Colorado Avalanche: Cellar dwellers to Stanley Cup contenders
In just a few years, the Colorado Avalanche have gone from basement dwellers to Stanley Cup contenders.
The Colorado Avalanche were at the bottom of the NHL by a wide margin in the 2016-17 season. In just three seasons, they have transformed into one of the Stanley Cup favorites heading into the 2020 playoffs. A rebuild that took form quickly once it got off the ground. The team looks to end this decade with its first Stanley Cup in 19 years.
This decade has not been kind to the Colorado Avalanche franchise overall. The 2010s started with the Avalanche missing the playoffs in six of the first seven seasons. Their lone playoff appearance was a first-round exit after winning the Central Division in the 2013-14 season. The franchise became the laughingstock of the league in the 2016-17 season, bottoming out with a league-worst 48 points.
Crafty trades, great drafting, and exceptional player development has made the Avalanche the benchmark for what any rebuilding NHL team would want to become. Rebuilding franchises in the NHL is not as easy as the Avalanche have made it seem.
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It took years of not only earning high draft picks but selecting the right players to build around. Many teams have the blueprint for quick, sustainable turnarounds but fail in different facets of the process, prolonging how long it takes to get back to top contenders if at all.
Once the 2017-18 season started, the rebuild took shape quickly and has not slowed down since. The dynamic forward line of team captain Gabriel Landeskog, perennial Hart Trophy candidate Nathan MacKinnon, and Mikko Rantanen are the engine that makes the Avalanche go.
Landeskog was the second overall pick in the 2011 draft, MacKinnon was first overall in the 2013 draft and Rantanen was tenth overall in the 2015 draft. This line plays together every night when healthy and the chemistry is so great between them, they still score in bunches while other NHL teams game plan to stop them.
Add on 2019-20 Calder candidate defenseman Cale Makar, selected fourth overall in the 2017 draft, and forward Tyson Jost, selected tenth overall in the 2016 draft. The strength of their core has come from Colorado’s own draft selections.
General Manager Joe Sakic’s greatest strength has been the trades and free agent acquisitions he has made to build the roster around the superstar draft selections. Since taking over GM duties in September of 2014, the former two-time Stanley Cup-winning captain for the Avalanche endured the lowest point of the franchise and then turned the ship back upward back to title contention.
Starting goaltender Philipp Grubauer, defensemen Samuel Girard, Ryan Graves, and Nikita Zadorov, forwards Andre Burakovsky, Nazem Kadri, J.T. Compher, Vladislav Kamenev, Vladislav Namestnikov, and Colin Wilson were all trade acquisitions on the 2019-20 team.
Backup goaltender Pavel Francouz, forwards Joonas Donskoi, Valeri Nichushkin, Matt Calvert, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Matthew Nieto, and defenseman Ian Cole were free-agent acquisitions on the 2019-20 club. All brought in by Sakic.
The biggest pieces that were sent the other way in deals by Sakic were Centers Matt Duchene, Ryan O’ Reilly, and defenseman Tyson Barrie, all drafted in 2009 by the Avalanche. Duchene was the messiest situation for the team because he demanded to be traded.
That deal acquired Girard, Kamenev, and the first-round draft choice that became defensive prospect Bowen Byram. O’Reilly essentially priced himself out of Colorado and the deal brought in Compher, Zadorov, and prospect A.J. Greer. Barrie was a part of the deal that brought in Nazem Kadri. Solid returns that are still impacting the team today.
Health and the season being cut short due to the coronavirus may have played the biggest part in the Avalanche coming up just short of winning the Central Division and top seed in the Western Conference. Rantanen, Grubauer, and Kadri missed significant time. Landeskog, Makar, and Burakovsky also each missed more than 10 games during the course of the season.
Through all the injuries, the improved depth from recent years has shined through with the team finishing two points out of the top spot of the Central Division and Western Conference. The Avalanche finished third overall in the entire league in scoring while giving up the sixth-fewest goals.
Strong goaltending from Grubauer and Francouz along with more secondary scoring to compliment the workhorse Landeskog-MacKinnon-Rantanen line and improved defensive play has put the Avalanche in position to take their success to the next level.
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The Avalanche are one of the top teams to benefit the most from the novel coronavirus stoppage. They will be fully healthy as most teams will be in the upcoming 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The rebuild is over. They are built to win now and favored by many to finish off this long decade by bringing the Stanley Cup back to Colorado for the first time in 19 years.