UNCONFIRMED: Patrick Roy likely to be the next coach of the Avalanche

The news trickled through social media tonight that Patrick Roy's brother Stephane had posted the following on his Facebook wall:

For all my friends I'd like you to know before the official news spreads that my older brother will be the new coach of the Colorado Avalanch.

Adrian Dater is now reporting he has spoken with Stephane via telephone, who confirmed that Patrick and the Avs are hammering out the final details of an agreement.

So there's the tenuous, waffling story. Dater is reporting that Stephane Roy is reporting that Patrick Roy is going to be the next head coach, but no one else will confirm anything.

Naturally the Avalanche wouldn't comment, and Joe Sakic and Patrick Roy were unavailable. That's kinda how these things go--and should go--until the team is ready to make the announcement.

Keep an eye on this space to evolve as details emerge, but unless a fake Stephane Roy is Teo'ing all of us, this looks like the real deal.

UPDATE: Word from Dater is the Avs are calling this news "premature," not a done deal. Which is a long way from "not true," but hey, this is the organization that signed Matt Carkner right up until it didn't.

SECOND UPDATE: Stephane has erased the post and privated his Facebook, and is now calling himself misquoted. Dater is calling shens on that, saying his report was unfairly taken out of proportion by other media outlets. He's kinda right on that one eh?

This story, of course, got twisted a little bit by the media too. I’ve seen a lot of stories saying “Report: Avalanche to name Patrick Roy as new coach.” But they forgot to add “according to his brother.”

This may be the first sign of a hiring, or it may be a story diehards laugh at in a few years. "Happy trails to you coach X, your firing was (premature || long overdue). So! Has anyone called Stephane Roy?" Either way the Roy hiring, whether real or not, has done exactly what the front office has to hope it would: generate buzz about the Avalanche.