Colorado Avalanche Head Coach Jared Bednar nominated for the Jack Adams Award

The NHL has just announced the three finalists for the Jack Adams Award and Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar is among them. The Coach of the Year award will be handed out at the NHL awards on June 20.

The Jack Adams Award is voted on by the National Hockey League Broadcasters’ Association and is given out yearly to the coach who “adjudged to have contributed the most to his team’s success.”

The three finalists for this year’s award are:

Jared Bednar - Colorado Avalanche - 43-30-9

Gerard Gallant - Vegas Golden Knights - 51-24-7

Bruce Cassidy - Boston Bruins - 50-20-12

With the way the Vegas Golden Knights took the league by storm this year, One would assume that Gerard Gallant is the front runner to win the award, but a strong case can be made for Bednar. After suffering through a nightmare of a first season as an NHL head coach - his only losing season as a professional head coach, Bednar led the Avalanche to one of the biggest improvements in NHL history this year. The Avalanche fell one win shy of doubling their win total from the 2016-17 season. A 47-point improvement saw Colorado make the playoffs in a year when most projection had them finishing in the bottom-5 of the league.

Bednar is finishing up his second season as a head coach in the NHL after replacing Patrick Roy in the summer of 2016. Prior to joining the Avalanche, he led the Lake Erie Monsters to the Calder Cup.