The 2024-25 season is shaping up to be one of the more challenging seasons in the history of the Colorado Avalanche. The team is flush with star power, but depth has been tested to a greater degree than perhaps ever before.
It is always preferable to get off to a good start to the season. Really good teams can recover from a slow start – looking at you, Edmonton Oilers – but it’s still a tough endeavor. For that reason, it is vital for the Avalanche to get off to a good start. As it turns out, there are several other reasons why doing so is critical.
Swiss Cheese Lineup
The Avalanche have their share of weaknesses going into the season, but forward depth is the most glaring. Gabriel Landeskog has been out for two years (and counting) and his timeline is uncertain. Valeri Nichushkin is still suspended due to substance issues. Artturi Lehkonen will miss the start of the season following shoulder surgery.
The team will lean heavily on its superstar tandem of Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. It will also look for bigger contributions from Jonathan Drouin. Past that, things get very dicey and that is putting it nicely.
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Casey Mittelstadt should be a reliable presence as the second-line center. Miles Wood has a career-high of 32 points and that was seven seasons ago. Nikolai Kovalenko has flashed potential but has all of two games under his belt.
A fast start is critical because the likelihood of this group excelling is slim. They have a plethora of bottom-six forwards – Joel Kiviranta, Ross Colton, Logan O’Connor, Parker Kelly, etc. – and very few guys truly meant for a top-six role. Getting off to a hot start will mitigate the downswings they are going to inevitably have while reducing the wait time for critical returns from Lehkonen, Landeskog, and possibly Nichushkin.
Managing Defensive Projects
The Avalanche, on paper, have one of the best defensive units in the league. When you have Cale Makar and Devon Toews as your top pairing, it’s hard to argue with that statement. Samuel Girard and Josh Manson have been around and are proven commodities.
The third pairing, however, is a complete rebuild. The Avalanche took a flyer on cheap reclamation projects in Erik Brannstrom and Oliver Kylington. They aren’t necessarily complete liabilities, but they haven’t lived up to expectations, either.
Both have puck movement skills, but neither is terribly strong on the puck or physical enough to consistently win battles. Pairing each with a member of the top four might shield them a bit but could reduce the overall effectiveness of the unit as a whole.
Getting off to a strong start could provide the confidence those two need to feel at home. In an ideal world, they can contribute 15-18 solid minutes per night while the top four handle the heavy lifting. It will also make any mistakes feel less substantial than they would in the midst of a poor start.
Building Runway
The point largely remains the same, but the idea is to build runway. Navigating the absence of three pivotal forwards will be tough no matter what. Building runway would at least give them more room for error in what will arguably be the toughest division in hockey.
The Dallas Stars, Winnipeg Jets, and Nashville Predators all look like formidable competition. A bad start could put the Avalanche too far behind to ever really get caught up. There isn’t fear of missing the playoffs as of yet, but the stars have seemingly aligned to make it as tough a proposition as possible for the Avalanche.
Status as Contenders
As it stands right now, the Avalanche are not contenders. They are simply too thin at forward and don’t have a game-breaker in net. Injuries have certainly played their part, which can be rectified with enough time.
If the Avs can get back those three forwards – and get them back at the same level or better than before – they instantly become one of the best teams in the league. They have the talent and depth when everyone is healthy.
For now, the challenge remains to get off to a strong start. Mitigating the impact of those absences will be tough but the Avalanche could set themselves up well for the second half of the season if they can manage it.
