DENVER – The Colorado Avalanche Hockey Club announced today the team has agreed to terms with head coach Jared Bednar on a four-year contract extension through the 2030-31 season.
Bednar, 54, is entering in his 11th season as Head Coach of the Colorado Avalanche. He is the winningest coach in Avalanche/Nordiques franchise history with a 445-262-75 (.617) record in 782 regular-season games behind the bench. Bednar also owns a 60-40-1 (.594) record in 101 postseason contests, the sixth-best playoff winning percentage all time (min. 50 games) behind Glen Sather (.706), Toe Blake (.689), Scotty Bowman (.632), Hap Day (.613) and Larry Robinson (.596).
The Avalanche have qualified for the postseason in all but one of Bednar’s campaigns, with the lone exception being his first season at the helm in 2016-17. In fact, Colorado’s nine straight playoff appearances make him the 13th head coach (14th instance) in NHL history to guide the same franchise to the playoffs at least nine consecutive seasons. Born in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Bednar was the head coach for the Avalanche that captured the 2021-22 Stanley Cup championship and remains the only individual to win a championship in the NHL, AHL and ECHL as a head coach. Originally hired on Aug. 25, 2016, Bednar is the second-longest tenured coach in the NHL behind only Tampa Bay’s Jon Cooper (March 25, 2013).
“Jared has done an outstanding job over the last decade, and there’s no doubt in my mind he’s the best coach for this group,’ said Avalanche President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Joe Sakic. “He commands the room and has complete confidence of the players. We’re excited to continue to have him in charge, and we believe that his presence maximizes the team’s potential while this core group is intact.”
“I’m extremely happy and grateful to continue leading this group,” said Bednar. “My family and I have loved being a part of this organization from the beginning, and I can’t thank the Kroenke family and Joe Sakic enough for their support. I look forward to working hard each day this season and beyond to accomplish our goal of winning another Stanley Cup.”
Last season, Colorado set a franchise record for the most points in a season with 121 en route to capturing the Presidents’ Trophy and reaching the Western Conference Final for the second time in Bednar’s tenure. The feat made him the eighth head coach in NHL history to win the Presidents’ Trophy at least twice with the same team.
The 2025-26 Avalanche became the 13th different club in NHL history to ring up 120-plus points over the course of the season. The 121 points finished in a share for the ninth-most a team has ever collected. Additionally, Colorado led the League in wins (55), the second-most in franchise history, and paced the circuit in regulation victories (48), the most in franchise annals. The Avs held sole possession of first place in the NHL standings for 143 consecutive game days dating back to Nov. 1, tying the 1983-84 Oilers for the third-longest such streak in NHL history. Colorado, which tied the franchise record with 29 road wins, was the only NHL team to win 25 or more games both at home and on the road in 2025-26. The only other season in franchise history in which the Avalanche won 25-plus games both at home and away was 2013-14 (26 and 26).
Under Bednar’s tutelage, the Avalanche notched a 55-16-11 record in 2025-26, moving him to 38th on the all-time wins list and 10th in victories for a single franchise. Colorado’s 5-4 OT win in Vancouver on Nov. 9, 2025 marked the 400th career victory for Bednar. He became the 42nd coach in history to reach 400 career wins and the seventh-fastest to do so (716 games). He coached his 100th career game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs on May 24, 2026, becoming the 31st head coach to be behind the bench for 100 postseason games and the 12th to coach 100 with the same franchise. After that game, Bednar trailed only Glen Sather (69), Toe Blake (68) and Mike Babcock (62) for the most playoff wins in NHL history through his first 100 games as a head coach. His 60 playoff victories also represent the most in franchise history.
Bednar led the 2021-22 Avalanche to a franchise record 56 wins (56-19-7, 119 points) and continued that into the postseason with a 16-4 mark on the way to hoisting Lord Stanley. The Stanley Cup championship completed the trio of league titles: Calder Cup with the Lake Erie Monsters in 2016 and a Kelly Cup with the South Carolina Stingrays in 2009. Colorado’s 72 combined regular season and playoff victories in 2021-22 matched the NHL record set by the 1976-77 Canadiens, 1983-84 Oilers and 1995-96 Red Wings. Bednar coached the Central Division during the 2022 NHL All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas, the first Avalanche bench boss to serve as a head coach at the All-Star Game. Bednar passed Bob Hartley for the most wins by an Avalanche coach (194) on Nov. 24, 2021 and then became the franchise’s all-time winningest coach with his 266th victory on Jan. 24, 2023 against the Washington Capitals.
Bednar was a finalist for the Jack Adams Award as the NHL’s coach of the year during his second season in 2017-18. He led the Avs to a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with a 43-30-9 record (95 points), a jump of 47 points from the previous year. Colorado’s 47-point turnaround at the time equaled the fourth-highest year-to-year improvement in NHL history. Bednar joined Harry Sinden in 1967-68 as the only coaches in NHL history to record at least 20 more wins in their second season as a head coach than in his first. Sinden led the Bruins to 37 victories in 1967-68 after winning 17 games in 1966-67.
Prior to joining the Avalanche organization, Bednar guided the Columbus Blue Jackets’ AHL affiliate, the Lake Erie Monsters, to the 2016 Calder Cup championship. The Monsters finished second in the Central Division with a 43-22-6-5 record (97 points) and then proceeded to go 15-2 during the postseason, sweeping both the Western Conference Final and Calder Cup Final. Bednar served as the head coach of the Blue Jackets’ previous AHL affiliate, the Springfield Falcons, in 2014-15 and spent two seasons as the head coach of the AHL’s Peoria Rivermen from 2010-12. He began his coaching career as an assistant with the South Carolina Stingrays of the ECHL in 2002-03. Bednar took over the Stingrays’ head coaching job in 2007-08 and in his second season led South Carolina to the 2009 Kelly Cup championship.
The defenseman played nine seasons of pro hockey and was part of two Kelly Cup championship teams as a player, 1997 and 2001 with South Carolina. He was inducted into the ECHL Hall of Fame in 2020.
Bednar, who lived in Humboldt, Saskatchewan, on two different occasions for a decade during his youth and also played for the Humboldt Broncos, is personally involved in helping the victims and families of the 2018 Humboldt Broncos bus accident. Jared hosts a golf tournament in Humboldt each summer and during the 2022 event brought the Stanley Cup to share with the community.
