A couple of former Colorado Avalanche members will play at Ball Arena this week for the first time since leaving the Front Range.
Joel Kiviranta is back with the Dallas Stars after a three-year run with the Avs, while Samuel Girard should face his former teammates in his old home arena for the first time since he was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins ahead of last season’s trade deadline.
Returns and reunions have been a regular occurrence for Jared Bednar and the Avs. There are currently 35 players on NHL rosters who have either played for or were drafted by the Avalanche. Bednar, in his 11th season with the Avs, has coached nearly all of them.
“No. 1, I think of how fluid the league is because when you run a flat (salary) cap for as long as we did because of (COVID-19),” Bednar said. “Players get rewarded and move on. I’ll say this: Part of my job, the way I see it, you’re trying to improve these guys and help them grow their game.
“I’d love to keep all these guys that we coach, but that’s just not the reality.”
Bednar is right — a lot of his former players left Denver for bigger roles and contracts elsewhere. That number is also so high because the Avs have been so active at the trade deadline during the Nathan MacKinnon-Cale Makar era. Prospects have been traded and rental players have been added as short-term upgrades and then moved on.
What if we put together a team comprised solely of former Colorado players? Let’s call ’em the Ex-Avs.
Could a group of Ex-Avs make the playoffs in 2026-27? It would be a deep team but, outside of a certain old friend in Dallas who will hear plenty of boos Wednesday night, a little light on star power.
There are a bunch of options at center. It feels like a roster with a high floor, but also maybe a limited ceiling. A wild-card spot in the Western Conference feels plausible. Competing with Colorado and Minnesota at the top of the Central might be a stretch, but could they finish ahead of a diminished Dallas with a couple of Stars in key roles for the Ex-Avs, or an up-and-coming Utah squad? Maybe.
Here’s what the lineup looks like for the Ex-Avs:
First line
Matt Duchene – Ryan O’Reilly – Mikko Rantanen: The marquee players from three of the biggest trades in franchise history unite on the top line. O’Reilly is the best draft pick after the first round since the Avs moved to Denver. He’ll likely be a really good No. 2 center for someone else by March, but right now he’s a low-end No. 1 center on a Nashville Predators team in transition.
Duchene is hurt right now, but he’s still produced 127 points in 139 games over the previous two seasons. He could slot in as the No. 2 center, but there are lots of guys who can play in the middle on this team. Rantanen remains a world-class player, and he’d be the offensive leader for this group.
Second line
Evan Rodrigues – Charlie Coyle – Valeri Nichushkin : The Ex-Avs might be a little light on the second line, though a healthy, in-form Nichushkin could drive this trio to respectability. Rodrigues didn’t have a great season in Florida last year, but the Panthers were also missing several critical players.
Coyle is an ideal No. 3 center on a playoff team, but he played up in the lineup with the Blue Jackets last year and finished with 20 goals and 58 points. There are several options for his spot, and it’s possible that Calum Ritchie will be the obvious choice as soon as the end of this season.
Third line
Ross Colton – Casey Mittelstadt – Calum Ritchie: Mittelstadt continues to be what he was with Colorado — a talented player who looks like a No. 2 center some nights but ultimately slots as a solid 3C here. Ritchie had a pretty solid rookie season in a depth role for the Islanders last year. He seems like a good bet to be a solid middle-six forward, but whether or not he can become a No. 2 center remains to be seen.
Colton would probably shuffle between the second, third and fourth lines on this team depending on injuries and his often streaky play. So, what he was for three years in Denver, basically.
Fourth line
Alex Newhook – Jack Drury – J.T. Compher: This could be a solid third line. It could also be one of the most productive fourth lines.
All three of these guys can play center, but Drury’s defensive prowess makes him the natural choice. There are some teams that can’t afford to deploy a fourth line that costs nearly $13 million in cap space, but that’s advantage for the Ex-Avs.
Extra forwards
Alex Kerfoot – A.J. Greer: There’s a handful of intriguing options here. If the Ex-Avs were able to slip some of these guys through waivers and stash them with the AHL club, that would help. Other guys who could fit here include Yakov Trenin, Victor Olofsson, Joel Kiviranta, Brandon Duhaime. Heck, Ben Meyers just had a three-point night for Seattle.
We’ll go with Kerfoot for his versatility and Greer after his breakout 17-goal campaign for the very injured Panthers last year.
First defense pair
Bowen Byram – Sean Walker: It’s been a tough start in Chicago for Byram, who will likely be the third-highest-paid defenseman in the league next year behind Makar and the yet-unsigned Quinn Hughes. Pairing him with Walker, who essentially replaced him for the end of the 2023-24 in Denver and then won the Stanley Cup in a top-3 role last year with the Hurricanes, could offer him more help than he’s getting in the Windy City.
Second defense pair
Samuel Girard – Nikita Zadorov: This could be a very solid offense-defense combination for the Ex-Avs. Girard and Byram are finally away from Makar and Devon Toews … but they’d be competing to quarterback PP1 on this team. Depending on the lineup, the Ex-Avs are a little light on physicality and snarl up front, but Zadorov will provide plenty.
Third defense pair
Ryan Lindgren – Drew Helleson: Helleson hasn’t played yet because of an injury and Lindgren is out for a while after being injured against Vegas. When healthy, these guys can form a solid third pairing. Six of the seven guys in this defense corps were either added or sent away just ahead of a trade deadline.
Extra defenseman
Justin Barron: There are four options here, and it’s a “put four names in a hat” situation. Any of Barron, Jack Ahcan, Ian Cole or Conor Timmins could be a decent No. 7 option. Timmins is injured, so the Ex-Avs could stash him on IR for now.
Starting goaltender
Darcy Kuemper: Kuemper had a rough opening night in Denver, but he was a Vezina Trophy finalist two years ago and still helped the Kings to a playoff berth last season.
Backup goaltender
Justus Annunen: Another interesting decision — this could be one of four different guys. Semyon Varlamov is back after a long recovery from injury. Philip Grubauer and Calvin Pickard are also options. We’re going with Annunen, who had a great stretch run last year and could be in line for a bigger role with the Predators if another member of the alumni group, Nashville general manager Chris MacFarland, kickstarts a full-scale rebuild and trades Juuse Saros.
