All that and more on this edition of Deen’s Daily — August 25.

Colorado Hockey Now

What an unexpectedly fun experience it was at Magness Arena. The Avalanche and DU Alumni both embraced what ended up being a pretty entertaining day all around. From the moment the puck dropped, you can tell many of those guys were having fun. Peter Forsberg still enjoys strapping on the skates. Milan Hejduk looks the same way on the ice as he did 15 years ago. And of course, nobody has more fun doing anything in life than Dan Hinote does playing hockey.

Catch my full recap of the experience below.

READ MORE: Good Vibes and Memorable Moments at the Avalanche’s Alumni Game

Johnson didn’t participate in the game but he was in the booth for Altitude TV. At the end of the game, he shared his thoughts on what he’s hoping to accomplish in the coming weeks. EJ is a free agent, but he’s not ready to walk away from the game.

READ MORE: UFA Erik Johnson Still Wants to Play in the NHL

Around The NHL

Vegas Hockey Now: Like Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel became eligible for a contract extension on July 1. Why hasn’t he signed yet?

Pittsburgh Hockey Now: Was the original plan in 2022 for Evgeni Malkin to sign elsewhere as a free agent?

Detroit Hockey Now: The Red Wings didn’t add much after acquiring goalie John Gibson. But in free agent James Van Riemsdyk, they like the versatility he brings.

Florida Hockey Now: Evan Rodrigues had quite the day with the Stanley Cup over the weekend.

The post Deen’s Daily: Successful Avalanche Alumni Game; Erik Johnson Wants to Keep Playing appeared first on Colorado Hockey Now.

All that and more on this edition of Deen’s Daily — June 7.

Colorado Hockey Now

The Avalanche dropped a considerable bit of news on Friday. Forward Logan O’Connor had hip surgery that will keep him sidelined for 5-6 months. That means the soon-to-be 29-year-old will not be ready for training camp and will miss the first part of the regular season.

O’Connor had another hip procedure done in March 2024, and it kept him out of the playoffs that year. He had an excellent postseason this year before opting for another surgery.

I don’t have full details of his latest surgery, but it seems to me like the one he had in 2024 was more of a quick fix before opting for a more serious procedure with a longer recovery timeline. I can’t confirm that, but it’ll be one of the first questions we ask the front office when they speak around the draft and free agency. Let’s hope all goes well for his recovery. We saw just how important a player he was in the postseason, especially on that line with Jack Drury and Parker Kelly.

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Read More: Deen’s View: Nelson Deal Sets the Table — Now the Real Work Begins for the Avalanche (+)

Dan Hinote accepted a job as assistant coach to Jon Cooper in Tampa Bay. He’s already got eight years of assistant coaching experience in the NHL, and needed just one season in the AHL with the Colorado Eagles to get another NHL gig.

Hinote was one of three names I wondered about for the open spot on Jared Bednar’s staff. All three of those names are now off the board.

Hinote is in Tampa Bay.

David Quinn joined the New York Rangers staff.

Derek Lalonde accepted a job on Craig Berube’s staff in Toronto.

Who will replace Ray Bennett? I guess we’ll find out soon enough.

Stanley Cup Final Recap

Game 2: This might be one of the more opening two games of a Stanley Cup Final that I could remember. The Oilers and Panthers exchanged goals throughout the first period before Florida took control in the second. The reigning Stanley Cup champions held a 4-3 lead late in regulation. But with the goalie pulled, Edmonton would not be denied. Corey Perry scored the latest game-tying goal in Stanley Cup Final history at 19:42 to force overtime.

Neither team was able to capitalize in the first OT period before Brad Marchand scored his 10th career SCF goal at 8:05 of the second OT to lift Florida to a 5-4 victory. The series is knotted up at 1-1 heading to Sunrise for two games.

Stanley Cup Final Series

Game 1: EDM 4-3 OT (Series: 1-0 EDM)
Game 2: FLA 5-4 OT (Series: 1-1 tied)
Game 3: EDM at FLA (Monday, June 9)
Game 4: EDM at FLA (Thursday, June 12)
Game 5: FLA at EDM (Saturday, June 14)
Game 6: EDM at FLA (Tuesday, June 17)
Game 7: FLA at EDM (Friday, June 20)

Around The NHL

Jack Adams Award: The winner of the Jack Adams as coach of the year is Washington’s Spencer Carbery. The first year head coach  collected a whopping 81 out of a 103 first-place votes. Avs coach Jared Bednar had two second-place votes and a third-place vote.

Pete DeBoer Fired: The Dallas Stars fired Pete DeBoer on Friday with one year remaining on his contract. DeBoer’s tenure lasted three years, which included the most points in the regular season in that span and three consecutive Western Conference Final appearances.

It’s a shiny record for a guy that was let go, but it likely had to be done after the way the Jake Oettinger pull was handled in the series-ending Game 5 loss to Edmonton. DeBoer has a history of being tough on his goalies, and Oettinger is about to start an eight-year contract with an $8.25 million AAV. He’s not going anywhere anytime soon. The coach had to be let go.

I feel like it wasn’t a coincidence that Dallas waited until Boston hired Marco Sturm as head coach before announcing that DeBoer would not be returning. There were a ton of rumors out there that the Bruins were awaiting Dallas’ decision just in case DeBoer became available.

Pittsburgh Hockey Now: Like the Avs, Pittsburgh is another team looking for assistant coaches. Here’s a name that could make sense.

Philly Hockey Now: Should the Flyers try to acquire Martin Necas?

New Jersey Hockey Now: What about Necas in New Jersey? There’s a common theme with some of these teams… They’re all on the East coast. If in fact Necas is unhappy in Colorado, could a return to the East and easier travel be the thing he’s looking for?

Boston Hockey Now: How Sturm can improve the Bruins in his first year as coach.

Vegas Hockey Now: There was a lot of discussion between Vegas and Toronto last year regarding Mitch Marner. Could he still be a landing spot for the Golden Knights on July 1?

The post Deen’s Daily: O’Connor Has Hip Surgery; Finding a Fit For Necas; DeBoer Fired! appeared first on Colorado Hockey Now.

Hinote, who is filling the role vacated by Jeff Blashill, was the Colorado Eagles’ associate coach in the AHL this past season. He worked on the power play for the Avs’ AHL club and helped the team finish with the sixth-best PP in the AHL.

The Eagles also finished third in the league in the regular season.

Before joining Colorado last summer, Hinote previously spent four years as an assistant coach for both the Nashville Predators and the Columbus Blue Jackets.

I’m not entirely sure Hinote will be in charge of the PP in Tampa. Cooper’s other assistant, Jeff Halpern, handles the PP and has done so since 2018. Hinote is replacing Blashill after the Blackhawks hired the former Red Wings bench boss to be their head coach.

Blashill was fired by the Red Wings in 2022 and ended up switching places with then-Lightning assistant coach Derek Lalonde. Both Lalonde and Blashill were in charge of the team’s penalty kill. I’d assume Hinote will assume that role.

I do wonder if the Avs had any interest in hiring Hinote to fill their assistant coach role after the team fired Ray Bennett last month. Bennett was handling PP duties, and the Avs are still looking for his replacement.

One name I was curious about was David Quinn. He was once an assistant in Colorado and helped the Penguins elevate their PP this past season. But the Rangers announced earlier this week that Quinn would be joining Mike Sullivan in New York as an assistant coach for the Rangers.

Lalonde is another name I wondered about for Colorado. His Red Wings had a spectacular power play during his tenure as head coach. His assistant Alex Tanguay, a familiar name to the Avs, is still holding the same role in Detroit and is unlikely to leave his post. But Lalonde likely learned a thing or two from Tanguay.

Either way, he’s no longer available as the Toronto Maple Leafs announced he’d be joining Craig Berube’s staff as an assistant coach.

The post Dan Hinote Leaves Organization For Job in Tampa Bay appeared first on Colorado Hockey Now.

They did so with a familiar face to Avalanche fans helping them out.

Dan Hinote, hired by the organization to be an associate head coach for the Eagles this season, is expected to play a crucial role in the development of some of the young players the Avalanche have in their organization. Having spent several seasons as an assistant coach at the NHL level, most recently with the Nashville Predators, he’ll bring a wealth of knowledge to the farm club.

The Avalanche are excited to have him back in Colorado, and Hinote is excited to be here. Apparently excited is his default state, though.

“He’s always excited,” Avalanche Director of Player Development Brian Willsie told the media on Thursday. “He’s excited when he gets out of bed in the morning.”

Back in July, Hinote went on a podcast in Nashville and talked about why he decided to take a job in the AHL after spending most of his time behind the bench at the NHL level. It turns out his passion for helping young players develop is a big reason why he took the Eagles job.

And the Avalanche are really happy to have him.

“Dan and I go back a long time,” Willsie said. “We’ve known each other since the mid-90’s, but what an addition. That final step from the American League to the NHL, he is so perfect for that role. It’s a breath of fresh air, but he knows the details that it takes to be in the NHL, having coached there last few years, having been that player.”

Colorado has struggled to graduate forwards from the AHL to the NHL, and they’ll likely have some guys down there that need some help taking that next step. Oskar Olausson, Ivan Ivan, and Ondrej Pavel, just to name a few, are some guys who could use that guidance to reach the next level. Maybe Hinote is the guy that will help get them there.

The Avalanche seem confident he is.

“We’re excited,” Willsie said. “(Hinote) is really knowledgeable in getting those players over the hump to get there, but to stay there as well.”

The post ‘What An Addition’: Avalanche, Hinote Excited About Their Reunion appeared first on Colorado Hockey Now.

Dan Hinote, the new Associate Head Coach for the Colorado Eagles, wants to help change that.

Speaking on the “It’s All Your Fault” podcast, which is a podcast that follows the Nashville Predators, Hinote talked about why he left Nashville and is now back with the Avalanche. The biggest reason why he ended up back in Colorado? His passion for developing youngsters as not just players, but human beings.

“At the end of the year, and even during the year, I feel and felt like I need to do more. I need to have a bigger impact. I want to have a bigger impact. On the planet, on the hockey players, on the NHL culture, all of it,” Hinote said. “And that was a new thing that just kind of popped into my soul – ‘you need to do more, you’re not doing enough for the good of the world.’ And hockey is my world. So how do I do more? There’s nowhere to go other than to a head (coach) position, and the thing about what I realize is that the part of the game that I love coaching the most is the development side. I had 10 years to not perfect it, but work on it. I’ve gotten there. I feel like I have a good recipe, I’ve had good results for a lot of guys that were kind of up and down and have now kind of solidified themselves as NHL’ers through this process, so I know it works. That’s kind of what it came to.”

Hinote had nothing but good things to say about Barry Trotz and Andrew Brunette, but noted that the Predators are “going to be a little bit of an older team.” It sounds like he’s really looking forward to the next step in Colorado.

“I want to make sure that these guys are going to live a great life when hockey is done, and I want them to have a great career. And to me, you have to build that foundation of leadership through all the work internally first. I want to build their foundation for this permanent leadership through every facet, and you can do that in the AHL,” he said. “You can get to them on their nutrition and their sleep and their money and their relationships, and all the things that can tie into their life. If you can get them a good foundation while they’re in the (AHL), then they’re going to thrive once they make it, because all of those other things are in order.”

Maybe Hinote will be the guy who helps turn things around on the development side of things for the Avalanche. Guys like Oskar Olausson, Jean-Luc Foudy, Sean Behrens, and Ivan Ivan should spend a significant amount of time in the AHL this year with Hinote, and he’s probably a good guy to learn from. The 47 year old was a 7th round draft pick who managed to win a Stanley Cup and play over 500 games in the NHL. He knows a thing or two about what it takes to make it in the big league, and he’s ready to get going.

“It kind of feels like I (get to) go home for this next season and work with some great human beings,” he said. “I couldn’t be more excited.”

The post Hinote Talks Return To Avalanche, Passion For Development On Podcast: ‘I Couldn’t Be More Excited’ appeared first on Colorado Hockey Now.

The most amazing jinx I’ve ever seen in sports is the one surrounding ex-Avalanche players in their first game back against them. It’s not surprising that many ex-Avs went on to have successful first games against them. I mean, Teemu Selanne was a guy who just torched the Avs after leaving following the 2003-04 season, but Teemu Selanne torched a lot of teams in his Hall of Fame career.

But when you look at many other players and how they did against the Avs in that first game against them? It’s pretty astonishing. Some of them only scored a handful of goals in their career, but they scored in that first game against the Avs following their departure. I’m going to run down a list of the top five most “amazing” curse-of-the-ex–Avs-jinx games, and it won’t include games by goalies – such as the 1-0 shutout Semyon Varlamov had in his first game against the Avs for the Islanders this season.

I may have forgotten some good ones for this list. If anybody remembers one I should have included, please put it in the comments.

Here we go:

DAN HINOTE, NOV. 2, 2006, WITH ST. LOUIS

Dan Hinote scored 38 goals in his 503-game NHL career. He scored in his first game against the Avalanche, with the St. Louis Blues on Nov. 2, 2006. It was the first goal of the game, of course, in the first period, of a 4-1 Blues win.

Hinote would score 11 goals in his three seasons with the Blues, before his NHL career finished. Four of them were scored against the Avs. Four.

I couldn’t find any video of that goal.

WOJTEK WOLSKI, MARCH 4, 2010, WITH ARIZONA

This was one of the most unbelievable goals in the long list of them in the curse of the Avalanche ex-player jinx. In a 1-1 game with under a minute left, Wojtek Wolski scored what proved the game-winner in a 3-1 win. He scored with 23 seconds left, against Craig Anderson.

What makes it more amazing: It was Wolski’s first game with the Coyotes, following his trade from the Avs, for Peter Mueller. I remember sitting there in the press box in Arizona, when the goal was scored, and thinking to myself, “OK, this curse is REAL.”

The goal can be seen here, at the 4:50 mark:

PETER FORSBERG, JAN. 14, 2006, WITH PHILADELPHIA

I remember sitting there, in the press box in Philly, saying to myself, “He’s gonna score, he’s gonna score.” And, of course, Peter Forsberg did score, against the Avalanche in this, his first game against them following his heartbreaking departure as a free agent following the 2003-04 season (well, the 2004-05 season, technically. That’s the one that was never played).

The Avalanche had a 3-1 lead with under three minutes remaining in this game. Mike Knuble made it 3-2 with 2:36 left, on a power-play goal set up by…Peter Forsberg.

With 1:12 left, the Flyers tied it. Forsberg, of course, scored the goal. I knew it was coming.

The Avs went on to win this game in overtime, thanks to a power play drawn by Joe Sakic, who was tripped. Alex Tanguay scored it.

Tanguay would be traded following this season, to Calgary. He scored a goal against the Avs in his first game against them, of course, on Nov. 28, 2006, a 5-2 Flames win.

I looked everywhere, but couldn’t find a video of that Forsberg goal.

JEFF FINGER, JAN. 29, 2009, WITH TORONTO

Jeff Finger had a pretty good season with the Avs in 2007-08, but nobody could have expected the contract he got as a free agent with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Finger got a four-year, $14 million deal from the Leafs, which stunned everyone – even Finger himself.

He would only play two seasons with the Leafs, and he never played in the NHL beyond those two seasons.

On Jan. 29, 2009, the Maple Leafs came to the Pepsi Center. Finger hadn’t played in three weeks, prior to the game. He hadn’t scored a goal in 17 straight games. But, of course, he scored a goal against the Avs in this game. It was a goal that contributed to a 7-4 Maple Leafs win. Finger scored 17 goals in 199 career games.

It was a 2-2 game in the second period when Finger boomed a slap shot home for the go-ahead goal.

You can see it here, starting at around the 3:25 mark:

CODY MCLEOD, JAN. 14., 2017, WITH NASHVILLE

Cody McLeod played only 28 games for the Avs to that point in the 2016-17 season, with one goal, when he was traded to the Nashville Predators on Jan. 13, 2017. His first game for the Predators was the following day, in Denver against the Avalanche.

The Avs – the 48-point team of that season – had a 2-0 lead in the second period against a very good Preds team. McLeod had scored one goal in his previous 46 NHL games, with the Avs. But at 7:52 of the second period, the Predators scored, in a comeback that would finish in a 3-2 victory.

Cody McLeod scored that goal. It was his only shot of the game, in the 10 minutes, 12 seconds he played. He was a plus-2 in the win, and also had a fight, with Jarome Iginla. He was the first star of the game.

The goal can be seen here, at the 3-minute mark:

Because, of course he was. The Avalanche ex-player jinx is strong.

The post The five most amazing examples of the Avalanche ex-player jinx appeared first on Colorado Hockey Now.