Jared Bednar spent most of his hockey career trading punches with some of the meanest, toughest players in whatever league he was playing in.
Avs coach Jared Bednar poses with his first pronghorn antelope, shot in Colorado in 2022. (Photo courtesy of Jared Bednar)
But how many of those brawlers can also say they’ve plunged a knife into a wild hog’s heart?
Bednar, when he is not a Stanley Cup-winning coach of the Colorado Avalanche, is a man of the woods. Among the great passions of his life outside of hockey are hunting, fishing and enjoying nature.
It’s yet another reason he and the NHL team in the Centennial State have been such a perfect match.
“I like being outdoors,” Bednar told The Denver Post. “I think it’s a good reset. No devices. Just go out and spend some time in the wilderness and reset and come back to work the next day with a fresh mind.”
Hunting and fishing became a much bigger part of his life later in his playing days with the Charleston Stingrays in the ECHL. It started with fishing in a small boat that belonged to his teammate, Brett Marietti. Then it grew into hunting whitetail deer. South Carolina has one of the longest deer seasons in the country, so Bednar and his hunting buddies could get out in the woods before training camps started as his playing days ended and his coaching career began.
Now in Colorado, the hunts have expanded to include elk, pronghorn antelope and eventually, Bednar hopes, mule deer and moose. Every type of hunt is different, but none more distinctive than the wild hogs in South Carolina.
“I just met another guy through hunting that had a bunch of land, and they had a hog problem,” Marietti said. “You can’t really get rid of hogs just by shooting them. They multiply too quickly. The dogs would bay and catch the hogs. Then you go in there, and you actually put your hands on the hog and flip them over. Then someone comes in and actually puts a knife in its heart.”
One of Marietti’s friends chimed in with a simpler explanation.
“It’s pretty medieval,” he said.
“He wants to be perfect at it”
Wally Bednar is retired from the Royal Mounted Canadian Police. His son grew up in the outdoors of rural Saskatchewan, learning to shoot and care for guns, and bird hunting became his first taste.
Saskatchewan is home to some of the largest deer in North America. The stories of tracking trophy-level whitetails in the province are legendary.
The younger Bednar doesn’t have any of those. His burgeoning hockey career got in the way.
Once he settled in South Carolina, where he both played and coached for the Stingrays, life on the water in Charleston and in the woods nearby suited him.
“I’ve liked over the years seeing my buddies get their land, then working that land, like building food plots and setting up stands and getting your operation the way you want,” Bednar said. “Building bedding areas and the food plots and water sources to keep all the deer on your property, or keep them coming into your property.
“Then when you get one, it’s so rewarding because you put all this sweat labor into the whole project. It’s really a year-round thing.”
Bednar and his wife have an offseason home near Charleston that has become the family’s base. Most years, he spends the end of the NHL offseason in South Carolina, because that coincides with the start of whitetail deer season.
His love for the details and the process of hunting shouldn’t come as a surprise. He is a detail-oriented hockey coach.
Bednar embraces all of the data available to him. His players applaud his ability to convey complex information in easy-to-understand scouting reports and instructions.
He loves watching hunting shows, looking for tips and ideas he can apply. He was also a quick learner when it came to the ins and outs of deer hunting.
“I was able to basically kind of teach and run Jared through the steps of that and what you’ve got to do and how to get in the stand, how to be overly quiet and watch your scent,” Marietti said. “And as with anything he does, he wants to be perfect at it. So he would totally listen and ask 1,000 questions and make sure he was doing it exactly to the ‘T.’”
That doesn’t mean there aren’t some funny stories from Bednar’s early days as a hunter before he became a seasoned expert. Marietti enjoys telling one from the first day that Bednar shot a whitetail deer.
It starts with them tracking a group of deer, which included multiple bucks, to a clearing in the woods made for a power line.
“I was like, ‘Take that one on the left.’ He was bracing up and bracing up and waiting and waiting,” Marietti said. “And I’m like, ‘Jared, you got to shoot him. He’s getting ready to run.’ He’s like, ‘I can’t see him. All I can see is his head.’ So I grabbed my gun and shot the buck through the top of the head and dropped him. He goes, ‘Damn, you shot him right through the head!’ And I go, ‘That’s where I told you to shoot him, but you can’t wait forever.’
“He likes that story. It was about seven seconds before I shot him. Then he did get his first buck later that day.”
Avs coach Jared Bednar (far right), Brett Marietti (second from right) and three other members of a hunting party pose with a large bull elk shot near Bednar’s ranch in Creede in 2023. (Photo courtesy of Jared Bednar)
“It is something that grounds me”
Bednar and Marietti were about to go hunting when the former received one of the most important phone calls of his life. They were driving in a part of South Carolina that didn’t have great cell service, but Bednar got a call and needed to return it.
“We found some better service and he makes the call,” Marietti said. “He’s out there talking, kind of pacing back and forth on the phone, and then he gets back in the truck, and he’s like, ‘All right, let’s go hunting. Which stand are we going to?’
“He had been on the phone for about 25 minutes, so I was like, ‘Wait, who was that on the phone?’ He goes, ‘Oh, that was Colorado. I just got the head coaching job for Colorado.’ He was so focused on where we were going hunting.”
Eight years later, Colorado has become a second home for the Bednars.
He is the most successful coach in franchise history, easily its leader in wins and games coached. His next playoff victory will be No. 50, which will break a tie with Bob Hartley for the most.
Bednar, like many transplants, has fallen for everything nature-related in this state, whether it’s taking his dog for a walk in Cherry Creek State Park or his newest passion — elk hunting.
His family’s love for the state led them to put down roots here as well. Bednar bought a large ranch just outside of Creede in August 2023, and he intends to keep returning there long after he’s done coaching the Avalanche.
“It’s got a house and two cabins. We’re building a shop there now,” Bednar said. “It’s kind of untouched from the ’70s. They used it as a hunting retreat. They weren’t from the area. Just getting it the way I want to — the land, roads, fences, redoing the cabins, adding the shop. To get it the way I want it, it’s a long-term project. I don’t stress too much about the work, and when I get a chance to get up there, I enjoy it.”
Bednar’s son, Kruz, lives in the area and works on a neighboring ranch. Bednar went up to Creede for six days during the All-Star break last year and for several weeks after the season ended to get some work in and enjoy his new property.
The Avs’ schedule doesn’t allow him a lot of hunting time, but Bednar did shoot his first Colorado elk in late 2020 before the delayed 2020-21 NHL season began. That bull is mounted, just like his first whitetail buck, first pronghorn antelope and a nine-point whitetail he shot this summer with full velvet horns.
He is now part of the Colorado Landowner Preference Program, which allows him better access to certain hunting tags. Marietti and their other hunting buddies have been beneficiaries.
The Avs had a day off last season while Marietti was at the ranch in Creede, so Bednar made it a day trip to go hunting with his pals.
“It’s different hunting,” Bednar said. “It’s a lot of spot-and-stalk with the elk. It’s big country, so it’s a lot of hiking. I’ve just been blown away by the wildlife here in Colorado.”
The next pursuit for Bednar? Fly fishing. He’s already a seasoned angler on the freshwaters and the ocean in South Carolina and has done some fishing back home in Saskatchewan.
Avs coach Jared Bednar poses with a large pike he caught in Saskatchewan. (Photo courtesy of Jared Bednar)
But he’s met some fly fishermen here, particularly in Creede, and he’s got the bug.
“Next summer, for sure. This year I was working a lot, and then I didn’t get back in the last part of summer,” Bednar said. “I’ve met a bunch of people up there and everyone is so friendly. It reminds me of growing up in a small town in Saskatchewan. Everyone helps everyone out with their tasks. I love the town. Creede has a real tight-knit community feel. I’ve met some guys who were like, ‘Just let me know when you want to go and we’ll show the spots and what you need to buy for your own setup.’ ”
Bednar’s long-term vision includes splitting time between South Carolina and Colorado. It’s the best of both worlds for him. The water, ocean breeze, shorts and flip-flops at one home. The mountains, hiking and winter activities like snowmobiling at the other.
And, of course, there will be plenty of hunting and fishing at both.
“The people of Colorado, the beauty of it, getting out in a secluded area like that, it is something that grounds me and gives me peace,” Bednar said. “The best part of hunting or getting out in the outdoors is being with friends who you like spending time with. You might have the worst day of hunting and feel like you’ve just been climbing mountains all day, but then you get back to camp and you’re having a beer around the fire and messing around it’s just great. Every group always has a couple of good cooks so you’re always eating great. It’s just the best.”
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