The product of Yorkton, Saskatchewan, played defense for four different teams during his three seasons as a junior in the WHL: the Saskatoon Blades, Spokane Chiefs, Medicine Hat Tigers, and Prince Albert Raiders. At the NHL Draft, he was never chosen.
Following his junior year, Bednar played for the Huntington Blizzard, South Carolina Stingrays, St. John’s Maple Leafs, Rochester Americans, and Grand Rapids Griffins during nine seasons that alternated between the ECHL, AHL, and IHL. With the Stingrays, Bednar won two ECHL Kelly Cup titles in 1997 and 2001. Additionally, he participated in six games in the 1995 Roller-Hockey International league with the Anaheim Bullfrogs.
The product of Yorkton, Saskatchewan, played defense for four different teams during his three seasons as a junior in the WHL: the Saskatoon Blades, Spokane Chiefs, Medicine Hat Tigers, and Prince Albert Raiders. At the NHL Draft, he was never chosen.
Following his junior year, Bednar played for the Huntington Blizzard, South Carolina Stingrays, St. John’s Maple Leafs, Rochester Americans, and Grand Rapids Griffins during nine seasons that alternated between the ECHL, AHL, and IHL. With the Stingrays, Bednar won two ECHL Kelly Cup titles in 1997 and 2001. Additionally, he participated in six games in the 1995 Roller-Hockey International league with the Anaheim Bullfrogs.
After hanging up his skates and roller blades, Bednar decided to become a coach. It took him 14 years to have a chance to play in the NHL with the Avalanche after they won the AHL Calder Cup. In 2022, Bednar won the Stanley Cup with Colorado, his sixth season as club captain. With a 43-25-3 record and a 5-4 victory over the Canadiens in a shootout on Saturday night at the Bell Centre, the Avalanche should qualify for the playoffs for the eighth consecutive season.
The Canadiens, who now hold the second wild-card place in the Eastern Conference with a 33-27-9 record, are hoping to make the playoffs for the first time in four years. They play the Blues in St. Louis on Tuesday at 8 p.m., TSN2, RDS.
The Canadiens, who now hold the second wild-card place in the Eastern Conference with a 33-27-9 record, are hoping to make the playoffs for the first time in four years. They play the Blues in St. Louis on Tuesday at 8 p.m., TSN2, RDS.
I asked Bednar after Saturday’s Avalanche morning skate whether he was taken aback by what Martin St. Louis, the Canadiens’ head coach, had managed to achieve. Despite having a 16-year playing career that earned him a spot in the Hall of Fame, St. Louis went straight from teaching his three boys in the Mid-Fairfield Youth Hockey Association in Connecticut to being the head coach of a rebuilding team in the NHL. winning the 2016 Lake Erie Monsters title. In 2009, while coaching the Stingrays, he also took home the Kelly Cup.
Leave a Reply