As the Colorado Avalanche approach the Christmas break and other holiday celebrations, their record stands at 18-15-0. While their playoff chances look decent, they need to improve their performance on the ice to establish themselves as serious contenders for the Stanley Cup, especially compared to some of their conference opponents. Gaining momentum will be essential for them moving forward.
With the season of giving upon us, what three gifts should the Avalanche wish for from Santa Claus heading into the new year?
Gift 1: A Little Luck on the Health Side
The Avalanche are among the teams with the highest number of man-games lost due to injury, and only the San Jose Sharks and St. Louis Blues have a worse cumulative cap hit of injured players (CHIP), which measures the per-game salary cap hit of players who are missing games due to injury or illness, according to NHL Injury Viz.
Captain Gabriel Landeskog has not played since Game 6 of the 2022 Stanley Cup Final and has no definitive timeline for his return after a lengthy rehabilitation process. Valeri Nichushkin has returned after serving a six-month suspension. Artturi Lehkonen debuted in early November but has struggled to maintain his health over the past two seasons. Jonathan Drouin participated in the opening-night game but sustained an upper-body injury. He has played four games since then and is currently out of the lineup, listed as “week-to-week.” Josh Manson was placed on injured reserve (IR) on Nov. 29 and is progressing in his recovery. Ross Colton returned from IR after missing six weeks due to a broken foot. The list goes on…
The Avalanche are lucky that Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, and Mikko Rantanen haven’t suffered serious injuries. Otherwise, they might be concerned about their standing before the Christmas break. Injuries happen; it’s a part of the game. We all wish that after so many injuries in 2024, 2025 will be a little bit easier on the roster. We hope they can catch a break and play with a healthy team in the new year.
Gift 2: A Revitalized Power Play Unit
With two players in the top ten for scoring in the NHL and the leading scoring defenseman in the league, along with an overall ranking of ninth with an average of 3.26 goals per game, one can assume that their success is significantly due to their power play. The Avalanche currently sit with a 24 percent success rate, which isn’t that bad, ranked ninth in the league. At the beginning of the season, they were among the NHL’s best, which helped them stay competitive despite many injuries and poor goaltending.
In their last 21 games, the Avalanche have successfully converted only eight of 58 power play opportunities, resulting in a dismal 11 percent success rate. This is an embarrassingly low figure for a team with high-level talent. The recent losses to the Utah Hockey Club and the Vancouver Canucks highlighted the team’s struggles on the power play. The Avalanche went zero for three with the man advantage against Utah on Dec. 12 and zero for four on Monday night against the Canucks, both losses.
Related: Avalanche Can Win 2025 Stanley Cup with New Goalie Tandem
So, what’s the solution? The Avalanche’s power play has become too predictable. When the team struggles, it often seems like they are searching for the perfect shot, when they need to shoot more often. They have the skill and speed to be more creative with their shot selection, allowing them to capitalize on potential rebounds and deflections. Let’s hope some luck comes after Christmas, and they get some lucky shots or deflections that will help them push toward the playoffs.
Gift 3: A New Bottom Defense Paring
While the usual pairings of Makar, Devon Toews, Samuel Girard, and Manson have been great, the third pairing has seen a rotation of players. Colorado has rotated three different defensemen in the sixth spot when healthy, but they haven’t fully committed to any of them. Sam Malinksi has looked solid in his first season with the team, but his partners either haven’t meshed well with his offensive playstyle or made too many mistakes.
The newest addition, Calvin de Haan, looks solid and has excellent defensive capabilities but hasn’t brought much offense. They signed Oliver Kylington off a professional tryout (PTO), but he hasn’t done much offensively and makes quite a few defensive mistakes. Fortunately, trading for a bottom-pairing defenseman is a much easier and cheaper task than finding a new top-six player; it’s about identifying a reliable defensive player without sacrificing too much offense in a trade.
The Avalanche could (once again) look at Jack Johnson from the Columbus Blue Jackets, whose cap hit is $775,000, and the team already knows what he brings to the ice and the locker room. Rasmus Ristolainen from the Philidelphia Flyers is another option they could trade for. He has a cap hit of $5.1 million with one year remaining; they would need to do some work to bring that cap hit down, but teams are always searching for big, hard-hitting defensemen for their right side.
The Avalanche have looked better since the 2024-25 season began. An early Christmas wish came true with revamped goaltending, but more work needs to be done to prove that they are Stanley Cup contenders. Some of Santa’s magic could help the team win their fourth Stanley Cup in franchise history – hopefully, Colorado is on the nice list.
