Colorado Avalanche Hire Brett McLean To Replace David Hakstol
In this story:
With reports that assistant coach Dave Hakstol is rumored to be leaving for the NCAA’s Arizona State hockey team, it was confirmed when head coach Jared Bednar said that they have permitted him to talk to Arizona State about its head coaching position.
It's now even more confirmed: ESPN’s play-by-play commentator John Buccigross tweeted that Hakstol will indeed be the next head coach at Arizona State, and that the Avalanche will be bringing in Brett McLean to replace him behind the bench and help run the power play.
McLean played for the Avalanche for two seasons: 2005-06 and 2006-07. In those two seasons, he played 160 games and finished with 24 goals and 51 assists for 75 points.
Hakstol is in his second season with the Avalanche as an assistant coach but has spent a significant amount of time in the NCAA. Not only did he play three seasons with the University of North Dakota, two of which he was team captain, but he also has a long history of coaching there.
After his first three seasons as head coach in the USHL with the Sioux City Musketeers, he joined the 2000-01 season as an assistant coach with the University of North Dakota. He would spend another season in the same position before being named associate head coach for the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons.
He would then be named head coach in the 2004-05 season and would be their head coach for the next 10 years, before landing his first head coaching job in the NHL with the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2015-16 season.
A Long-Awaited Change In The Making?
Since joining the Avalanche, he has been in charge of the power play, which struggled significantly last season. It finished 27th in the NHL, and in this season alone, it has not capitalized on its last 13 power-play chances.
With the amount of talent on this team, it's downright unacceptable how poorly this power play performs. The playmakers, the shot makers, the level of skating talent — all check the boxes for what should make a great power play; it just hasn't worked.
With McLean, he served as an assistant coach with the Minnesota Wild for three seasons, from the 2020-21 season to the 2022-23 season, before leaving to become head coach of the Iowa Wild in the AHL for the next two years. Last season, he was an assistant coach with the Vancouver Canucks.
It will be interesting to see how he views this roster and how he will approach the team's need to change up the power play to make it more impactful and better utilize the talent to help it succeed.
Add us as a preferred source on Google
Stefano Rubino is a sports journalist based outside Toronto, Canada, and a hockey writer covering multiple teams for The Hockey News, as well as the Colorado Avalanche and Detroit Red Wings for Sports Illustrated. When he is not watching last night's highlights or minor league games, or writing game notes, you can find him listening to music while he works out or playing video games.