Avalanche Week in Review: August 20-21

The news this week revolves around the Avs quest for a head coach for the 2016-17 season and beyond but there’s always more. Let’s take a look back.

• The Avs signed RW-C Ben Smith to a 1-year $675k NHL/$150k AHL contract. More than likely he will be NHL depth and a target for youngsters in San Antonio like Rocco Grimaldi and JT Compher to beat out if they can.
• The preliminary short list for head coaching candidates was leaked Thursday, including Caps Asst Coach Lane Lambert, Rags Asst Coach Scott Arniel, Lake Erie Head Coach Jared Bednar and Utica Head Coach Travis Green.
• Terry Frei reported Friday night that a fifth candidate has emerged, yet another member of the Blue Jackets staff - Brad Larsen. You might remember Larsen from the late 90’s and early 00’s as a tweener LW in the Avs organization. His coaching career began in Springfield as an assistant and he was later promoted to head coach with (wow!) Jared Bednar and Nolan Pratt as his helpers. He has spent the last 2 seasons as an Assistant to various people behind the Columbus bench.

I really don’t know what to make of Columbus willingly shedding possibly 2 talented coaches in one off-season. They’re famous as a poorly run franchise, but one asset they do/did seem to have is coaching talent and they’re giving it away while keeping Torts behind the bench. Baffling, to state the obvious, they might end up regretting that.

• If you haven’t watched this video featuring our even more Terminator-esque Finnish youngster Mikko Rantanen, kick back for 40 minutes of his summer training regimen and shopping prowess. You’ll find out quickly it’s in Finnish but there are subtitles available.
• AJ & JJ’s weekly BSN Avs Podcast focuses on coaching candidates, Ben Smith and the usual twitter question mayhem.