Jared Bednar to be Inducted into ECHL Hall of Fame

Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar will be inducted into the ECHL Hall of Fame in January 2020, the league announced Monday.
He will be one of four 2020 inductees, joining Dany Bousquet, Derek Clancey and Glen Metropolit in the 13th induction class, and the group will be connected with 46 other players, developmental players, builders and on-ice officials that have been inducted since the Hall of Fame began in 2008.
Bednar spent time as a player, assistant coach and head coach during his 15-year tenure in the league. As a player, he competed in 434 career ECHL games, suiting up for both the Huntington Blizzard and South Carolina Stingrays. Bednar tallied 173 points (43 goals, 130 assists) and 1,210 penalty minutes before retiring after the 2001-02 season. His best offensive campaign came in 1994-95 when he notched a career-high 45 points (nine goals, 36 assists) in 64 games with Huntington. He also had the most goals and assists of his career that year.

The current Avs head coach was an assistant coach for the Stingrays beginning in the 2002-03 campaign and remained in the role until he was promoted to head coach before the 2007-08 season. Bednar spent two seasons as the Stingrays' head coach and led the club to the American Conference Finals in 2008 and the 2009 Kelly Cup championship. He posted a .654 winning percentage in his two years as an ECHL head coach with an 89-45-9 record.
"I'm real proud of [being inducted]. I think, you know, I got my playing career start in the ECHL and my coaching career start," Bednar said of being named to the ECHL Hall of Fame. "I spent a lot of time with one organization there in South Carolina, so it's a big part of my hockey career and my background. I learned a lot there and did a bunch of different things, and I was able to play and coach with them and coach some awesome players too. It's a part of my life that I'm real proud about. It's an honor to be named to the ECHL Hall of Fame, no question."

Bednar was the first person to win three Kelly Cup titles as he captured it twice as a player with South Carolina in 1997 and 2001 before winning his third as the head coach of the Stingrays in 2009. Additionally, he is one of only two coaches (Bruce Boudreau) to win an ECHL and American Hockey League titles, as Bednar took home the Calder Cup in 2016 as the head coach of the Lake Erie Monsters.
Bednar will also be inducted into the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League Hall of Fame next August. Bednar lived in Humboldt, Saskatchewan, on two different occasions during his youth and also played for the SJHL's Humboldt Broncos. He has been very involved with aiding the victims and families of the 2018 Humboldt Broncos bus accident and helped to create a memorial golf tournament that began in August 2018, four months after the accident occurred.

The 2020 SJHL Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held in conjunction with the Broncos' 50th anniversary reunion and the third annual Humboldt Broncos Memorial Golf Tournament. Bednar will co-host the event with Winnipeg Jets broadcaster Brian Munz for the third year in a row on Aug. 7-8.
The 2020 ECHL Hall of Fame ceremony will take place on Tuesday, Jan. 21, in Wichita, Kansas.