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Avalanche Hire Quenneville As New Coach

Posted on: Wednesday, 7 July 2004, 06:00 CDT

DENVER - Joel Quenneville was hired Wednesday to coach the Colorado Avalanche, replacing Tony Granato, who will become his assistant.

Quenneville was the coach of the St. Louis Blues from January 1997 until this February, when he was fired during a 4-12 slump.

Quenneville said he had been in contact about openings with several teams this summer - just not the one that hired him.

"This came about so quickly yesterday - I'm cutting the grass in the backyard and here I am sitting in front of everybody when Colorado wasn't even an idea," Quenneville said. "It came about so quickly and I'm total thrilled about the opportunity. I love the challenge."

Granato was an Avalanche assistant when he was promoted to head coach in December 2002, replacing Bob Hartley, who was fired. The move was a surprise because Granato had only three months of coaching experience, all as an assistant, and was two years removed from his playing days.

Granato, who would have liked to have continued as the head coach, said he had no problem handing over the reins to someone like Quenneville and that he brought the idea to general manager Pierre Lacroix.

"I felt strongly with the people who were available and the opportunity to get Joel on the coaching staff, I recommended to Pierre and he felt the same way," said Granato, who was 73-33-17-11.

"I was very proud of the way things went, but when there's a hole in your staff and you have a chance to get better behind the bench I think any organization would look to do what's best for the organization."

Granato replaces Rick Tocchet on the staff. Shortly after the NHL draft last month, Tocchet said was leaving the team to spend more time with his family.

In five of his six full seasons at St. Louis, Quenneville led the Blues to at least 40 regular-season wins. They won 307 regular-season games but went 34-34 in the postseason.

Quenneville was an Avalanche assistant under coach Marc Crawford in 1995-96 and played a role in the franchise's first Stanley Cup championship.

Quenneville was to coach Canada at the hockey world championships in Prague in April but stepped down on the eve of the games after he was hospitalized for exhaustion.

Quenneville said Wednesday that he was completely healthy.

Lacroix had vehemently denied a report in March that Quenneville would replace Granato, who has a year left on his contract.

Colorado beat Dallas in the first round of the playoffs this year but was eliminated after scoring just seven goals in six games against the San Jose Sharks.

"We were very comfortable and confident in our coaching staff, that's why we addressed it at the end of the year," Lacroix said. "We felt strongly the coaching staff was not to be blamed and that's why I took the stand at that time. If the coaching staff stays in tact, we probably don't even discuss the possibility of doing a change."

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