Question From Brad J.

How far in the post-season do the Avs have to go for Jared Bednar to get a contract extension? Or do you think he’s safe even with a first-round exit?

Aarif’s Response

I’m of the general belief that outside of a major meltdown, I’d expect Bednar will get an extension and remain with the club.

But it’s not always that easy to predict if or when a coach gets fired. On one hand, there are a bunch of coaches around the league who are generally recyclable, and there are teams that often hire and fire coaches every handful of years. But I feel like the best coaches in the league don’t get fired based on when you lose, but the circumstances of how it happened.

I’ll give you a couple of examples. Remember when the Avs lost to Dallas in the second round in 2020? Philipp Grubauer and Pavel Francouz both got injured, and they had to ride Michael Hutchinson for three games. That was also the series where we saw the infamous Gabe Landeskog sliced knee, as well as other injuries.

If the Avs somehow fall into that level of injuries and lose in the first or second round, would it be Bednar’s fault? Probably not.

I also love using Pete DeBoer with the Dallas Stars as an example of a circumstantial firing. If DeBoer lost Game 7 to the Avs without Jason Robertson or Miro Heiskanen last year, you could argue he’d still have that job. But because he won that game and the Winnipeg series, he ended up in a situation where he publicly threw Jake Oettinger under the bus and was ultimately let go shortly after that.

So, with keeping these examples in mind, I don’t think Bednar losing series X or series Y means he loses his job. It depends more on how and why it happened.

If this were a decision made in a vacuum, I would say, full stop, a first-round series loss means he’d lose his job. Anything more than that depends on the circumstances.

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Question From Rudy Volz

If you or someone were to ask MacKinnon how good his defensive game is, what would he say? If you were to follow-up and ask him what part of his defensive game needs the most work, what would he say?

Aarif’s Response

This is such an interesting question and one that I thought long and hard about how to respond to it. Simply because I don’t think it’s easy to get this type of question through to MacKinnon. I don’t imagine he’d enjoy answering it.

But if you were to get to him and get him on a good, thoughtful day, I would imagine he would be honest that he’s not an A+ defensive player. What separates him from someone like Sidney Crosby is this part of his game. He doesn’t kill penalties; he doesn’t have that same label of being a strong two-way player.

And that’s fine. He’s insanely excellent at what he does. He’s also so talented and smart that I do think that, as the years go by, he’ll focus more on this part of his game so he can have the longevity that Crosby has.

I grew up in a generation where Steve Yzerman went from scoring 50+ goals per year to being a strong two-way center that ended his career as a 3C. I don’t think it’ll be that exaggerated with MacKinnon, but I do think his game will evolve as he gets closer to the end.

Question From briggs1628

Now that the Avs have the President’s trophy wrapped up before the Alberta trip, a fun hypothetical for you — let’s say that they decide to leave all of the Olympians home for that trip, who would you (not necessarily them) put the letters on? Personally, I would probably go with 84, 91, and 25.

Aarif’s Response

I think you absolutely nailed it with Nazem Kadri and Logan O’Connor. No question, those are two leaders in the locker room. Kadri has been here before and has worn the ‘A’ in the past, while O’Connor has the respect from his teammates to also be viewed as that guy.

The only one I’d change is the Brent Burns pick. And not because Burns isn’t a leader, but because I’d rather go with Josh Manson. I am convinced that had the Anaheim Ducks not traded Manson, he would’ve been the captain of that team in the post-Ryan Getzlaf era. And given where that team is now, I’d wager he’d still likely be the captain instead of them giving it to Radko Gudas.

Give me Kadri, O’Connor, and Manson.