Colorado Avalanche 2025-26 Player Grades: Joel Kiviranta

The Colorado Avalanche may have finally moved on from one of their worst playoff series losses ever, but the 2025-26 season retrospective has not been finished. That’s right: it’s time for player grades!

Today’s subject was initially allowed to walk away as a free agent but ultimately came back into the fold for the Avalanche. One of their more unsung, versatile two-way forwards, Joel Kiviranta has become a solid fixture in the Avalanche bottom six.

Production

Kiviranta struggled a bit during the 2025-26 season. After scoring 16 goals and a career-best 23 points the season prior, expectations were high for Kiviranta as a productive bottom-six forward that could pop in for a spell elsewhere in the lineup.

Kiviranta also struggled to stay in the lineup, suiting up for 51 games – his lowest since 2020-21 when he played 26 games for the Dallas Stars. Illustrating how solid a two-way winger he is, Kiviranta did finish with a plus-seven rating.

Intangibles

A solid two-way, defensively responsible forward, Kiviranta may have been something of a victim of a loaded team. He finished with just over 10 minutes of ice time per night, down by more than two minutes from the 2024-25 season.

Kiviranta is a solid player, a guy who can give you defensively responsible minutes and even chip in on the penalty kill. He’s not overly fast or physical but does a lot of the little things right that more often than not don’t get noticed.

Overall Grade: C

It’s hard to give too bad of a grade to Kiviranta, especially given his injury struggles throughout the season. It was hard for him to get a rhythm, and it shows in his bottom-line numbers. Then again, his true value to the Avalanche has nothing to do with his offensive ability.

Kiviranta did just fine as a defensively responsible bottom-six winger. His 2024-25 season looks like an anomaly, and it may be a lot to ask of him to crack the 20-point plateau. If he could do that while playing a sound 10-12 minutes per night, it would be a win for the Avalanche.

Quietly Solid

Despite his injury troubles, Kiviranta had a pretty decent year overall. He not only made Team Finland at the Olympics, but walked away with a bronze medal as well. It just goes to show what kind of value he brings to the table on any team he’s on.

With the Avalanche facing a bit of a cap crunch in the coming season, the Avalanche should lean a bit more heavily on Kiviranta to fill out the bottom six. Knowing they can lean on him to kill penalties also helps.