Unpacking where the Avalanche stand after all their moves.
After concluding what some might consider a shocking and franchise-altering trade deadline, especially in concert with other moves made this season, we unpack where the Colorado Avalanche stand heading into the final 16 games of the regular season.
What move did you like the best?
Adrian: I liked the addition of Martin Necas more and more every day. We all felt the Avalanche special teams were getting stale with Mikko, Nate, and Cale so definitively positioned in their roles. Since the start of the Marty Party, the Avalanche have had one of the best powerplays in the league. It’s fresh and fantastic.
Ezra: The Lindgren add was the lowest cost/lowest risk deal so I like that – pretty safe to assume he ends up being a better fit on Colorado’s third pair than New York’s first pair, and Jimmy Vesey is a solid, responsible fourth liner. But I agree with Ado – once the organization decided to move on from Rantanen, they had to get tremendous value back to not totally lose whatever deal they made. Necas has been just that.
Jackie: I’m never going to rubber stamp a rental move and choosing one of the goalie trades here is cheating a little bit so I have to go with moving on from Casey Mittelstadt was the best move even if it cost entirely way too much to move out the best player in the deal. It begs the question, did Mittelstadt have negative value? And how many more trades will the Avalanche have to lose to fill the hole at second line permanently? But in a vacuum that’s the better move overall.
What move did you like the least?
Adrian: I don’t like how expensive Charlie Coyle was regarding the required assets. You hope to keep Zellers or the pick in that deal, but I guess that’s the cost of trading away a guy with an inflated contract. Avs paid Mittestadt to be 2C and he certainly was not that.
Jackie: Chris MacFarland did what he and Joe Sakic said they wouldn’t do, which is move major assets for a mid-30s rental and they did just that in the trade for Brock Nelson. It feels of desperation to shift organizational philosophies that significantly. Cal Ritchie was just named The Hockey News’ 13th best prospect in hockey and was the organization’s only hope of replicating the impact young 23-and-under players such as Anton Lundell, Wyatt Johnston, Matthew Knies, Aliaksei Protas, Alex Laferriere, Cole Perfetti, Pavel Dorofeyev, Seth Jarvis among others which are providing for their teams at the top of the standings. Doing right by MacKinnon and Makar means giving them the best chance to win throughout the rest of their primes, not just in a single season where they likely won’t even have home ice in the playoffs.
Ezra: Again, I agree with Ado. Mittelstadt for Coyle straight up would have been a tough enough pill to swallow, so throwing in a pick AND a prospect feels like dreadful value. That said, the whole league knew Colorado was trying to move on from Casey and Boston was smart to not give CMac an easy deal to do it. I don’t love the Nelson price either because I do like Ritchie, but moving a guy who won’t be ready to truly contribute to a Cup run for a couple years in order to get one who can this year is literally how this business works so I can accept that.
What is one reason to fear the moves won’t work out?
Jackie: I understand there’s multiple ways to build a team and that an exact replica of 2022 doesn’t have to exist to produce a champion. But it’s just that I feel is missing — a team. Chemistry and cohesion was so important to that 2022 squad and one that returned 14 key players from the team that suffered the disappointing defeat to Vegas the year prior. Now the Avalanche have played 13 players this season who didn’t even attend training camp in the fall. You can’t buy or manufacture a championship and I fear this is a hard lesson that will be learned in the near future.
Adrian: Well, anytime you go all in and leverage your best long-term assets, you run the risk of not hoisting, and it is for not. When you don’t win and move on from long-term assets, windows shrink as you have to make moves to compensate further down the road. That’s a slippery slope.
Ezra: Two words: Cal Ritchie. The Sakic-CMac front office’s track record of moving on from prospects is pretty good because they don’t typically draft high enough to have guys who go on to real success elsewhere, even when they get hyped up like Ritchie, Alex Newhook, Justin Barron, and Conor Timmins all have. Time will tell if Ritchie ends up like those guys, or a high end piece of an Islanders retool. There’s reason to believe he’s different – if not for a shoulder injury his draft year, some scouts had Ritchie getting picked in the top ten. If Cal does become a star this deal will hurt, but ultimately the trade gets graded on whether or not Nelson helps bring another Cup to Denver.
What is one reason to believe the moves will work out?
Jackie: I will always say special players do special things and understand that with Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar on the ice anything can happen. Colorado is not the only team with two superstars, however, and there’s only so much two human beings can do. But if the dream is to lift Lord Stanley’s Cup again those two are definitely at the forefront of making that a reality.
Adrian: Whether they are wrong or right, it sounds like the Avalanche appreciates Colorado’s willingness to go all-in again this season. Namely, Nathan MacKinnon hit us with “I don’t think you can win with young players” in a presser, and to me, that sends a clear message. This group thinks they are close, and whether or not anyone believes them doesn’t matter. Knowing that MacKinnon feels honored in the Avs’ efforts to bolster the lineup, I find hope.
MacKinnon keeping it real here.#GoAvsGo
— Adrian Hernandez (@AdoHernandez27) March 8, 2025
Ezra: Early returns on these trades have been very good! But more importantly, if you look at recent Cup winners – Florida, Vegas, the ‘22 Avs, and Tampa – they all have a couple things in common: excellent top pair defenders backed by strong depth, quality two way centers on three lines, a defensively responsible fourth line, and a deadline trade for a forward who plays top six minutes. After these moves, Colorado checks all four of those boxes.