The Colorado Avalanche will have some vacancies to fill as defensive coach Andre Tourigny, and video coach Mario Duhamel will not return for the 2015-16 campaign, per the Denver Post.
Tourigny has resigned to pursue a head coaching position while Duhamel hopes to serve in a role that would allow him to be behind the bench. Duhamel has been granted permission to speak with other teams so that he can pursue that goal.
Per the Post:
The Avs obviously have a problem with shots-against and getting hemmed in their zone. But Tourigny should not be seen as “runner” or scapegoat. At every practice I attended, play stopped when Roy had something to say — and usually he was running the D-zone drills.
Patrick Roy’s second season as Colorado’s head coach was a rocky one. After leading Colorado to a division title in 2013-14, the Avalanche finished at the bottom of the Central Division with a 39-31-12 record. Their offense was a big part of the issue as they went from scoring 2.99 goals per game to just 2.55 this season.
Colorado did finish on a high note with a 12-6-1 record from the beginning of March onward and Roy felt they learned a lot in 2014-15. At the same time, the Avalanche were a terrible puck possession team in 2013-14, which led some to believe that their regression was just that catching up with them.
The Avalanche similarly struggled in that regard this season with a five-on-five Fenwick of 43.9%. The only team that did worse than them in that regard were the Buffalo Sabres.