Colorado Avalanche Head Coach Jared Bednar slams young players for failing to step up at training camp
Photo credit: Sports Illustrated
The Colorado Avalanche are set for a big season with some huge returns, but according to Jared Bednar, the young players on the team need to step it up.
After a disappointing end to the 2023/24 season, the Colorado Avalanche are looking to step it up this year, and with superstars like Mikko Rantanen, Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar, this will always be a tough team to play against. With Valeri Nichushkin and captain Gabriel Landeskog set to return in the near future, it makes this team even deeper, but according to Head Coach Jared Bednar, he didn't see enough out of the team's young players this pre-season.
«I wish there were more,» Bednar said. «I wish some more guys would have stepped up and elevated their game more and they just didn't. Some guys have. I guess we only need three, so if we get three, we'll be pretty happy. Deep down, we need three guys to play right away. If that's all we get, then that's all we get.»
However, it hasn't all been negative, as the veteran Head Coach had high praise for two of his young names in Cal Ritchie and Sam Malinski in an interview, especially after the highlight reel goal that had Ritchie's name trending over social media.
At this point, Colorado's top-six appears to be set with a few returns on the horizon, but until that point, the team need players to step up, and with Bednar's assessment, it's unclear who those players could be. With many spots to fill, this team will be relying on several names to step it up when things start to matter, and with Ritchie, Nikolai Kovalenko and Ivan Ivan among others set to fill some spots, Bednar will be hoping the level of intensity rising will bring them along too. One player that was in for an exciting role with the team was Pierre-Edouard Bellemare who reunited with Colorado this off-season, but after being cut from his PTO on Thursday, this will put further pressure on the young players in the organization to step it up.
Ultimately, this is a team that could be bound for the Stanley Cup Finals when at 100%, but they won't be there for quite some time, so unless those players step up, this could be a very interesting season in Colorado.
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