Three Colorado Avalanche players to remember when playing a game of ‘Puckdoku’

Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

Puckdoku is the trivia game sweeping the hockey world. It’s the NHL equivalent of the “Immaculate Grid“, a three-by-three fill-in-the-blank puzzle which originated as an MLB game but quickly spawned variants for all kinds of other sports leagues.

The concept is simple: for each square, try to think of a player who fits into the criteria established by both the corresponding X- and Y-axis labels. For example, Ray Bourque would fit perfectly into a Boston Bruins/Colorado Avalanche square. Patrick Roy would do just fine for Colorado/Montreal. You get the idea.

Of course, it goes a little deeper than that. Sometimes, instead of teams, Puckdoku uses statistical thresholds (“200+ goals”) or career achievements (“Olympic gold medallist”) as categories. Also, if you want to use a Minnesota North Stars player for the Dallas Stars or an original Winnipeg Jets player for the Arizona Coyotes, you can.

Naturally, some players are more useful for Puckdoku than others. Someone like Maurice Richard, who spent his entire career with the Montreal Canadiens, is pretty much useless for the game unless a Habs label happens to intersect with the right statistical category.

On the flip side, players who spent time with several NHL teams are among the most valuable for Puckdoku purposes. And the more obscure the player, the lower (and better) your “uniqueness” score will be. Both Jarome Iginla and Blake Comeau are valid answers for Calgary/Pittsburgh, but one is a little less well-known than the other.

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to spend some time here at Daily Faceoff highlighting three players connected with each NHL franchise who are particularly useful in games of Puckdoku. We’ll press onward today with the Colorado Avalanche.

Alex Tanguay

Teams: Colorado Avalanche, Calgary Flames, Montreal Canadiens, Tampa Bay Lightning, Arizona Coyotes

Alex Tanguay never met a puck he couldn’t pass. The six-foot-one winger reached the 50-assist plateau three times in his NHL career, including in the Avs’ 2000–01 Stanley Cup championship season. He finished his NHL career with more than twice as many assists (580) than goals (283).

But in Game 7 of the 2001 Stanley Cup Final, it was Tanguay who netted two goals of his own (including the winner) to propel the Avalanche past the New Jersey Devils by a 3–1 final score. Of course, once the Avs crossed the finish line, Tanguay naturally ceded the spotlight to a certain No. 77 — after all, Ray Bourque had waited a very long 22 years to lift the Cup.

Tanguay turned out to be very comfortable sharing the glory with his teammates throughout his prolific NHL career. He formed a terrific partnership with Joe Sakic and Milan Hejduk on the “JAM Line” in his early days with the Avalanche; later, after being traded to the Calgary Flames, Tanguay found great chemistry with Jarome Iginla. “Tangs” just knew how to connect with sharpshooters.

Over his first eight NHL seasons, Tanguay surpassed 70 points on three occasions (twice with Colorado and once with Calgary). But after the Flames traded him to the Montreal Canadiens, Tanguay ran hot and cold amidst a run of injuries and finished with 41 points in 50 games in 2008–09. Tanguay then signed with the Tampa Bay Lightning for the 2009–10 season and struggled through his worst year as a professional, sinking to just 37 points in 80 games.

Tanguay returned to the Flames on a cheap deal in 2010 and quickly rediscovered his previous form upon being reunited with Iginla. He remained in Calgary for three years before being traded to the Avalanche, with whom he remained productive into his late 30s. After a brief (but productive) stint with the Arizona Coyotes to conclude the 2015–16 season, Tanguay announced his retirement in 2017 with a career total of 863 points in 1,088 NHL games. He is currently an assistant coach on Derek Lalonde’s staff with the Detroit Red Wings.

P-A Parenteau

Teams: Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, Colorado Avalanche, Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, New Jersey Devils, Nashville Predators

Tanguay was a first-round draft pick who made his NHL debut at age 19 and never looked back. In other words, he was the exact opposite of P-A Parenteau. Tanguay and Parenteau are both from Quebec, but the similarities pretty much end there — they even played on opposite wings. They were, however, briefly teammates on the 2013–14 Colorado Avalanche, although Tanguay missed most of that season with a knee injury.

Colorado was only Parenteau’s second full-time NHL stop, but he was already 29 by the time he arrived there in 2012. He was actually drafted by the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (in the ninth round, no less), but he played his first five NHL games as a member of the Chicago Blackhawks in 2006–07 before being traded to the New York Rangers the following season in exchange for a conditional seventh-round pick. Parenteau spent the next two seasons in the AHL before featuring sparingly in the Rangers’ lineup throughout 2009–10.

Parenteau became an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2010, just over three months after his 27th birthday. Despite being a top-tier AHL scorer, he’d managed just three goals in 27 career NHL games. Naturally, Parenteau went unsigned on Day 1 of the 2010 UFA period before agreeing to a one-year, $600,000 deal with the New York Islanders on July 2. And then he scored 38 goals and 120 points in 161 games over two seasons on Long Island.

In 2012, Parenteau became a UFA again. He didn’t have to wait until July 2 that time. Shortly after the opening bell rang, Parenteau signed a four-year, $16 million deal with the Avalanche. Although he lived up to the hype with 43 points in 48 games in the lockout-shortened 2012–13 season, Parenteau couldn’t quite replicate his production the following year and was dealt to the Montreal Canadiens in 2014. He labored through an injury-plagued 2014–15 season with the Habs before being bought out.

Near the tail end of his career, Parenteau put up 20 goals with the 2015–16 Toronto Maple Leafs before splitting the following season (his last in the NHL) between the New Jersey Devils and Nashville Predators. Coincidentally, Parenteau was the leading goal-scorer on both the 2013 Avalanche and 2016 Maple Leafs, two teams that ended up winning the draft lottery and selecting first overall — so, if you’re a hockey fan in Colorado or Toronto, maybe you can thank P-A Parenteau for Nathan MacKinnon or Auston Matthews. Parenteau finished his memorable NHL career with 114 goals and 296 points in 491 games.

Daniel Winnik

Teams: Phoenix Coyotes, Colorado Avalanche, San Jose Sharks, Anaheim Ducks, Toronto Maple Leafs, Pittsburgh Penguins, Washington Capitals, Minnesota Wild

Daniel Winnik is the second ninth-round draft pick on this list. The Phoenix Coyotes originally selected Winnik all the way down at No. 265 overall in the 2004 NHL Draft, and he became one of only three players selected in that year’s ninth round to play at least 600 NHL games (the others being Mark Streit and Jannik Hansen).

Winnik ended up ranking 16th in his draft class (and first among the ninth-rounders) with 798 games played over his decade-long NHL career. The six-foot-two winger debuted with the Coyotes in the 2007–08 season and helped the team reach the playoffs two years later. Immediately thereafter, the Coyotes traded Winnik to the Avalanche in exchange for a fourth-round pick.

The Avalanche were in the midst of a transitional period when Winnik arrived in 2010. He remained a productive third-line winger but essentially just filled a spot on a team going nowhere until the Avs traded him to the San Jose Sharks at the 2012 deadline. After the Sharks lost in the first round of the playoffs, Winnik signed a two-year deal with the Anaheim Ducks.

Winnik reached the 30-point plateau for the first time in his NHL career as a member of the 2013–14 Ducks, with whom he also had his first experience going beyond the first round of the playoffs. But by this point, a worrying trend was beginning to form: Winnik couldn’t score in the playoffs. Through his first four playoff appearances, Winnik had collected just three assists in 28 games.

The Toronto Maple Leafs signed Winnik in 2014 and he collected a career-best 34 points in 79 games split between the Leafs and Pittsburgh Penguins in 2014–15. He followed that up with five scoreless playoff games with the Pens. Then, after another brief stint in Toronto, Winnik made his way to the Washington Capitals at the 2016 trade deadline and made the second round of the playoffs with the team that year and in 2017, collecting zero points in 25 more playoff games.

None of this is to say Winnik wasn’t an effective player. He was a skilled bottom-six forward who wore a lot of different hats on multiple good NHL clubs. Winnik certainly had his uses, and he helped more than a few teams sneak into the playoffs — but for whatever reason, his offensive touch seemed to evaporate once he got there.

Winnik’s NHL career concluded after he spent one last season with the Minnesota Wild in 2017–18. All told, Winnik collected 82 goals and 251 points in his 798 NHL contests, but he still holds the league record for the most career playoff games played by a forward without scoring a single goal. In 64 career Stanley Cup Playoff games with six different teams, Winnik picked up four points — all assists.

Winnik headed to Switzerland in 2018 and has remained with Genève–Servette HC ever since, consistently finishing near the top of their scoring leaderboard in both the regular season and playoffs. He won the Spengler Cup with Team Canada in 2019 and, at age 38, helped Genève–Servette capture the Swiss National League championship just this past season.

Daily Faceoff Puckdoku series