – defenseman Tyson Barrie just signed an extension after a contentious negotiating process – rather than make changes himself.
Additionally, Roy’s next move will be closely scrutinized. “That’s the conversation I have with (Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic) when we’re talking about, ‘We need to be stronger mentally, ‘ and, ‘We need to bring character players inside of this dressing room.’ That’s what we’ve been trying to do”. Roy almost destroys the glass partition separating the two benches, and is fined $10,000 by the National Hockey League for the incident. Roy retired after the 2002-03 season.
Roy released a statement Thursday, explaining his decision and thanking the Avalanche organization.
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Hopefully, the turmoil caused by Roy’s resignation will be a huge distraction for the franchise, a distraction that the Nashville Predators will still be able to capitalize on when the two teams meet for the first time next season in early November.
