The Colorado Avalanche’s 2007-08 season has been over for eight days now (though I guess you could argue it was over the minute San Jose finished off Calgary to hand the Avs a second-round date with the Red Wings, who really don’t suck). In those eight days, there have basically been zero questions answered about the future of the franchise. Are Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg headed for retirement? Is Andrew Brunette headed out of town? Will the team be willing to pony up the cash to keep Jose Theodore? These are of course all extremely important questions.

But the biggest one of all on May 9 concerns the status of the head coach. What is Joel Quenneville’s future behind the bench in Colorado?

Coach Q’s current contract runs out June 30, and there has been no indication one way or the other from Avs’ GM Francois Giguere as to who is going to coach this team for the foreseeable future. Quenneville is a man in limbo, left to wonder what his future is in Colorado, while no doubt noticing the high-profile vacancy in Toronto.

Besides having the best moustache in Denver sports and the sweetest television commercial of any local celebrity (the same things you’ve come to expect – power, versatility, capability), Quenneville has proven to be a tremendous overachiever with some very subpar Avalanche teams the last three seasons. Given the talent he’s had to deal with and the injury issues that have plagued this team, it’s a true testament to his ability to get the most out of his guys that this team has won two playoff series in his time here. Giguere and the front office are leaving Quenneville hanging, and that’s just not right.

The Avalanche were a team that suffered tremendously from the NHL lockout four years ago. Pierre Lacroix returned in the 2005-06 season with a team that hardly resembled the powerhouse the Avalanche had been the last nine years. The financial constraints of the new cap led Forsberg and Adam Foote out of town, while bringing in over-the-hill veterans Patrice Brisebois and Pierre Turgeon. The Avs looked to David Aebischer in goal, and he was so good he was shipped off to Montreal for Theodore in a move that screamed of desperation. All Quenneville did with that team was get them into the postseason as the seventh-seed, where they took down Marty Turco and the second-seed Dallas Stars in five games, including three wins on the road in that series. They were swept by Anaheim in the next round after a disappearing act by the offensive attack and Theodore, but that team hardly should have been there in the first place.

The 2006-07 season will forever be remembered as the first (and to this point only) season the franchise missed the postseason since moving to Colorado. What many may choose to forget is that they missed the playoffs by just one point, and nearly snuck in thanks to an unbelievable 15-2-2 record down the stretch. Once again, the $6 million man, Theodore, failed to show up (this time for the entire season), but Quenneville again got the most of his team and made a brilliant move putting Paul Stastny on the roster, which in case you forgot was a shocking move at the time. All Stastny did was finish with 78 points while pushing his way into the Calder Trophy discussion.

If Giguere needed any more evidence of Quenneville’s brilliance with this team, all he needs to do is look at the tape of this past season. The Avs lost Sakic, Stastny and Ryan Smyth for a combined 81 games. Marek Svatos was leading the team in goals when he was lost for the season. Forsberg returned only to be a fraction of the player he once was while playing in a fraction of the games. The power play stunk, which is typically what happens when you have defensemen unwilling to shoot from the point and forwards unable to get good position in front of the net (i.e. Smyth, who got big money in the offseason to do just that).

Despite all that, the team amazingly continued to win games. Theodore finally responded to Quenneville’s tough love and frequent benching at midseason, and started to play like he was supposed to all along. A young, beat-up team crawled their way up to the sixth seed in the West and again won a series they probably shouldn’t have. And hey, getting swept by Detroit with a roster that could barely walk let along skate? Nothing to be ashamed of! The Wings might not lose another game this postseason.

Quenneville has repeatedly been dealt a lousy hand in Colorado, yet consistently found some success, or at least more than anyone expected. A lack of goaltending, lack of depth and overall lack of talent has plagued this franchise since the lockout, yet they have two playoff series victories in that time. Giguere the accountant needs to throw out the calculator for a minute and realize that the right man for the job is already there.

Coach Q deserves a new deal. And hopefully with that comes a sweet new commercial (hang on the line, let me get their names).

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