Adrian Dater on Patrick Roy turning down the Avs

Adrian Dater shares his thoughts on the Colorado Avalanche now that Patrick Roy has turned down their offer to take over as coach (and possibly GM as well).

[Team President Pierre] Lacroix gambled and lost. That’s not something we’re used to saying here in Avs-Ville. Lacroix has always gotten what he’s wanted, so to not get Roy in this case is a blow to his reputation. The Avs might try to spin this, that the whole thing with Roy was only exploratory and that it was never meant to go public and yadda yadda. The semantics of the word “offer” became part of this story, and still subject to spin.

Did Roy have a laser-printed, Fed Ex-ed contract offer, with numbers in black in white in front of him? Maybe not. Maybe Roy had to just say yes to Lacroix to want to be the coach before it got to that stage. But Roy said to yours truly himself today that, well yes, he had an offer to coach the team. Whether it was formalized in black and white on paper, maybe we’ll never know.

Frankly I think it was a terrible idea to begin with, but now the Avs have compounded it with how the whole episode played out publicly (don't forget, they still have a coach under contract, the recycled Tony Granato). They've let their current coach twist in the wind, and now Roy has left the team at the altar.

I can't wait to see how this turns out, but I'm guessing it's not going be good. Just compare this process with how the Minnesota Wild scenario was run.