Patrick Roy has never been one to compromise — as a player or a coach — and apparently that still holds true.
Roy announced Thursday he’s stepping down as the Colorado Avalanche’s head coach and vice president of hockey operations after serving at both positions for more than three years. In a statement, the former goaltender pointed to irreconcilable differences between himself and the organization.
“I have thought long and hard over the course of the summer about how I might improve this team to give it the depth it needs and bring it to a higher level,” Roy’s statement read, via SportsNet. “To achieve this, the vision of the coach and VP-Hockey Operations needs to be perfectly aligned with that of the organization. He must also have a say in the decisions that impact the team’s performance. These conditions are not currently met.”
Roy spent eight years of his Hall of Fame career with the Avalanche, helping lead the club to two Stanley Cup championships. He returned to Colorado in 2013-2014 as head coach and VP of hockey operations and helped engineer an immediate turnaround: The Avs won 52 games in his first season, a total they hadn’t reached since their last Cup title in 2001.
But Colorado was bounced in the first round of the 2014 playoffs and hasn’t made it back to the postseason since. Roy still has two years left on his contract and general manager Joe Sakic said his former teammate would return for a fourth season, but it appears the Vezina Trophy winner no longer sees eye-to-eye with Sakic and the Avs front office.
The Avalanche have yet to make an official announcement of Roy’s decision or name his replacement.
Thumbnail photo via Marc DesRosiers/USA TODAY Sports Images
