This season, the Colorado Avalanche are looking to improve on a campaign that saw them earn 50 wins and 107 points (fourth in the Western Conference) but bow out to the Dallas Stars in the second round of the 2024 Playoffs. It was a season marred by inconsistency, injury, and off-ice drama – and the atmosphere of frustration was difficult to miss at the season-ending press conference.
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In spite of this, the season wasn’t all bad. I hit on one of my four predictions in 2023-24 and came close to correctly projecting another, so feel free to revisit those predictions here. With that, here are three bold predictions for the new season, one which many hope will more closely resemble their 2022 championship journey than the past two campaigns.
Prediction 1: Mittelstadt Sets Career-Highs in Goals, Assists, and Points
The Avalanche may have finally filled the Nazem Kadri-sized hole in their lineup. Since being acquired from the Buffalo Sabres for Bowen Byram at the 2024 NHL Trade Deadline, center Casey Mittelstadt has made a permanent home in the Avalanche’s ever-fluctuating top-six forward group and earned a three-year extension worth $5.75 million annually this offseason.
The 25-year-old started slowly while settling into his new surroundings, only tallying four goals and 10 points in 18 regular-season games following the deadline. But he looked comfortable in the playoffs, finishing sixth on the team with nine points in 11 games. Assuming his postseason game is closer to his true level of play and that he’ll benefit from a full training camp with his new team, expect him to break out in a big way this season.
Mittelstadt currently boasts career-highs of 18 goals (2023-24), 44 assists (2022-23), and 59 points (2022-23) over his turbulent seven-year NHL career, all three of which can be exceeded if he maintains his playoff pace for the whole season. He saw a slight dip in ice time at both five-on-five and on the power play after arriving in Colorado, but a full season surrounded by players like Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, and Cale Makar should be more than enough to juice his scoring totals.
Prediction 2: Makar Scores 100 Points
Yes, I made this prediction last season, but in fairness, it almost came true. Makar finished the 2023-24 season with a career-high of 90 points in 77 games, representing an 82-game pace of 95 points, which is well within striking distance of the century mark.
Skeptics may wonder if there is a margin for improvement on an already lofty scoring total. Among the certainties, Mittelstadt will be on the team from the get-go and forechecking demon Artturi Lehkonen should play more than the 45 games he did last season and continue to score at a near 30-goal pace. MacKinnon may struggle to replicate his Hart Trophy-winning performance from last season, but he should still be good for around 110 points if he stays healthy.
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Makar would undoubtedly need to return to the form that saw him score 28 goals in 77 games in 2021-22, the same season in which he won both the Conn Smythe Trophy and the Norris Trophy. His shooting percentage (SH%) that season was a career-high 11.7% (nearly 2% higher than his second-best mark of 9.9% in 2019-20) while firing 3.12 shots on net per game, also a career-best.
At 25, Makar is approaching, if not already at the peak of his powers. Over the past three seasons, he ranks first among NHL defensemen in goals, points, points-per-game, and power-play points, as well as second in shots and third in assists. He’s averaged the second-highest ice time over that span (25:33 per game).
If Makar is to post the second 100-point season by a defenseman in the past 30 years, it will happen in the next few seasons of his prime and should cement his place in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Prediction 3: Both Landeskog and Nichushkin Return This Season
Avalanche fans are well-acquainted with the situations of captain Gabriel Landeskog and winger Valeri Nichushkin – both key forwards have missed ample time over the past few seasons for wildly different reasons. The 31-year-old Landeskog has not played since the clinching game of the 2022 Stanley Cup Final, having undergone multiple surgical procedures and is rehabilitating his knee with an indefinite timeline for recovery. The captain’s return has been teased over the past 12 months, with Landeskog skating with the team during the playoffs and hinting at a potential return at last season’s final press conference.
Nichushkin has been absent due to his participation in the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program. He is currently in Stage 3 of the program after having violated the terms of Stage 2, which carries a six-month suspension without pay. Nichushkin is eligible to return to the Avalanche lineup on Nov. 13, six months after his suspension abruptly began while the Avalanche were in their second-round series against the Stars. The 29-year-old also left the team for what was called personal reasons during the Avalanche’s first-round playoff series a year ago against the Seattle Kraken.
After three violations, an entrant is placed in Stage 4, which carries a one-year suspension without pay and no guarantee of reinstatement, leaving the Avalanche in limbo on how to proceed with the troubled but talented Nichushkin. While the final prediction is that both will return to the lineup at some point this season, I will up the ante by predicting that both will feature in at least 41 games in 2024-25. How effective they will be remains to be seen.
Predictions From the Avalanche Writing Team at The Hockey Writers
Outside of these three predictions, here are a few others from the rest of the Avalanche writing team at The Hockey Writers, which includes Kerry Collins, Stefano Rubino, and Ryan Womeldorf. Keep an eye out for their work as the season gets underway.
- Avalanche will finish first in the Western Conference.
- Goaltender Alexandar Georgiev will be a Vezina Trophy finalist.
- Top prospect Calum Ritchie makes the team out of training camp.
- Nichushkin does not ever play for the Avalanche again.
The Avalanche will enter the season with clear expectations of winning the Stanley Cup, especially following frustrating ends to the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons. The team continues to be spearheaded by a fearsome triumvirate of MacKinnon, Makar, and Rantanen and is buoyed by an improved supporting cast, but contention windows have a habit of closing sooner than expected.
How do you think the Avalanche’s season will play out? Will our predictions come true, or are they not grounded in reality? Let me know in the comments, and enjoy the season.
Data courtesy of Natural Stat Trick and the NHL.
