The 2030 version of the Colorado Avalanche could use a winning lottery ticket or two this weekend.
Colorado has a bunch of picks , which is Friday and Saturday in Buffalo, but currently only one (No. 74) is in the first 125 selections. The Avs also have pick Nos. 126, 128, 149, 152, 195, 214, 215 and 222.
Having nine picks, even in the latter stages of the draft, could help the Avalanche replenish a very thin pool of prospects. The Avs have traded away several prospects in the past few years, along with a lot of premium draft selections.
The 2024 draft is a good example of how the Avs have used later picks to help the team win right now. William Zellers was the No. 76 selection, and he was part of the trade that sent Casey Mittelstadt to Boston for Charlie Coyle. Max Curran was a great find at No. 161, developing into a legitimate NHL prospect before heading to Calgary in the Nazem Kadri deal.
Colorado needs more picks like Zellers and Curran, either to be part of trades over the next couple of years or to help replenish an aging roster. The Avs haven’t drafted a player after the first round with 200-plus games of NHL experience since A.J. Greer in 2015 and they haven’t selected a player after the first who has played more than 200 contests for Colorado since Ryan O’Reilly in the second round in 2009.
The franchise’s needs in the prospect pipeline are pretty broad. Colorado has a decent collection of young goaltenders, headlined by Ilya Nabokov, but the Avs are very thin at forward and defense. The Avs have nearly as many goalies (three) as forwards (four) on their reserve list — those are players the club holds rights to, most of which are draft picks who are still in college or playing overseas.
It’s not a coincidence that Joe Sakic’s first two trades after returning to the general manager role involved acquiring draft picks and two young forwards. The Avs need to get younger over the next season or two to help extend the championship contention window, and they need more assets to use in future trades as well.
Nabokov is the club’s top prospect, with defensemen Mikhail Gulyayev, Sean Behrens and Francesco Dell’Elce behind him among the drafted players in the pipeline. The Avs have compensated for a lack of premium draft picks with a significant foray in college/European free agents like defensemen Alex Gagne and Gustav Stjernberg, forwards T.J. Hughes, Matthew DiMarsico and goaltender Nikita Novosyolov.
