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Avs, goalie coach McLean part ways

KirkMclean

The Colorado Avalanche continued to overhaul their coaching staff on Monday, severing ties with goalie coach Kirk McLean.

McLean, who spent 15 years in the NHL playing for New Jersey, Vancouver, Carolina, Florida and the New York Rangers, was hired as Colorado’s goaltending consultant in 2010.

According to the Denver Post’s Adrian Dater, it’s unclear if McLean was fired, or left the organization.

The 46-year-old was never a full-time employee with the club but did work with both Semyon Varlamov and JS Giguere over the last two seasons.

Here’s what Giguere had to say about the relationship (to In Goal Magazine), when questions arose about whether Giguere, a veteran netminder, was doing some coaching rather than McLean, who was there on a part-time basis:

First and foremost I am not [Varlamov’s] goalie coach. Some people make that assumption and that would be unfair for Kirk.

Kirk is the goalie coach, he is highly competent, he knows what he is doing, and this relationship is between Semyon and Kirk. I can not start givng him mixed messages.

That is their relationship. The same relationship I have with Kirk, he has to have too.

McLean’s move is the latest in a shuffle of Avalanche coaches and front office executives.

Head coach Joe Sacco was fired in late April, and former Colorado great Joe Sakic was put “in charge of all hockey-related decisions,” in early May.