The new Avalanche front office was the least likely shakeup

After a stunning sweep at the hands of the Golden Knights, the Avalanche's offseason shake-up looks nothing like what most expected

BY JOEY FREEBURG

Jun 3, 2026, 8:48 AM

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When the Colorado Avalanche were swept out of the Western Conference Finals by the Vegas Golden Knights, the offseason script practically wrote itself. It seemed so obvioius.

Head coach Jared Bednar would be the obvious fall guy. The team would search for a fresh voice behind the bench. The front office, meanwhile, would remain largely intact as the architect of a roster that, on paper, still had championship-caliber pieces.

That was the script most fans were preparing themselves for. According to NHL insider Elliotte Friedman, that script has been thrown out entirely.

On a Tuesday edition of “Dover and Cecil” on 104.3 The Fan, hosts Josh Dover and Cecil Lammey reacted to Friedman’s reporting that the Avalanche are heading in a very different direction than expected. Dover laid out the news first.

“It looks like Jared Bednar is safe and staying in his position as head coach of the Colorado Avalanche,” he said.

That alone is a development that runs counter to weeks of speculation. Bednar’s seat had appeared to be heating up by the day, with the sweep against Vegas serving as what many believed would be the final straw. Instead, the franchise has chosen to give him another runway.

But the news didn’t end there. The structural changes, as it turns out, are happening elsewhere.

“Bedsy’s safe for now, (Joe) Sakic will take on the duties for now, and Chris MacFarland is out of here,” Dover said.

That is a significant reshuffling of the front office. General manager Chris MacFarland is expected to be on his way out of the organization, with Sakic stepping back into a more direct general manager role. Sakic, of course, is a name that needs no introduction in Colorado. He’s a franchise legend whose imprint on the championship-era Avalanche runs deep on both sides of the equation, as a player and as a builder.

Lammey, however, was caught off guard by the direction.

“Of all the possible changes when the Vegas sweep happened – of all the possible combinations that could happen – isn’t this the one that you thought was least likely?” he asked.

It’s a fair reaction. The conventional wisdom across the sports world is that when a deep playoff run ends in catastrophic fashion, the coach is the one most vulnerable. Front offices typically protect themselves before they protect the bench. Colorado has done the opposite, keeping the coach, replacing the GM, and bringing back a franchise icon to oversee the operation.

There’s logic to the move if you squint hard enough. Sakic’s track record speaks for itself and the players have not soured on Bednar publicly. But the optics are unconventional, and the message it sends is one fans will be unpacking for weeks.

The Avalanche didn’t blow up their staff. They rearranged it, and they did so in a way almost nobody saw coming.