Avalanche officially introduce Patrick Roy as new head coach

By Vincent Kuo
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Updated: May 28, 2013

The Colorado Avalanche have officially introduced Patrick Roy as the new head coach on Tuesday. He replaced Joe Sacco as the Avs head coach. Sacco was fired after the seasons when the Avs missed the playoffs for the third straight year. Four years ago, the Avs asked him to come on board as coach but Roy said he just wasn’t ready. But this time around, the deal was sweetened. He gets to be the head coach and have a say in hockey-related decisions. This opportunity was just to good for him to pass up. He agreed last week to a four-year deal with a mutual option for a fifth season.

Roy was the coach and the GM for the Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League for the past eight seasons. This is Roy’s first year as a NHL coach. ”I’m not nervous about that,” said Roy, who won the Memorial Cup title with the Remparts in 2006 and finished with a 348-196 mark. “To be honest with you, I checked one interesting stat: 100 per cent of the coaches who are coaching now in the NHL were rookies at one time in their careers. ”My No. 1 quality is that I’m not afraid to put in the time.”

Roy is going to join forces with Joe Sakic who is the Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations, taking on an expanded role. Joe will now make the final decision on matters regarding hockey personnel. These two played with each other for a long time, leading the Avs to Stanley Cup Championships in 1996 and 2001. They believe that this will be carried over to the front office.

The Avs have some talented young stars in Matt Duchene, Paul Statsny, Ryan O’Reilly and Avs captain Gabriel Landeskog. The Avs also hold the No. 1 overall pick in the upcoming NHL draft. Let’s see how Roy will do in his first season as a NHL head coach.