Lost in the Avalanche: Wojtek Wolski

He was a high-flying forward who tapered off toward the end of his career.

In this edition of Lost in the Avalanche, Wojtek Wolski is the man to go over. The forward was born in Poland and then moved to Canada to embark on his hockey adventure.

Wolski was highly rated for having a solid junior career with the Brampton Battalion for four seasons in the OHL. He averaged over a point a game, earning him the 21st overall pick in the 2004 NHL Draft with the Colorado Avalanche.

He would actually start the 2005-06 season with the Avs. He played the first nine games of the entry-level contract he had signed in September 2005, with his NHL debut made on October 5 in Alberta against the Edmonton Oilers. Five days later, in the home opener against the Calgary Flames, he would score his first NHL goal, tacking on two assists.

After those nine games, he was returned to the Battalion and put up career numbers. This was thanks to an insane 128 points in 58 games in the 2005-06 season with the Battalion, broken up by 47 goals and 81 assists. He recorded 18 points (seven goals, 11 assists) in 11 playoff games but was thrashed by the Barrie Colts in the second round in their best season ever in franchise history.

But Wolski’s insane season earned him a permanent promotion to the NHL without looking back. He would re-join the Avalanche for the playoffs later in the season for eight games, with one goal and three assists.

His first full-time season with the Avs, 2006-07, saw him score 50 points in 76 games, with 22 goals and 28 assists. In the next three seasons with Colorado, he continued to produce similar numbers, with 48, 42, and 47-point performances.

He only played in one more playoff season for the Avs, the 2007-08 season, during which he had two goals and five assists in seven games. Overall, he was a solid producer in an Avalanche jersey but never replicated his OHL game.

Wolski also learned the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Before the trade deadline in the 2009-10 season, he would be traded to the then-Phoenix Coyotes. He put up an even 18 points in 18 games and added on five points in seven playoff games.

From there, it would be a struggle for the rest of Wolski’s career. He would again be traded from the Coyotes to the New York Rangers in the middle of the 2010-11 season. For both teams, he only recorded 16 points in 36 games and 19 points in 37 games, respectively.

The following year, in 2011-12, he played only 38 games for three different teams. These included the Rangers and their AHL-affiliate Connecticut Whale, before being traded to the Florida Panthers, where he played in 22 games. He did get one final taste of Stanley Cup Playoff action, with two eventless games.

During the lockout at the beginning of the 2012-13 season, he returned to Poland and played with KH Sanok for nine games, recording 10 points. His final NHL time was with the Washington Capitals after the lockout, in 27 games for only nine points.

He then bounced around all over the place to end his career overseas. He first played for Torpedo in Russia, even captaining the Torpedo side in the 2014-15 season. He had somewhat of a resurgence after his scoring dried up in the US, with 38 and 43 points in back-to-back seasons.

Wolski also finally won some silverware in his career, winning the KHL Gargin Champion Cup with the Metallurg Magnitogorsk in 2015-16. He scored 47 points in 54 regular-season games and an additional 10 points in the playoffs. These great performances earned him his first international appearance. He represented Canada in the 2018 Winter Olympics and won a bronze medal.

Wolski also played in China with the Kunlun Red Star for three years before the 2019-20 season. That same year, he finally wrapped up his career in Czechia with HC Oceláři Třinec, ending on a nice note with 17 points in 13 games after a tough career.

His toughness came through battles with depression towards the latter half of his NHL career. Hence, the move to Russia was perhaps for the better mentally. But physically, he suffered a horrific broken neck injury in October 2016. He recovered and enjoyed the twilight of his career and earned an Olympic medal on top of it.

With Wolski’s pace with the Avalanche, you have to wonder if he would have fallen off as hard as he did if he had stayed in Colorado. Could he have stayed long enough to play with Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog?

In the latter half of his NHL career, he struggled with injuries and wasn’t consistently getting ice time. This, in turn, caused a downturn in production. Ultimately, it seems as though it was the right call to move on from Wolski. But he certainly is an interesting case of a player who was Lost in the Avalanche.