2022-23 NHL team preview: Colorado Avalanche

Credit: © Geoff Burke

LAST SEASON

The Colorado Avalanche had a dream season in 2021-22, going 56-19-7 and ultimately finishing just a few points back of winning the Presidents’ Trophy for the league’s best record.

While the Avs were always a favorite to win the Stanley Cup, general manager Joe Sakic didn’t just wait around without adding reinforcements. He had among the busiest trade deadlines of any general manager, acquiring two-way winger Artturi Lehkonen from the Montreal Canadiens, defender Josh Manson from the Anaheim Ducks and veteran checker Andrew Cogliano from the San Jose Sharks.

Come playoff time, the Avs were completely dominant. They swept the Nashville Predators in the first round, beat the St. Louis Blues in six games in the second round, and then swept the Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference Final. Colorado then dethroned the Tampa Bay Lightning as the Stanley Cup champions in six games.

At no point in the playoffs did the Avs trail a series and they never lost back-to-back games.

Come offseason time, Sakic did a good job of keeping the band together, but Colorado lost some key names to their inevitable salary cap crunch. Trade deadline additions Manson and Lehkonen were re-signed to new deals while Nazem Kadri, Andre Burakovsky, and Darcy Kuemper left the team in free agency.

KEY ADDITIONS & DEPARTURES

Additions
Alexandar Georgiev, G
Brad Hunt, D
Jonas Johansson, G
Anton Blidh, LW
Charles Hudon, LW/RW

Departures
Nazem Kadri, C (CGY)
Darcy Kuemper, G (WSH)
Andre Burakovsky, LW (SEA)
Nicolas Aube-Kubel, RW/LW (TOR)
Nico Sturm, C (SJS)
Kiefer Sherwood, RW (NSH)
Dylan Sikura, C (CHI)
Dennis Gilbert, D (CGY)

OFFENSE

Colorado was the fourth-highest scoring team in the NHL last season, behind only the Florida Panthers, Toronto Maple Leafs, and St. Louis Blues.

Colorado scored at a high level at even-strength and boasted a very good power play. No team in the league got more opportunities with the man advantage last season than the Avs did and they scored on 24 percent of their chances, resulting in them leading the NHL with 67 power-play goals, all told.

The top line of Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon, and Mikko Rantanen was as effective as ever, as the trio each hit the 30-goal plateau. The Avs also got a great performance out of their second line. Kadri scored a career-high 87 points, a critical performance when MacKinnon was out with an injury, while Val Nichushkin scored 25 goals and Burakovsky scored 22.

Perhaps the most important factor to Colorado’s elite offense was Cale Makar, who set a new career-high by scoring 86 points across 77 games. Makar logged 25:40 per game in 2021-22 and his dynamic skill set and ability to quickly transition the puck means they almost always have a chance to score when he’s on the ice.

DEFENSE

Sticking with Makar, while he’s known as an offensive dynamo, there’s also no doubting his defensive impact. In the 1,465 even-strength minutes Makar was on the ice last season, the Avs had 807 scoring chances and allowed 598 against, and they outscored their opponents by a whopping 87-48.

After finishing as the runner-up to Adam Fox of the New York Rangers the previous season, Makar won the Norris Trophy for the first time in his career in 2022.

Makar formed a dominant top pairing alongside Devon Toews but the Avs had their blueline rounded out over the course of the season. Trade deadline acquisition Manson gave the team a much-needed edge on the blueline and getting 2019 No. 4 overall pick Bowen Byram back from his issues with concussions gave Colorado some added offense beyond its top pairing.

GOALTENDING

After Philipp Grubauer left the team in free agency last summer, Sakic went out and paid a steep price to acquire Darcy Kuemper from the Arizona Coyotes to shore up the team’s goaltending.

Kuemper was rock-solid for the Avs during the regular season, posting a .921 save percentage over the course of 57 outings. When he was on the shelf, Pavel Francouz was strong in relief, as he put up a .916 save percentage.

Kuemper also dealt with injuries in the playoffs but Francouz was strong when the team needed him. Colorado’s two goalies posted a combined .903 save percentage during the team’s playoff run, which was more than enough given the team’s elite offense.

In the offseason, Kuemper inked a deal with the Washington Capitals. The Avs replaced him with Alexandar Georgiev, a once-promising young goaltender with the New York Rangers who got passed on the team’s depth chart by Igor Shesterkin. Colorado will roll with a tandem of Georgiev and Francouz for 2022-23.

COACHING

Since a disastrous first season as an NHL head coach in which the Avs went 22-56-4, Jared Bednar has been among the NHL’s most successful bench bosses. Over his past three seasons, the Avs have gone 137-52-19.

Bednar has 240 wins all-time as a head coach in the NHL, putting him just 25 wins back of Michel Bergeron, who has the most coaching wins in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques franchise history.

A new-age coach oriented towards driving offense and creativity, Bednar is the perfect leader for this wildly skilled Avs group…

“A new-school coach. He’s great at coaching personalities, whether you have an intense guy like myself or Nathan MacKinnon, who is at another level, or a guy that has consistency issues, he’s really good at getting to each individual and keeping that relationship with each individual,” said Matt Calvert, who spent three seasons with the Avalanche. “That’s a really important thing, especially with the new wave of kids coming in, they’re used to more communication and less yelling and that’s something ‘Bedsy’ brings on a daily basis.

ROOKIES

Given the fact they’ve been a team in win-now mode finishing towards the top of the standings over the past few years, the Avs don’t currently boast a deep farm system.

Martin Kaut, the team’s first-round pick from the 2018 NHL Draft, performed decently in the AHL last season, scoring 31 points over 46 games. Getting a breakout performance from Shane Bowers, one of the prospects who came back from the Ottawa Senators in the Matt Duchene deal, would be huge, but the No. 28 overall pick from the 2017 NHL Draft has scored just 18 points in 65 games over his past two seasons in the AHL.

BURNING QUESTIONS

1. Will the Georgiev and Francouz goalie tandem be enough? When the Avs lost their goaltender in free agency last summer, they traded a first-round pick and a prospect to replace him. This summer, they again lost a goaltender in free agency and they again traded for a replacement. But this time around, Georgiev has more question marks than Kuemper did. Can a goalie with a .901 save percentage over the past two seasons be good enough?

2. How much will the Avs miss Nazem Kadri? While MacKinnon was out with an injury early in the season, Kadri stepped up and was Colorado’s MVP for a period of time. Kadri scored a career-high 87 points and ultimately priced himself out of returning to Colorado, as he inked a seven-year, $49 million deal with the Calgary Flames in free agency. Not only are the Avs losing a lot of production with Kadri moving on, but they’re also losing the gritty edge that gets under the skin of his opponents. Can J.T. Compher be anywhere near as effective as Kadri was? Or might this be Alex Newhook’s role?

3. Is Nathan MacKinnon going to test free agency? There’s only one season left in the hilariously team-friendly contract that Nathan MacKinnon inked with the Avs back in 2016. He currently has a salary cap hit of just $6.3 million and is obviously going to command a substantial raise on his next deal. The Avs should be able to get a deal done, as nearly $10 million in cap commitments are coming off the books next summer from Erik Johnson and Compher, but MacKinnon being an impending free agent will be a story during the season.

PREDICTION

The Avs aren’t as good right now as they were when they won the Stanley Cup in June but they still boast arguably the best core of players in the league along with some very strong depth. The big question is goaltending but Sakic can make an in-season move if Georgiev and Francouz aren’t getting it done. Colorado finishes with the best record in the Western Conference and, just like Tampa did, they run it back.