How did Bednar have a historically awful rookie year, yet has turned into one of the best coaches in the league from Sophomore year onwards?

[a mangy Meowth]

A little sure, but MacKinnon was probably going to break out and Makar was good right away so likely the players are mostly responsible.

Yeah you're right, his guidance/system probably had little to nothing to do with their success. He was just there.

 

[Hasbro]

A visual representation of the situation he inherited:

 

[Hasbro]

sakic should get a lot of the credit. he handed bednar the keys to a ferrari. insane amount of talent on that team.

Well he bought him a Ferrari drafting Makar and trading Duchene.

Trading Duchene helped to as he pretty much had to throw all the good forwards on one line with Lando, Mack, And Rantanen who proved to have insane chemistry.

 

[ToDavid]

Colorado had bounced around the 80-90 point bubble for several years before then. I don't think it's so much that 2017-18 was an abnormal improvement more than 2016-17 was an abnormally bad year where everything went wrong. It was likely a combination forwards personally struggling, a team adjusting to a new coach (and likely coach adjusting to a team), and Varlamov falling off a cliff.

2017-18 basically saw them return to "normal" + improved coaching (vs. 2 years prior) + personal growth among young players.

 

[WarriorOfGandhi]

A visual representation of the situation he inherited:

View attachment 898321

 

[Djp]

View attachment 897731

2016-2017 Avs finished just better than the 2023-2024 Sharks in modern era. Their roster remained mostly unchanged a year later (To begin the season at least, where they still had a winning record before the Duchene trade), yet they instantly became a bubble team for 2 seasons in a row, before becoming one of the best teams in the league. What happened?

Edit: People bring up MacK and the other high picks like Rantanen and Landeskog. But how did they all improve so much in a single season under the exact same coach?

There has bern 3 historic patterns

Pittsburgh, Chicago and LA did their rebuild thrn within 3-4 yrs they won the cup.

Chicago drafted Jane and yes at end of rebuild and then madr some toster moves. LA did the same with its 2003-2009 drafts. Thry made roster moves bringing in vets.

Then you have washington, TB, Colorafo, FL, Pittsburgh second run have similar pathways of winning cup after their top 3 OA picks became vested veterans.


With many of these teams the youth developed but then these trand dropped some getting tu op 20 picks ks and got some draft talent in 3rd rd or later or signed role players