For the past two years, some of the Avalanche’s best young minor-league prospects have been taught in the ways of the Carolina Hurricanes. Being that the Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup in 2006, some might consider that a good thing. But the Avalanche never thought so.
If you have kids, you don’t want someone else raising them. So, for the first time since the Avs moved to Denver, they are in total control of their best prospects.
It’s all part of an organization-wide shift to create a new culture. It’s not just hockey. It’s Avalanche hockey.
“It’s taking pride, in the organization, in the Avalanche sweater,” Avs general manager Francois Giguere said. “Now we can school them in that ourselves, and develop a better relationship with our younger players earlier than we have before.”
The Avs have been one of hockey’s best teams over the past 11 years, but they’ve always had something of an identity issue. Being a transplanted franchise, there was still much of the culture of the Quebec Nordiques in place. When the team moved to Denver in 1995, it took several months just to decide on a new name.
On the ice, the Avs carved out an impressive résumé, doing whatever it took to win.
But it has been a source of frustration to management not to be able to imprint its philosophies on players before they reach the big club. In the new salary-cap era of the NHL, management felt it was time to change everything from the marketing strategy at the top to developing talent on the farm.
On the ice, that means playing and teaching an up-tempo, aggressive brand of hockey. Off the ice, it means fostering a more family-type feel throughout the organization. To that end, the team has looked to former players such as Craig Billington, Steve Konowalchuk and Sylvain Lefebvre to fill key management positions in the development of young prospects and spread the Avs’ gospel.
“You have guys that have worn the jersey, and they understand the pride of wearing that jersey,” Giguere said. “To me, that’s what you’re trying to create with a young player, before they even get to the NHL level.”
Billington, a former backup goalie to Patrick Roy, serves as the Avs’ director of player development. Konowalchuk, who retired from the Avs last year because of a heart ailment, is Billington’s assistant, as player development coordinator. Lefebvre, a former defenseman who played on the Avs’ 1996 Stanley Cup-winning team, is an assistant coach with the expansion Lake Erie Monsters, the Avs’ new farm club in the American Hockey League. From the general manager on down to the trainer, the Avs control all aspects of the Monsters’ operations.
“Now it’s really important to build from within, with the salary cap,” Konowalchuk said. “You can only buy so many free agents now. You really need young guys consistently coming through your lineup, pushing the vets. What we’re trying to build is making sure our young guys are ready when they get here, who know what our organization is all about and can put names to faces throughout.”
Apart from making him feel older, Avalanche captain Joe Sakic thinks having his former teammates work with younger players is a great idea.
“They know what kinds of things the organization stands for. I think all the great teams have that feeling of tradition that gets passed down to the younger guys,” Sakic said.
For the past two years, the Avs’ top minor-league prospects played under coach Tom Rowe, last season in Albany, N.Y., and in Lowell, Mass., the previous year. Rowe was an employee of the Hurricanes, who, under a joint agreement with the Avs, also supplied players to the team. The management was controlled by Carolina.
The Monsters, who will play at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, are owned by Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert. But everything that happens on the ice is controlled by Avalanche employees – which coach Joel Quenneville said could make a winning difference in years to come.
“Before, the culture was that of the Hurricanes,” Quenne- ville said. “It was their system at Albany. It was their coach’s decision about where our guys played, who got promoted, how much ice time they got. Now we can talk to our own guys on their bench, and better implement the kind of style we try to play as an organization, which is fast and aggressive and always on the puck.”
Giguere said he isn’t trying to pattern the Avs after any other sports franchise. He just wants the Avalanche – a franchise that began in Quebec in 1972 – to stand for something. Above all, that means winning, but with a certain style.
“We always want to be looking to the future, but also honoring and respecting our past,” Giguere said.
Adrian Dater: 303-954-1360 or adater@denverpost.com
