Man, people give DeBoer WAY too much credit for being some sort of Bednar kryptonite.
Swap rosters and tell me what happens. Colorado got beat by a deeper roster with a goaltender who rediscovered his elite play these playoffs.
Jared Bednar's undoing was his own fault for playing MacKinnon and Rantanen WAY too much during the regular season. It was never more evident that MacKinnon was out of gas than these playoffs. He never once looked like himself.
They lowered Makar's minutes a bit this season and he looked energized in the playoffs. Outside of games 3/4 where every Avalanche player sucked I thought he was the team's best player.
This isn't a stylistic problem. DeBoer doesn't magically have all the answers just because his deeper roster (all three series, btw) has beaten Bednar's. That usually happens.
This is a problem created by Bednar himself, one that I hope Joe Sakic speaks to him about and demands he fix. This cannot continue. The regular season doesn't mean f*** all. Nathan MacKinnon and (if here) Mikko Rantanen should not play a single game above 20 minutes next season. Cale Makar should not see any game above 23 minutes.
Keep these guys fresh for the playoffs. Sakic has to make that explicitly clear to Bednar.
Yeah I'm sick of this DeBoer narrative. Simply put he had the deeper stronger roster that was insanely motivated as a lot of those guys are getting older and it might be their last Cup shot.
He isn't a magician, their team was simply better. Unfortunately better teams win more often than not. We watched a loaded Avs team crush pretty much everyone in 2022. Doesn't mean Bednar was a better coach than those guys he just had a loaded roster that was going to be tough to beat.
I'm terms of the Avs moving forward, I agree that 29, 96 and 8 can't shoulder the insane work load. Maybe not as low of mins you are suggesting but can't be 25+ on a consistent basis.
Got to figure out Nuke. Nuke can't keep f***ing us. Not sure options there.
Hate to say it, since it really isn't in his control, but Landy can't keep f***ing us either. Either he can play or not. This constant guessing/wondering isn't helping the team. If it's not looking good during the off season then the decision needs to be made then. Get someone else the C and stop playing the guessing game.
After that I'd be looking at how to add a true shooter to the lineup. He wasn't elite but Burakovsky sure as hell made this team much more dangerous. We have too many pass first players and/or grinders who aren't offensively gifted. A sniper that doesn't play top line is a big need.
Assistant coaches need to go, it's beyond stale. We simply need some new ideas. I'd honestly say Bednar should go as well, but I don't see that happening.
Lastly we need younger guys to step up and contribute. Guys like Ritchie, Behrens, Kovalenko, Foudy, and Malinski. Got to have draft picks do something for you.