Newest Avs players already comfortable with Jared Bednar

When one of your newest players calls his new head coach “Bedsy”, you know there’s a built-in familiarity factor already in play.

Matt Calvert is indeed quite familiar with Avalanche coach Jared Bednar, having played for him for the 2012-13 Springfield Indians of the American Hockey League, a team in which Bednar served as an assistant under former Avs winger Brad Larsen. In his first conversation with local media Monday a day after signing a three-year, $8.4 million free-agent contract with the Avs, Calvert referred to Bednar in the time-honored hockey nickname tradition, where you just have to add “ie”, ‘y” or “er” at the end of a person’s last name and you’re good to go.

But Calvert, or “Calvy”, wasn’t the only Avs free-agent signee from Sunday who knows something about Bednar.

Meet Ian Cole, who is equally comfortable answering to either “Colesy” or “Cole-r.”

“I played for Bedsy, first-year pro in Peoria,” said Cole, the veteran defenseman who inked a three-year, $12.75 million pact with Colorado. “I was a wide-eyed rookie, trying to learn the transition to the pro game. He was great to me, teaching me how a pro should act and how a pro should play.”

Cole played his first full season as a paid pro with the 2010-11 Peoria Rivermen under Bednar, who was also beginning his first season as a head coach at the AHL level. Now, he will be coaching him again for the 2018-19 Avs, along with Calvert, and both players said all the stuff he’d probably want to hear in their conversations Monday.

“I was looking to go somewhere where the team was solid. I want to win, and I can really see that happening. I was able to make a visit and it was a no-brainer,” said Calvert, a 5-11, 190-pound left winger who has 416 games of NHL experience, all with the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Calvert is also quite familiar with Avs assistant coach Nolan Pratt. He played under him in the Columbus system, including Springfield, and his wife used to nanny for Pratt’s children.

Asked what kind of player he is, Calvert was succinct:

“Penalty kill is my game,” said Calvert, 28. “I take pride in the penalty kill. I love to score short-handed goals when I get the opportunity. But I love to create offense when I can.”

The Avs had a primary need entering Sunday’s UFA meat market on the PK, which lost the services of veteran Blake Comeau to the Dallas Stars. If you can’t kill penalties in today’s game, you are in for a lot of trouble, and the Avs hope they have found a strong solution to Comeau’s vacancy in the younger, faster Calvert, who has six career shorties to get credit.

Cole is only a year older than Calvert, but actually has played fewer career games than Calvert (405). But he has lots of winning experience, having played on some good St. Louis teams before going to Pittsburgh and playing a regular shift on two Stanley Cup-winning teams.

Why Colorado, for a guy who had other offers and is used to playing on teams that have done some serious winning?

“I think with the success that Colorado had last year, the trajectory I personally see them on is only increasing. There’s a lot to really like about the team situation,” Cole said. 

Cole figures to be one of the few people who can say they know what it’s like to play with two great players who hail from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia. He played alongside Sidney Crosby for parts of four seasons in Pittsburgh, and now will play with Cole Harbour’s other famous native, Nathan MacKinnon.

“I had the pleasure to meet Nate Dawg a couple times at camps in Halifax. He’s a great guy, a real superstar on the ice,” Cole said. “The best situation is to try and get the puck to (guys like Crosby and MacKinnon) with as much space as they can get. I’ve been accustomed to that.”

Cole is considered a cerebral guy, someone who can hold a conversation on something other than hockey. He was partnered with David Savard in his short time with Columbus, and played alongside Kris Letang often in Pittsburgh. Calvert is considered a total team guy who will lie on the train tracks if it means a win for his team.

Yeah, money was a factor in both players coming to Colorado. To quote the late, great H.L. Mencken, “When somebody says it’s not about the money, it’s about the money.”

But after talking with both of them, even if just on a conference call, I was impressed that they seemed genuine in wanting to be a part of the Avs, that they were more than just mercenaries going to the highest bidder. They did have other suitors, after all.

Per @treed1919, Columbus offered more term to Ian Cole for just slightly less AAV than the three years, $12.75 million he got from #Avs. Sounds like Cole turned down four years, $16 million from CBJ, or maybe just slightly less than 16

— Adrian Dater (@adater) July 2, 2018

“It’s nice to be able to choose where you want to live, what kind of situation you’ll be part of,” Cole said.

Other signings

From the Avs’ website Monday: