The Avalanche are looking to hire a new coach after all -- for the American Hockey League's San Antonio Rampage.
Rampage coach
Dean Chynoweth has been fired after the team failed to make the playoffs in its first season as the Avalanche's top minor league affiliate.
The Rampage announced the news Tuesday on Twitter and in a three-sentence release on their web site.
The Rampage finished 33-35-8-0 and in last place in the Pacific Division following 6-0-4 and 9-1-5 starts. They lost seven games in a row in regulation from Dec. 4-17, and eight in a row from Feb. 28-March 18 before ending the season with eight wins in the last 10 games.
Chynoweth, 47, coached the Avalanche's previous AHL affiliate, the Cleveland-based Lake Erie Monsters, for three non-playoff seasons. His AHL record is 135-128-41.
I pointed out in a recent blog that, outside of high first-round picks, the Avalanche haven't been very good at drafting players who have developed into effective NHL players.
The
Joe Sakic/Patrick Roy regime at least is making an attempt to shore up depth throughout the organization.
Alan Hepple replaced
Rick Pracey a year ago as chief amateur scout, and now Chynoweth has been dismissed.
Take this for what it's worth, but forward
Borna Rendulic, who was signed by the Avalanche as a free agent in May 2014, didn't exactly give the Rampage coaching staff a ringing endorsement during an interview with
Eurolanche, the Avalanche's European fan club.
"Nobody cares about your development or how you are going to develop," said Rendulic, who had 16 goals and 22 assists in 68 games with the Rampage this season. "Nobody teach me. We had like those development guys like (director of player development) David Oliver and (development consultant) Brett Clark. When they come over it was nice because they were teaching us, but our coaches didn’t teach anyone. There were so many young players lost their confidence. They couldn’t make the play even when they are good players. It just shouldn’t be like that. It was too much negativity around when I was there."
The entire interview is here:
A former NHL defenseman, Chynoweth coached nine seasons in the Western Hockey League, four with the Seattle Thunderbirds and five with the Swift Current Broncos. He was an assistant coach with the New York Islanders for two seasons before the Avalanche hired him to coach Lake Erie.
The Islanders' first-round pick (No. 13) in the 1987 NHL draft, Chynoweth spent parts of nine NHL seasons with the Islanders and Boston Bruins. He had four goals, 18 assists and 667 penalty minutes in 241 games.
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