Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov, who was probably closer to former coach Patrick Roy than any of his teammates, had no inkling that Roy was unhappy and about to quit.

Roy resigned his positions as coach and vice president of hockey operations Aug. 11. Jared Bednar was hired as coach Aug. 25.

"That was a shock for all of us -- for the team, for the whole organization," Varlamov told NHL.com's Tom Gulitti on Tuesday following a Team Russia practice in St. Petersburg, Russia, in preparation for the World Cup of Hockey.

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— Sports Squatch (@SportsSquatch) September 2, 2016

"I was really enjoying working with Patrick," Varlamov said. "That was a big deal for me to have him as a head coach. He's been very helpful. As a goalie, I feel like I was really lucky to have him and Francois Allaire as a goalie coach. I feel like I had two goalie coaches on the team, which has been really helpful for me."

Varlamov had a 27-25-3 record last season with two shutouts, a 2.81 goals-against average and .914 save percentage. The Avalanche were 39-39-4 and missed the playoffs for the second year in a row.

Roy said in his resignation release that he didn't feel he had enough of a role in player personnel decisions.

"I don't know why he left the team, to be honest, because the team really loved and loved to play for him," Varlamov said. "I think he had really good communication with the boys. Seriously, it was a really big surprise for us. We didn't expect that."

Varlamov said that Allaire has assured him he will be with the Avalanche this season.

"I called him this summer and I asked him if he was staying and he said he signed for one more year with the Avalanche, so he's going to stay for one more year," Varlamov said.

Varlamov was in Russia when Bednar was hired, and he hasn't had a chance to talk with him.

For now, Varlamov is concentrating on getting ready for the World Cup tournament. He's one of three goalies on Team Russia; the others are Columbus' Sergei Bobrovsky and Tampa Bay's Andrei Vasilevskiy.

"I don't know who is going to be No. 1, 2 or 3," Varlamov said. "All the goalies are looking good so far. I don't know who is going to be playing, who is going to be the starting goalie. I think the coaching staff, they have some ideas about it but they don't say anything to us. We're all going to be ready to play in the World Cup. It's a short tournament, so probably not all of us are going to play the whole tournament.

"The coaching staff is going to make a decision who is going to be No. 1 and then you have to take that and just be a good teammate."

Russia plays its first pre-tournament game Thursday against the Czech Republic at Yubileyny Sports Palace in St. Petersburg. The teams meet again Saturday at O2 Arena in Prague. Russia's final pre-tournament game is against Canada at Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh on Sept. 14.

The tournament runs from Sept. 17 to Oct. 1 at the Air Canada Centre in Toronto.

Five other Avalanche players are on World Cup rosters: Matt Duchene (Canada); Nathan MacKinnon (North America); Gabriel Landeskog and Carl Soderberg (Sweden); and Erik Johnson (United States).



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