Paton, Hackett hope for confab with Stanley Cup champs Sakic, Bednar

As player after player trickled into the UC Health Training Center at Dove Valley, inside the cavernous Pat Bowlen Fieldhouse, the Denver Broncos struck a defiant tone.

“We don’t worry about what’s going on outside,” second-year general manager George Paton said. “We know what’s going on within these walls and we are fired up within these walls. Our guys are excited. It does us no good to talk about it. We have our expectations within our walls, and we’re fired up to go get it.”

A scant two years prior to the Broncos’ first Super Bowl-winning season in 1997, the newly-arrived Colorado Avalanche came from Quebec fully loaded. That team went on to win their first Stanley Cup that season, and only a month ago, claimed the third in their history. The excitement in town was palpable, and the impact of a joyous parade and celebration through the streets of Denver reminded the Broncos — who match the Avalanche with three world championships themselves — what they’ve been missing during the least successful chapter of their storied history as and NFL franchise.

“It was unbelievable,” rookie head coach Nathaniel Hackett said. “I was lucky enough to go to a couple of them with those fans. Obviously, the players put an amazing product on that ice. Just to be able to be in the same town of it, it’s such a privilege to be able to be associated with that team.”

Hackett may not be particularly familiar with hockey, but he certainly understands the value of a championship.

“It’s something we all strive for. That’s why we coach football — to get a Super Bowl. They got the Stanley Cup. It was just unbelievable watching how in sync they were, and how they played together was just unbelievable. I’m not going to lie; I don’t know that much about hockey, but my respect for that game has skyrocketed after watching it as much as I have. I just didn’t know — just those line changes were unbelievable. It’s just so great to have your family be able to see something like that — something so special both on the ice and with the fans, the community, and everything.”

The Broncos have been synonymous with the Denver community since their inception in 1960; in many ways, the city and the franchise have grown up together. But the legendary energy that Broncos fans have brought to their home stadium has waned as the team continued to falter. Through the Avalanche, Paton finally got a sample of what success sounds like in the Mile High City.

“We were fortunate enough to go to a playoff game together, and really didn’t know what to expect. I had never been to a playoff hockey game,” Paton explained. “I would just tell you this — we were blown away by the game-day environment. The fans and all of the athletes on the ice, and the way they played and shared — and the humility after listening to the interviews with the players; it really blew us away. We were trying to take notes on some of the game-day atmosphere. We love our atmosphere, but it was a really cool experience.”

That “cool experience” could be found again at Empower Field sooner rather than later. The Broncos, after adding nine-time Pro Bowl quarterback Russell Wilson in a blockbuster trade in March, find themselves in the spotlight; not only in Denver, but all across the NFL landscape. The Broncos — stuck in a nightmarish, five-year slog of losing campaigns — haven’t been to the playoffs since the end of the 2015 season. Wilson’s arrival is expected to make the Broncos all-but-instant Super Bowl contenders, but Paton wisely pointed out that things may not be that easy.

“We know expectations are higher than they’ve ever been here. We’re not blind to that,” he said. “We embrace expectations, but we have a long way to go. We haven’t won here in five, six years. We won seven games last year. We’re 0-0 now.”

Nevertheless, Paton, who cleverly engineered the deal that led Wilson to Denver, understands that his addition rapidly changes the calculus.

“Any time you get a franchise quarterback, a Super Bowl-winning quarterback, like Russell Wilson, it’s going to accelerate anything that you’re doing… He didn’t come here to lose. He came here to win and believed in our team, and we believed in our team.”

Wilson brings with him a championship pedigree, and as illustrated by his off-field work with his new teammate at his compound in San Diego, the Broncos’ new quarterback also brings expectations that he’ll expect those teammates to live up to; the kind that haven’t existed since Hall-of-Famer Peyton Manning roamed the training fields at Dove Valley. As Paton said, Wilson didn’t come to Colorado to lose.

“A guy told me once, ‘When coaches hold players accountable, it’s a good team. When players hold players accountable, it’s a great team.’ When we always talk about the team as so important to us, it’s about those guys holding each other accountable and being there for each other,” Hackett explained. “As a coach, you can’t go out there. Those guys have to be able to work things out themselves. You’re trying to train them as best you can, but they’re the ones who have to work it out. When you see that happen, that’s when special things start coming to fruition. I think that’s what you saw with the Avalanche, and that’s what we’re trying to create here.”

Hackett and Paton hope to build up to something that no one on the current Broncos’ roster but Wilson and kicker Brandon McManus has experienced — a championship-caliber club that not only wants to win the Super Bowl, but expects to.

“I would be disappointed if they didn’t have that mindset. They have to have that mindset,” Paton said. “This is a hard game, and you’re training all offseason. That has to be your mindset every time that you go out and workout.”

Safety Justin Simmons, who was drafted to the Broncos in 2016, and has yet to participate in a playoff game, can sense the difference with the additions of Hackett and Wilson.

“Way different. It feels like it’s all new,” Simmons said. “I know I have gotten up here every year and talked about how excited I am for the season and how I really feel confident and comfortable with the group that we have going in, but this year is just a little different than years prior… it’s going to be so hard to level back the excitement, the energy, and the juice for so many of the guys, because you just get so excited that you just want it to be Week 1 in Seattle tomorrow.”

As for Paton and Hackett, the Broncos’ new leadership duo appears to be on the right track, but as relative newcomers to their current roles, they aren’t too big to seek a little advice, as evidenced by their back-and-forth while raving about the Stanley Cup champs, including the work put in by their compatriots as general manager and head coach.

“Hats off to Joe Sakic and coach (Jared) Bednar. The team they put together was unbelievable. I just can’t wait to sit him down and see how he did it,” Paton said.

Hackett’s response brimmed with his usual, bouncy energy. “I have to talk to them.”

Paton nodded in agreement. “We have to pick their brains.”

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