Parity has been the talk of the NHL to begin the 2025-26 season. Look around the league standings, and you’ll see only a few teams truly out of it ahead of American Thanksgiving. That may have you thinking there isn’t an elite team out there, but there’s one that stands out from the rest.
The Colorado Avalanche are an absolute wagon.
That’s probably not a surprise. They’ve been contenders for the last half-decade, but they’ve taken their game to another level to begin 2025-26. They’ve played 22 games and have just one regulation loss. Coach Jared Bednar’s team has already opened up a five-point lead on the second-place Dallas Stars in the Central, and they’re the clear crown jewel of the NHL.
MacKinnon & Makar Have Been Dominant
Elite teams, such as the Avalanche, become elite because their star players produce like star players and then some. It probably won’t come as a shock, but the Avalanche’s stars are playing at an elite level. It starts with Nathan MacKinnon, who’s performing like a way-too-early Hart contender.
MacKinnon has been an absolute machine through the Avalanche’s first 22 games, totaling 17 goals and 37 points, putting him on pace for 63 goals and 138 points. He will be the runaway favorite for the Hart if he continues at that torrid pace, and the evidence suggests he might. His underlying metrics this season border on ridiculous.
MacKinnon has been a force at five-on-five, totaling an expected goals share (xG%) of 58.33 percent. Just to provide some context, that actually ranks 14th among Avalanche skaters (more on the rest in a bit). The reason MacKinnon leads the charge is that he drives offense at an elite, elite level. The Avalanche are averaging a whopping 3.51 expected goals per 60 minutes with him on the ice. Even the best defensive teams will struggle to defend that.
Of course, there’s also Cale Makar. His numbers away from MacKinnon will raise an eyebrow, but the two are a near-unstoppable force when they’re on the ice together. They’ve spent just over 221 minutes together at five-on-five and have an xG% of 58.87 percent. The Avalanche are scoring 5.14 goals per 60 minutes and allowing just 1.62 goals per 60 in MacKinnon and Makar’s minutes.
There’s probably some regression coming for MacKinnon and Makar as a tandem. Their goals for percentage (GF%) of 76 percent is well above their xG%, but they’re still dominant as a unit. I doubt there’ll be that much of a dropoff. That’s part of why the Avalanche have looked like an absolute wagon, but it’s only the tip of the iceberg.
Avalanche Are a Complete Team
The Avalanche aren’t just MacKinnon and Makar. They’re a complete team from top to bottom. Brock Nelson has settled in nicely as the team’s second-line center, a position that had been a weakness since Nazem Kadri departed after the team won the Stanley Cup in 2022.
The Mikko Rantanen trade looked like a sore spot for the organization nearly a year ago, but I’d say Martin Necas has been pretty good for the Avalanche. He has 28 points in 22 games this season, putting him on pace for 104 points. I’m not sure he’ll get there, but he has a chance since he spends plenty of time alongside MacKinnon.
General manager Chris MacFarland has also done quite well rounding out the edges of his roster over the last couple of years. Artturi Lehkonen has 19 points in 22 games, putting him on pace for a career year. Victor Olofsson, who signed a one-year deal this summer worth $1.5 million, is on pace for a career-high 56 points.
Related: Avalanche’s 3 Biggest Takeaways at the Quarter-Point of the Season
Aside from top-six/middle-six talent, the Avalanche have plenty of depth. Sam Malinski has been one of the best third-pair defensemen in the NHL, if not the best. Gavin Brindley, whom the Columbus Blue Jackets inexplicably gave up to acquire Miles Wood and Charlie Coyle from the Avalanche, has seven points in 18 games and recently signed a two-year contract extension.
Brent Burns has found some new life after showing clear signs of decline with the Carolina Hurricanes last season. His role with the Avalanche is not what it was with the Hurricanes, and that move down the lineup seems to have helped him settle into his new surroundings.
In net, Scott Wedgewood has been so good that he’s even come up as a possible candidate to be Canada’s No. 3 netminder for the upcoming Winter Olympics in February. He’s 13-1-2 on the season and has a .918 save percentage while saving nine goals above expected. MacKenzie Blackwood missed the start of the season due to injury, but he’s 3-0-1 since returning and has a .911 save percentage.
Goaltending is a problem for many teams, but it sure doesn’t seem to be for the Avalanche, and it’s hard to nitpick and find a flaw with the rest of the roster. They look to be that good.
Can Anyone Stop the Avalanche?
The Avalanche have a great roster, but what differentiates them from just about everyone else in the NHL is their team speed. They rank No. 1 in the NHL in speed bursts above 18 mph and No. 2 in speed bursts above 22 mph.
Part of that is personnel-based. When you have MacKinnon and Makar, two of the best skaters in the NHL, you will be one of the fastest teams in the league. But it’s also part of how Bednar wants them to play. They want to skate opponents into the ground, and with a few exceptions, they’ve been able to do it.
The result of all this is a team that dominates in almost every facet of the game. They’re the best five-on-five team in the NHL, with an xG% of 58.1 percent. Offensively, there’s no one better, and they’re pretty stout defensively. The one area they need to improve is their power play, but one has to imagine that comes along with all the weapons they have.
There is no doubt as we sit here at American Thanksgiving. The Avalanche are miles ahead of everyone else in the NHL. I know what questions will arise as the season progresses. It’s “Will they be able to win in the postseason playing this way?” The answer is yes. They won a Stanley Cup by being faster than everyone else in 2022, and there’s no reason they can’t do it again.
One of the biggest myths in the NHL is that you have to play a certain way to win a Stanley Cup. The Pittsburgh Penguins and Chicago Blackhawks won multiple Stanley Cups by being smaller, faster, and more skilled than everyone else. The Vegas Golden Knights and Florida Panthers won by being heavier than everyone else. Each team wins in its own unique way, and the Avalanche are showing they may have their own unique way to do so in June 2026 in what could be a historic season for the organization.
Advanced stats from Natural Stat Trick and NHL EDGE
