Is it the GM who did the most this season to affect his club’s performance? Or is it the work he’s done over the past few seasons to set his team up for success this year?

Colorado Avalanche GM Chris MacFarland made it easy on the voters this year. He should be the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year, regardless of which way they interpret it.

No GM in the NHL has done more over the past two seasons to improve his club. No GM increased the chances of his outfit lifting the Stanley Cup since July 1, which is the start of the NHL’s 2025-26 calendar year.

When the Avalanche welcome the Vegas Golden Knights to Ball Arena for Game 1 of the Western Conference Final, Colorado will be the favorite to win the Stanley Cup. It is likely that 10 of the 20 players who dress for that game were not part of the organization two seasons ago, when the Avs reached the second round of the playoffs.

Building ‘The Lumberyard’

MacFarland’s retool on the fly, for a team that felt it was a Cup contender the day Valeri Nichushkin was suspended in that second round, effectively ending the season, until now, while the Avs continued to win big, is nothing short of remarkable.

It started with the goaltending, of course. Colorado had the league’s worst save percentage the day MacFarland sent Justus Annunen and a sixth-round pick to Nashville for Scott Wedgewood, then flipped Alexandar Georgiev, Nikolai Kovalenko and two picks to San Jose for Mackenzie Blackwood.

“The Lumberyard” allowed the fewest goals in the NHL this year, earning the William Jennings Trophy, for a combined price of $6.75 million. There are 10 goalies who make more than both combined.

Winning the Rantanen trade

The defining move was obviously sending Mikko Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes for Martin Necas, Jack Drury, two draft picks and the promise of building a deeper team. Even if someone disagreed with trading Rantanen at the time, that deal — and the subsequent moves the Avs have made while Necas counts $6.5 million against the cap this year when Rantanen would have cost at least $5 million more — looks emphatically strong for Colorado this season.

Necas found a new level during the regular season and has been an impact guy in the playoffs. Drury is anchoring arguably the best fourth line in the NHL. Necas and Brock Nelson at nearly the same cost as Rantanen and a league-minimum guy have been a huge win.

Flexibility pays off

Every major transaction MacFarland has made this season has worked out for the Avs, helping them reach the second half of the NHL’s postseason for the first time since 2022. Technically, signing Nelson to a three-year contract and the trade that sent Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood to Columbus for Gavin Brindley, a draft pick, and cap relief happened before July 1, but they were in service of the 2025-26 team.

That space allowed the Avs to sign Brent Burns to a contract with a $1 million base salary plus incentives. The flexibility allowed Colorado to add Brett Kulak, Nicolas Roy and Nazem Kadri before the trade deadline.

Burns and Kulak were critical against the Minnesota Wild, particularly when either Josh Manson or Sam Malinski was missing in every game, and when Cale Makar was clearly not at 100% by the end of the series.

Roy and Kardi have helped buttress an already loaded forward corps to the point that Colorado went 2-0 without Malinski and Arrturi Lehkonen, one of the great all-around playoff glue guys in the league. Roy and Kadri have six points each in this postseason — they are the co-leaders among forwards who were added before the deadline.

“It’s massive. That’s what you need,” Manson said of the club’s depth. “Our management has done a great job in bringing in players that we can all trust on the ice in all situations. That’s what you get. That’s what it takes to win.”

Wild GM Bill Guerin swung the biggest trade of the season, landing Quinn Hughes from Vancouver. But MacFarland outflanked him and three-time GM of the year winner Jim Nill in Dallas at the deadline. Anaheim GM Pat Verbeek has done a great job surrounding a talented young core with veteran players.

The votes are already in and second-round results don’t matter, but MacFarland was the correct choice before that, anyway. The job of the GM is always to keep one eye on the present and one on the future.

Well, MacFarland has signed four players to contracts that don’t start until next season since July 1. Wedgewood, the NHL’s leader in goals against average and save percentage, is inked for $2.5 million.

Malinski, one of the breakout players at his position in the NHL this year, is locked in at $4.75 million. Parker Kelly, a completely under-the-radar addition two offseasons ago, just scored 21 goals and is signed for $1.7 million.

Then there is Necas, who just racked up 38 goals and 100 points, and now has 11 points in nine playoff games. He is signed for $11.5 million.

This whole era of Avalanche hockey was teetering a bit after a sluggish start to the 2024-25 season. Gabe Landeskog was an unknown. Nichushkin’s future felt like an unknown. The goaltending was a mess.

The core was still world-class, but it needed help. MacFarland delivered. The city might celebrate another Stanley Cup championship in about a month as a result.

He built the NHL’s team of the season on the fly. He deserves to be the NHL’s GM of the year.

The Minnesota Mild threw every trick they could lift from Whiny Pete DeBoer’s playbook at the Avalanche in Game 4. Especially the dirty ones.

The Wild flopped like a walleye just pulled from They begged. They moaned. They worked the refs as if it were a Champions League semifinal, a baloney sandwich of pleading arms and empty arguments.

Minnesota had Stars in its eyes, all right. Dallas Stars. Yet the Avs rallied through all that bulljunk and bluster for a 5-2 win Monday night — bringing a 3-1 series lead back to Ball Arena for Game 5 on Wednesday.

Whenever the Wild dug deep on Monday, Colorado dug deeper. Ross Colton. Jack Ahcan. From goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood winning his first playoff start to a “checking” line of Parker Kelly (one goal, three hits), Jack Drury (one assist, two hits) and Joel Kiviranta (two hits), almost every one of coach Jared Bednar’s tweaks paid off.

It takes a village to lift Lord Stanley. The Avs reminded everybody why they’ve got more pitchforks within arm’s reach than any locker room in North America. Colton celebrated his return to the second line by breaking a 1-1 tie on a wrister with 13:04 left in the contest that bested Minny netminder Jesper Wallstedt on his stick side — his first goal of the postseason.

And it was the Avs’ fourth line, Bednar’s favorite sons, that kept the Stanley Cup favorites on top. With 8:28 to go, Kelly took Drury’s pass in the slot, cocked his stick back, and beat Wallstedt with a laser into the top shelf for a 3-2 Colorado lead.

The Avs came in crashing, relentless waves, although it took a while for Minnesota’s Wallstedts to break. With 13:59 left in the second period, the Avs were outshooting Minnesota 17-4. Colorado managed to break through on attempt No. 19 seven seconds later, via their second power play.

Nazem Kadri got a great look off a wrister from the front of the right face-off circle, only for Wallstedt to parry the point-blank look. But the netminder couldn’t corral it, and Kadri gathered his own rebound and whistled it past Wallstedt to get Colorado on the board with 13:52 left in the stanza.

Like the Broncos and Seahawks, the Avs have the kind of defense that travels well, the kind of defense that can win anywhere. The Wild went 19 minutes in the middle period without a shot on goal at one point.

Colorado landed more shots (10 to 4), hits (12 to eight), and takeaways (three to none) than the Wild did over the opening 20 minutes, but couldn’t lay a glove on Minnesota early.

Well, except for one glove in particular. And that belonged to Avs defender Josh Manson, who celebrated his first game in this series by getting a shot in from his backside.

With 12:53 in the first, Minnesota’s Michael McCarron forechecked the Avs D-man into Manitoba, then landed on him with all of his 6-foot-6, 242-pound frame.

As the two clenched, UFC style, Manson appeared to poke at the bigger assailant near the ear with the end of his stick, then threw a left jab with his fist while McCarron lowered an elbow. Manson’s shot landed, but the bigger Wild forward responded as if he’d been popped by Conor McGregor, shooting his head back and collapsing to the ice while clutching his face.

Manson was assessed a four-minute double minor for butt-ending with his stick. He was lucky, in hindsight, that the zebras didn’t toss him. A call for landing the butt-end of the stick is a five-minute major and a game misconduct.

“You played against Josh,” McCarron told ESPN’s P.K. Subban after the opening period. “He’s a dirty player. He’s always been. Surprised he got away with only a four-minute (penalty). I’m happy he’s still in the game.”

Mr. Mc-Karen looked awfully happy to lie on Manson for a few extra seconds, too. Embellish much?

“My intention wasn’t to butt-end him,” Manson said later. “Did I want to punch him in the head? I did want to punch him in the head.”

If you’re curious, Manson averaged 80 regular-season penalty minutes per 82 games over his NHL career. McCarron’s logged 111 penalty minutes per 82.

Once a Temu tough guy, always a Temu tough guy.

Alas, as with Game 3, the hosts didn’t waste any time taking advantage of the extra man. Minnesota defenseman Brock Faber launched a frozen rope from the blue line, and, like Saturday, a Wild forward was camped out comfortably in the Colorado crease to redirect it. Minnesota’s Danila Yurov doinked the dart past Blackwood, and 9:46 into the game, Grand Casino Arena smelled blood in their beers.

But after that, to his credit, Blackwood held fast between the pipes — at least until midway through the third stanza. Colorado wisely kept most of the action on the Wild’s side of the rink, but Blackwood turned away 11 of the first 12 Minnesota shots he faced.

If nothing else, No. 39 vindicated a lineup change from Bednar that threw everybody a curveball. Manson and Ahcan in on defense, Sam Malinsky and Nick Blankenburg out. Kiviranta in, Artturi Lehkonen out. And the losses weren’t small ones, either: Lehkonen put up a team-high plus-9 in plus-minus with six points through his first seven postseason games. Malinsky was second to the feisty Finn in plus-minus (plus-7) with three points from the blue line.

And unlike Pavel Francouz in 2022 and Michael Hutchinson at the bubble in 2020, Bednar turning to Blackwood between the pipes was a switch of choice.

Bednar never moved off of Alexandar Georgiev in 2024, even though Lord Stanley knows Four-giev gave him plenty of reasons to. He stuck with Philipp Grubauer in 2021 during a second-round Vegas series that flipped from fairy tale to nightmare fuel.

Francouz got four starts during that 2022 run to a title because Darcy Kuemper, Bednar’s preferred starter, suffered an eye injury against Nashville and an upper-body one in the opener of the Western Conference Finals against Edmonton. Frankie finished off the Avs’ 4-0 sweep of the Oilers, and other than Pavel’s relief stint during a Game 3 loss in Tampa, Kuemper wrapped up the Cup champs’ coronation with wins in Game 4 and Game 6.

It’s a long, hard road to a parade, but the Avs, with a 7-1 postseason mark, can just about make out the exit ramp to the promised land, begging in the distance. The path to a title runs through Chopper Circle again. And Colorado is a win away from bringing a deserved curtain down on

It’s Scott Wedgewood’s net right now. It’s Scott Wedgewood’s world. If you’re Avalanche coach Jared Bednar, why the devil would you ever change a horse that’s got the NHL eating its dust?

“If a guy keeps winning,” Eddie Olczyk, the TNT hockey analyst and former NHL forward, told me before the Avs punked the Kings in Game 3 of their best-of-seven Stanley Cup Playoffs series, “(then) there’s no reason, in my opinion, to make any changes.”

Especially when the guy between the pipes is rewriting Colorado’s history books. Of the 12 guys who’ve logged at least 200 postseason minutes in front of the net for the burgundy and blue, no one over their initial four playoff appearances with the Avs has posted a lower goals allowed average (1.17 GAA) or a higher save percentage (95.2%) s than Wedgewood, a career journeyman.

Heading into Sunday’s Game 4 in Los Angeles, The Wedgie Train is 3-0 this postseason with a 1.28 GAA. Perspective: Saint Patrick Roy went 2-1 with a 2.33 GAA and a shutout in his first three Avs postseason starts. Grubauer was 2-1 with a 2.24 GAA. Alexandar Georgiev? 2-1 with a 3.03 GAA. Jose Theodore? 3-0, 2.92 GAA. Darcy Kuemper? A 3-0 record, 1.62 GAA.

“It’s fun. You always want an opportunity. That’s kind of been my whole career, right?” Wedgewood told The Post’s Corey Masisak late Thursday night after Colorado’s 4-2 victory. “Just kind of hoping for an opportunity and (to) be used and find a home. And (I) had one in Dallas, then I go here, and it’s just been smooth sailing since I got here.”

The only swell in the seas up ahead? Wedgie’s workload. After Thursday evening, the No. 41 in your program and No. 1 in your heart had made five starts since April 13. That was the most he’d logged over an 11-day stretch since last Oct. 21-31 — a rare early-season dip that saw Wedgewood drop three of five decisions while the Avs were off to a 7-1-4 start.

Last Sunday was the 33-year-old’s first career postseason start. Every step forward is another step deeper into uncharted waters. Only right now, it feels as if the only force on Earth that can stop WedgieMania is Bednar.

“This guy looks like he’s putting his name on the circuit,” Kings boss D.J. Smith said of Wedgewood after Game 3, “as a big-time goalie.”

One who’s looking bigger by the day. had a better shot-stopping rate than Wedgewood’s 94.7%. According to NaturalStatTrick.com, the Avs’ goalie went into Friday morning ranked fourth among NHL stoppers with 55-plus minutes of playoff action in “high-danger” goals allowed average (0.64) and fifth in percentage of “high-danger” shots saved (90.5%).

Wedgewood hasn’t seen a lot of stinkers  — save for the starts, he joked to me once, that involved him wearing those cursed Quebec Nordiques throwbacks. Yet the stats also say a fresher Wedgie has been a better Wedgie, by and large: With a day’s rest during the regular season, the Avs’ 1A goalie option put up a 5-3-3 record, a 2.22 GAA and a 90.7% save clip. With two days’ rest, he was stellar — 9-0-1 with a 1.34 GAA and a 94.5% stop rate. With three or more days off between appearances, Wedgewood went 17-2-2 with a 2.24 GAA and a 91.8% save percentage.

There’s also the matter of the blonder half of Avs’ Lumber Yard, Mackenzie Blackwood, who was the organization’s presumed No. 1 net-minder before injuries and inconsistencies dogged his year.

Blackwood is younger (29) than Wedgewood and has more career playoff starts (seven to Wedgie’s three) under his belt. The longer the Avs remain in the postseason, the more likely it becomes that you’ll need your 1b goalie at some point.

With a 3-0 lead in this series, would it be smart for Bednar’s long-term plans to give Blackwood a cameo on Sunday, just to shake off the rust? Or salve his ego?

“Nah,” Olczyk replied. “Your main focus right now for the organization, without question, is putting the best lineup and the best combination and pushing the right buttons that give your team a chance to win and have success. If that means pulling a guy or not playing (a guy), and that goes for skaters, too — when your name or number get called, you’ve got to be ready.

“And it’s hard. It tests a lot of things under the umbrella. And when you get asked to step in, you go in, you play.”

In Game 3, Wedgewood saw 26 shots. He’s faced 76 attempts this postseason and turned away 72 of them. That’s the most he’s faced over a three-game stretch in at least a month.

“There are hypotheticals,” Olczyk continued. “(If you play) a couple of overtimes, you win, and (if Wedgewood faces) 78 shots, and you turn around and play the next day …  in this series though, you have a few extra days off (before Game 4).”

When I floated the idea of giving Blackwood some game time to Eddie, he sunk it. Actually, he sort of laughed. Hockey dudes are a superstitious lot. Wedgewood is hot. And you never mess with a heater in April, May or June until the fire dies out.

Blackwood played his first game of the 2025-26 season on Saturday in San Jose, stopping 20 of 23 shots in an overtime loss. He was sidelined during training camp and for the first three weeks of the regular season as he recovered from an offseason procedure that addressed a lingering lower-body injury.

In Blackwood’s stead, Scott Wedgewood played well enough to have the Avs believing their tandem is a 1A/1B situation, rather than a traditional starter/backup.

“We’re spoiled that way,” captain Gabriel Landeskog said. “Wedgie’s been great to start the season, and that’s been huge for us. We’ve got tons of confidence in him, and same thing with Blackie. He’s missed a lot of time, and it’s going to take some time to get up to speed, but he’s an elite goaltender as we’ve seen time and time again in the past. We’re excited to have him back.”

Entering Tuesday night’s home game against the Lightning, Wedgewood was tied for second in the league with 11 starts. He has the at 7-1-2, and he’s seventh among goalies with at least eight starts with a 2.53 goals against average.

Now Blackwood returns fresh and confident he’s back to full health following an absence that was longer than expected. Avs coach Jared Bednar said the goalie’s rehab was “slow-moving” throughout the summer, and that his timeline for return was pushed back when Blackwood took the ice in early August and felt discomfort.

“I don’t love missing time, but you’ve got to think about longevity and my whole career,” Blackwood said. “I didn’t want to rush myself back. I think (the Avs’ training staff) did a great job of managing it and making sure everything was good to go before I got back out there. I feel great now, and it’s full-steam ahead.”

A month into the season, Colorado is in a much better place with its goalies than it was at the start of 2024-25.

At this time last year, the Avs were splitting starts between Alexandar Georgiev and Justus Annunen. The result was a 7-8 record at the one-month mark, and Colorado soon traded Annunen and a sixth-round pick to Nashville to acquire Wedgewood on Nov. 30. That deal was followed by a trade with San Jose in which Georgiev went to the Sharks and Blackwood came to Colorado.

While Wedgewood starts Tuesday against Tampa Bay at Ball Arena, Bednar said this week will be pivotal for Blackwood to continue to get back into game shape ahead of Colorado’s trip to Edmonton and Vancouver this weekend.

“He’s getting there,” Bednar said. “He’s obviously a little bit rusty after missing most of training camp. He’s been working mostly on his own, and he’s lacking team practice time at this point. That’s why I think this week will be really good for him.

“Practice (Monday), gets some work in (Tuesday morning), practicing Wednesday and Friday. It’s the most practices he’s had all season, so I think that will help him get used to some game situations, and then he’ll be ready to go for the weekend again.”

Wedgewood hopes he proved himself enough during Colorado’s 7-1-5 start that he won’t totally take a backseat to Blackwood once the latter gets his legs back.

Wedgewood — a 33-year-old with New Jersey, Arizona, Dallas and Nashville prior to arriving in Colorado — wants to be called upon to “lighten the workload at times to get (Blackwood) to 50 starts and keep him healthier.” Last season, Blackwood was 22-12-3 in 36 starts for the Avs, with a 2.33 goals against and .913 save percentage.

“I’m proud of where I came from, and what I’ve done to get into this position,” Wedgewood said. “… With an opportunity to play a lot early in this season, it’s been a lot of fun, while showing this team and the league that I’m an option every night, and it’s not going to be a ‘backup’ you’re facing when I’m in there. I feel like I’m giving the team an opportunity to win every night.”

As in former Broncos running back Javonte Williams, the Dallas Cowboy who somehow managed to have a rougher week than his successor, J.K. Dobbins, did in London.

For the first time since Week 1, the Javonte Train finally went off the rails. Despite what the fantasy experts on the Grading The Week team saw as a (makes finger quotes in the air) “favorable” matchup at Carolina last Sunday, the ex-Bronco was held to a season-low 29 rushing yards on 13 carries and 5 receiving yards on five grabs.

Context: Despite a banged-up, messed-up offensive line in front of him across the pond, Dobbins still managed more rushing yards (40) and more total yards (also 40) on far fewer touches (14).

Life of an ex-Broncos RB — D

And yet Williams’ statistical stumble was cupcakes and rainbows compared to the week of his former teammate — and backfield mate — Audric Estime.

Estime, the Broncos’ fifth-round pick out of Notre Dame in the 2024 NFL draft, was waived by Denver this past August after falling behind Tyler Badie and Jaleel McLaughlin on the depth chart. The Philadelphia Eagles signed Estime a few days later and stuck him on their practice squad.

On Tuesday, our man Audric became unstuck. The Eagles released him.

The ex-Irish runner remained inactive for all six games with the Birds, including the Broncos’ 21-17 win at Philly back on Oct. 5.

Burning through two franchises over your first 18 months in the league makes for something of an auspicious NFL start for Estime, no question. But there’s one thing on the dude’s side: Time. He just turned 22 this past Sept. 6. If Estime can land on his feet, with head, heart and hands all pointing the same direction, he’s got time to re-write his narrative.

Wedgewood’s start for Avs — A

When the kids at the GTW offices can’t trust our eyes, we trust the math. After its first five games a year ago, the Avalanche had given up 28 goals (5.6 GAA) and had lost four times. After five games this fall to open the 2025-26 season, the burgundy and blue had surrendered just nine goals (1.8 GAA) while winning four of those five contests. Avs faithful may not know what a good power play looks like, but they know what it’s like to have a grown-up — Scott Wedgewood — keeping watch between the pipes.

Meanwhile, our old pal Alexandar Georgiev — the man in net here to start last season — just cleared waivers in Buffalo and was spotted in recent days practicing with the AHL’s Rochester Americans.

Ed Lamb keeping UNC afloat — B+

When the GTW crew last saw Ed Lamb’s Northern Colorado Bears up close, they were being robbed of a historic win at Fort Collins in front of thousands. But while that bogus non-catch call against CSU still kind of burns our britches, we love happy — well, happy-ish — postscripts. After 23 losses in 24 games during the ’23 and ’24 seasons, Lamb’s UNC Bears went into the weekend 3-3 after their first six games for the first time since 2016. They won two non-conference games — and we all know there should’ve been a third — for the first time in nine years.

Since 2018 (the Bears didn’t play in 2020 for pandemic reasons), UNC’s average record after six games has been 1-5, and the squad has been 0-6 three different times over the previous six campaigns. It’s too early to bow, Ed. But we see you. And if this keeps up, we look forward to seeing a lot more of you.

It’s OK. Wedgewood understands. It’s part of the job … and part of why he’s added extra value in his role.

With Blackwood still rehabbing from an offseason injury, Wedgewood is expected to start Colorado’s season opener Tuesday night in Los Angeles, and likely every game until his goaltending partner is ready.

“We actually Facetimed a few times this summer. It’s kind of funny to see his face pop up when he called me and we were joking around,” Wedgewood said. “I checked in on him and the rehab and things like that. So I had a little bit of knowledge just coming into it.

“It����ap almost exciting, a little bit. Obviously unfortunate for our team and him, but it’ll be an exciting start to approach it in my mind — to get a few extra ones under my belt that I might not have gotten throughout the year.”

When the Avalanche traded for Wedgewood on Dec. 1, 2024, the club’s goaltending situation was a mess. Both Alexandar Georgiev and Justus Annunen were off to terrible starts, and the Avs had the worst save percentage in the NHL.

Wedgewood was an instant hit, both on and off the ice. He immediately helped stabilize the situation, and it allowed his mind to drift a little … toward grabbing the No. 1 role and running with it.

Then, eight days later, the Avs traded Georgiev for Blackwood, his former teammate in the New Jersey organization.

“I’ve joked with a few guys and with (Blackwood), I got in the mindset when I got here, like, ‘I can win a starting job and go,’” Wedgwood said. “Out of the gate, I had a good start and maybe won the guys over a little bit. … And I don’t even know if I got two weeks before (Blackwood) came in.

“It was great for the team, great for the room and the situation for him, and I was perfect. But in the back of my head, there was a little of, ‘Can I pause time here and just play 35 (games) or whatever the number was going to be?'”

The way Wedgwood played, spelling Blackwood when needed, made that Dec. 1 trade with Nashville a great one for the Avs. It’s also why no one is worried about Blackwood missing a few games to start this season.

Coaches and teammates always have platitudes for players’ character, but the rave reviews of Wedgewood are genuine.

“I think that is part of his DNA,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “His reputation preceded himself coming in here that he’s a great team guy. He’s a really outgoing guy, a connector of people. … A really good person, great teammate, and then his play did the talking too when he came here last year.”

Colorado’s team save percentage was at .856 the day of the Wedgewood trade. From the day Blackwood arrived until the end of the season, it was .906 — good for sixth in the NHL. Wedgewood went 13-4-1 in 19 games (18 starts) for the Avs.

After all of the changes and trades last year, the Avs believe just having these two goalies for the entire season can help the club’s ability to compete for a Central Division title. And Wedgewood is a guy the other Avalanche players will rally behind until Blackwood is ready.

“A fun guy to be around. We love having him in our room and the impact he’s had,” Avs defenseman Devon Toews said. “When you feel like you’ve got two starting goalies, you can throw anybody out there every night, and it gives confidence to the group. It puts us in a position where we can just go play and try to put our best foot forward.”

He went and found his notes from an Avalanche game early in the 2024-25 season to compare. Then it hit him.

“It’s like they’re from a different season,” Ferraro told The Denver Post. “This isn’t even close to the same team. I think it’s really quite incredible what they’re attempting to do here.”

The Avalanche, for the eighth consecutive season, qualified for the Stanley Cup Playoffs this spring. This team believes it can win the Stanley Cup, just as it did in 2022. That has been the expectation for this group for years now.

But how the Avs got here is unlike anything this franchise has seen. And there’s an argument that it’s unlike any season any club that fancies itself as a title contender has ever had. The Avalanche used 49 players this season. A 50th dressed but didn’t play.

That’s a figure typically reserved for clubs competing for the No. 1 pick, not a championship. There were an incredible number of injuries, but general manager Chris MacFarland and his team also made a series of stunning in-season trades to completely reshape the roster.

What remains is a team that caught fire over the second half of the season and enters the playoffs as a legitimate contender.

“It����ap bold. There’s no question about it,” said E.J. Hradek, who will be part of NHL Network’s “NHL Tonight” crew during the playoffs. “They identified that they weren’t going to be good enough with the roster they had, the goaltenders they had. … A lot of teams don’t act in that manner.”

‘It wasn’t by design’

Colorado acquired 11 players, via eight in-season trades, who played at least one game for the club this season. That’s four more than any other team in the league, and the most in a single season since the franchise moved to Denver, per NHL Stats.

Three teams traded for seven players. None of those clubs is still playing. The Avs, who open a blockbuster first-round series Saturday night with the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center, are not only still playing, but they also believe this remodeled roster can win 16 more games.

“It wasn’t by design,” MacFarland said. “We weren’t sitting there in October going, ‘You know, we’re going to have to change the goaltending,’ or anything like that. I think it’s just one of those years where things just sort of fell into that sort of track.

“Our guys, top to bottom, did a good job collecting points. Was it always easy? No. But they did a good job battling and making sure we were staying with the pack. The management team felt like we still have a good team here, and just if we can find a way to tweak it and get deeper, it would be a really good hockey team.”

The start of this season felt calamitous. The Avs lost their first four games. Injuries mounted. The underlying numbers were solid, but both goaltenders were scuffling, and the club was dead last in save percentage.

That’s where the wholesale reconstruction started — in net. The Avs traded Justus Annunen to Nashville for Scott Wedgewood on Nov. 30, then made it a double swap by adding Mackenzie Blackwood in a multiplayer trade that shipped Alexandar Georgiev to San Jose.

No NHL team had ever traded both of its opening-night goaltenders before Christmas. Seventeen days and five starts later, the Avs signed Blackwood to a five-year contract extension.

“Aside from the fact that it wasn’t working with Georgiev, from what I understand, he’s kind of a headache to deal with. It was, again, bold to get out in front of it and take a chance on Mackenzie Blackwood,” Hradek said. “He’s a guy we saw in New Jersey with all of the ability in the world, but he was kind of immature. He’s kind of gotten things together, and he’s got a lot of talent. They took the chance and they signed him.”

Trading for Blackwood wasn’t the splashiest move of the eight. It didn’t cost the Avs the most or best assets. But it is hard to trade for a starting goaltender in the middle of a season.

And of all the players Colorado traded for, Blackwood was arguably the riskiest. He’s never started an NHL postseason game. His previous numbers were inconsistent, albeit with mostly lottery teams in front of him.

But he’s become one of the most consistent goalies in the NHL over the past four months. The Avs are sixth in save percentage since the day Wedgewood arrived on Dec. 1.

“I give full credit to our goaltending department with our analytics guys and our scouts. This was a guy we were very, very bullish on. We felt this was a guy whose game had another level to hit. I think (goaltending coach) Jussi Parkkila deserves some of the credit with the work on both guys,” MacFarland said.

“We feel like we’ve got goaltending as maybe the most solidified it’s been, certainly during my time working with Joe (Sakic). We feel good about that moving forward.”

‘It feels almost unprecedented’

The biggest trade shook the foundations of the franchise and sent shockwaves around the NHL. It also helped set more trades in motion.

Colorado’s players were enjoying an idyllic January evening in Boston when Mikko Rantanen walked down the hallway of the team hotel to find out from MacFarland that he had been traded to the Carolina Hurricanes. Franchises that are in the middle of a championship contention window do not trade the third-best player from a title-winning core in the prime of his career.

Rantanen was in the final year of his contract. The two sides had not found a solution for an extension. How the final days before the trade went down have been the source of much speculation and reporting.

Teams also do not trade players like Rantanen in the middle of a title contention window, then come out of it six weeks later with a roster that is clearly better on paper. But it would be hard to argue that’s not the case in Colorado.

“(Rantanen) is a great player, but one of the things that did was it gave us some chips we didn’t have before, and it gave us some cap space we didn’t have before,” MacFarland said. “We just felt that as long as our guys continued to do their thing, we would try to improve the team. The things we did, we feel it made sense.”

A couple of the other moves have looked like big wins for Colorado’s pro scouting department. The Avs added defenseman Ryan Lindgren, whose play away from Adam Fox in New York drew plenty of criticism. He is away from Fox in Denver, and he’s been a solid depth defenseman for the Avs.

Colorado effectively traded its slumping No. 2 center (Casey Mittelstadt) for a No. 3 guy (Charlie Coyle), but the latter has produced more like a No. 2 in recent weeks, and his coach, Jared Bednar, can’t say enough positive words about his impact.

Then there is the other trade that, in most years, would be the biggest a club might make. Colorado traded its No. 1 prospect, Calum Ritchie, as part of a hefty package of future assets to the New York Islanders for Brock Nelson, a pending UFA who is now the club’s No. 2 center.

The Avs have moved into the same neighborhood where Tampa Bay and Vegas reside — damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. No draft picks in the first three rounds of the next two drafts? A cupboard nearly bereft of prospects with impact potential?

That’s something to worry about when there isn’t a championship to chase.

“They have (Nathan) MacKinnon, and they have (Cale) Makar, and they’re trying to win right now,” Hradek said. “The picture they’re looking at is we’ve got really high-end players in the prime of their career, and we have to try to win right now. And we have to try and keep this window open for as long as we can.”

So here are the Avs, on the eve of a titanic matchup with the Stars, the club that has knocked them out of the playoffs in two of the previous five seasons. It feels like there have been at least three versions of this team this season, and maybe four.

That doesn’t even take into account the final potential addition in a historic season of adversity and reconstruction: The Avs may have captain Gabe Landeskog in the lineup Saturday night for the first time since June 26, 2022.

Landeskog lifted the Stanley Cup that night. So much has changed in the three years since, but an incredible amount of change occurred in a 99-day span, from Nov. 30 to trade deadline day. Eight trades. Two new goalies. Three new centers. A potential Hall of Fame member sent away in his prime. A beloved player from the 2022 team, defenseman Erik Johnson, welcomed back.

It’s been a season unlike any other in Denver. But, just as Landeskog appears ready to return, the Avs hope all of the adversity and all of the moves lead them right back to where they were the last time the captain played.

“In one sense, it feels almost unprecedented with a team that was thought of to be a good team at the start of the year, to completely undo your goaltending and your center position in the midst of the season,” Ferraro said. “I don’t recall somebody making five changes to six possible spots.

“That to me seems incredibly bold, but also in a sense kind of ruthless. Like, ‘Look, we’ve got Makar and MacKinnon at the tops of their game and we’re just not good enough around them.’ It����ap one thing to acknowledge that, and then quite another to go do it and make the pieces fit.”

Trading places

The Colorado Avalanche roster has been completely overhauled since the team’s opening-night loss at the Vegas Golden Knights. Here’s a look at how the lineup changed from Game 1 of the regular season to Game 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Opening night

Projected playoff lineup

* Was injured during the game, missed 32 of the next 36 games

Who has the edge?

Forwards

These are two of the best forward groups in the league. Several of Colorado’s key guys have missed big chunks of the season but produced at a prolific rate. After adding Mikko Rantanen, the Stars’ top three lines are balanced and terrifying. Tyler Seguin didn’t play for four months, but returned for the final game of the regular season. Gabe Landeskog didn’t play for almost three years, but could play in Game 1. Who comes out for the captain? The Avs now have 15 NHL forwards. Rantanen is the new bad guy, but Matt Duchene is an excellent villain. This is so, so close, but one side has the MVP. Edge: Avalanche

Defensemen

When will Miro Heiskanen play? How effective will he be? In a series that could be epic in scope but decided by millimeters, Heiskanen’s health could be the whole ballgame. He’s not expected for Game 1, at least. Dallas’ defensive numbers have plummeted without him, even though Thomas Harley is the real deal and could challenge Devon Toews as the third-best defenseman in this series. The Avs have a strong top-six, but will Josh Manson and Ryan Lindgren be ready and at their best? Sam Malinski finished the year strong. The Stars’ forwards pushed the Avs around at times in the series a year ago. Edge: Avalanche

Goaltenders

The 2024-25 regular season was as close as it gets, though Jake Oettinger scuffled a little at the end. Mackenzie Blackwood finished his season sixth in save percentage at .912 among goalies with 30-plus games played. Oettinger was 10th (.909). Blackwood was 9th (2.55) in goals against average, while Oettinger was 12th (2.59). Since Blackwood arrived in Denver, he’s 22-12-3. Oettinger in that span? He’s 22-12-4. So what’s the difference? Oettinger has 45 playoff starts. Blackwood has zero. Will that matter? Oettinger was also great against the Avs in the 2024 playoffs. Edge: Stars

Power play

The Avs are ninth in the league at 24.8%, while the Stars finished 17th at 22.0%. That’s a bit misleading, though, because the Avs scored just three more times with the man advantage (58-55) and yielded three more shorthanded tallies, so both clubs were plus-51 overall. Colorado has the best power play in the league since trading Rantanen (32.2%), but Dallas is sixth since then at 26.5%. That said, the Stars’ power play is only at 20.3% since trading for Rantanen. The Avs have also been generous with shorthanded chances allowed. One shorthanded goal against could swing a game or the series. Edge: Avalanche

Penalty kill

The Stars have one of the best penalty kills in the league, finishing fifth at 82.0%. The Avs were in the middle of the pack, finishing 12th at 79.8%. Again, sometimes just focusing on the percentages can be misleading, though. Dallas allowed 41 power-play goals, while Colorado allowed 42. The Avs were actually fourth in the league on the PK from Dec. 3 through the end of the season — swapping out both goaltenders made a huge difference. The Stars were seventh in that same span, and their goal difference while shorthanded was just two back of Colorado. The Avs have added several guys who kill penalties throughout the season. Will Landeskog get a chance as well? Edge: Even

Coaching

Oh look, another category where it’s splitting hairs. The Avs have collected the third-most points in the NHL over the past eight seasons. They are tied with the Tampa Bay Lightning for the second-longest postseason appearance streak in the league. Bednar has won the Stanley Cup, while Peter DeBoer has not. There’s been some criticism of Bednar’s work in the postseason outside of 2022, but his postseason winning percentage (.605) is tops among current coaches. With all of that said, Bednar is 7-12 against DeBoer in the playoffs. DeBoer has eliminated the Avalanche in 2019, 2021 and 2024 — with three different teams. A series win would be as big for Bednar as anyone in the organization. Edge: Stars

— Corey Masisak, The Denver Post

Five things to watch

1. The return of the captain. Gabriel Landeskog hasn’t played in an NHL game since the Avs beat the Lightning to win the Stanley Cup on June 26, 2022. He went 1,020 days without playing at all because of right knee issues, including several procedures, but returned to game action this month via a conditioning stint with the AHL Colorado Eagles. The expectation is the forward will return to the Avs lineup for the series against the Stars, which would be a huge emotional jolt to the team, and quite possibly a statistical one as well.

2. History between divisional foes. The Stars beat the Avs 5-3 in Dallas on Nov. 29 in the first meeting of the Central rivals this season, but that was when Colorado still had Alexandar Georgiev in net and Mikko Rantanen on the wing. Since changing up the goalie, the Avs won the other two meetings, 6-3 on Jan. 18 and 4-3 in OT on March 16, both at Ball Arena, with the latter featuring Mikko in green. Scott Wedgewood was in net for both of those victories. While Saturday marks the start of a fresh series, can Colorado carry over the head-to-head momentum from the regular season?

3. Avs’ goalie situation. A over 10 days changed the course of Colorado’s season. The Avs acquired Wedgewood from Nashville on Nov. 30 in a deal that sent away goalie Justus Annunen, then got Mackenzie Blackwood on Dec. 9 in a deal that included shipping Georgiev to San Jose. The trades paid off: Blackwood is 22-12-3 with a 2.33 goals against average, while Wedgewood is 13-4-1 with a 1.99 GAA. Coach Jared Bednar has two legitimate options to plug into the net.

4. Nathan MacKinnon’s status. After playing every game last season, MacKinnon was on track to repeat that feat this year before a minor injury sidelined him for the final three games. That cost the Avs center a shot at the Art Ross Trophy as the league’s scoring leader, as Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov edged him in points, 121 to 116. But Bednar said the decision to hold MacKinnon out was made because winning another Stanley Cup is most important to him, so expect to see a refreshed MacKinnon in Game 1.

5. Jekyll and Hyde. Which Avs team will show up against Dallas, and for the entirety of this playoff run? If Colorado plays as it’s capable — with two of the best players in the world in MacKinnon and defenseman Cale Makar dominating, while getting solid goalie play from whoever’s in net — the team is capable of dispatching the Stars and anyone else who stands in its way. But there have been spurts this season where a different, less focused team shows up. If Bednar can get the best out of the Avs, a title run is wholly within reason.

— Kyle Newman, The Denver Post

Staff predictions

Corey Masisak, Avs beat writer: The Stars are a great team when whole, but the underlying numbers without Miro Heiskanen have been bad. The results — seven straight losses to end the regular season — finally caught up. Jason Robertson was also hurt in Game 82. Remember, the Avs looked quite shaky at the end of last season as well, before bulldozing their way through Winnipeg. There are plenty of reasons why Dallas can win this series, but the recent data says Colorado should prevail. Prediction: Avs in six.

Kyle Newman, sports reporter: Games will be tight, but Colorado’s bold goalie trades in late November/early December will look even smarter in this series. After Nathan MacKinnon got a three-game breather at the end of the regular season, expect the reigning MVP to light this series on fire — with possibly some help in key moments from the captain, Gabe Landeskog. Plus, Cale Makar will continue to prove he’s the best defenseman in the world. Prediction: Avs in five.

Troy Renck, sports columnist: A year later, the Avs are deeper, better in the net and, deep breath, boasting Val Nichushkin. When he plays, the Avs make a strong argument as the best team in hockey. There is no replacing the force and fury he creates with his size and speed. The Avs must play smart, efficient. Dallas is cold and calculated, pouncing on mistakes. Mackenzie Blackwood has never won a playoff game. As long as he doesn’t melt, the Avs will advance in ugly fashion. Prediction: Avs in six. 

Sean Keeler, sports columnist: Mikko, Schmikko. The Finn that really matters is banged up. Dallas d-man Miro Heiskanen was a pain in the Avs’ backside in the playoffs last year. Now he’s just in pain after February knee surgery. Since Heiskanen last played on Jan. 28, the Stars rank among the NHL’s bottom 10 in goals allowed (10th-worst), “expected” goals allowed (second-worst) and “high-danger” chances allowed (sixth-worst). If Blackwood can steal a road game, the eyes of Texas will look elsewhere. Prediction: Avs in seven.

Lori Punko, deputy sports editor: Emotions will be running high as the Avs seek revenge for last year’s second-round exit. Dallas finished the season on a 7-game skid and leading scorer Jason Robertson left the arena in a knee brace after the regular-season finale. Meanwhile, Colorado has had nearly a week of rest and will be buoyed by the return of captain Gabe Landeskog. And let’s not forget that the Avs have something to prove against ex-teammate Mikko Rantanen, who was traded to Carolina and then Dallas. Prediction: Avs in six.

Series schedule

(Click here to view schedule in mobile.)

This wild episode of Extreme Makeover: Avalanche Edition began when Colorado traded for Wedgewood and Blackwood 10 days apart. Since then, general manager Chris MacFarland has continued to reshape the roster with a plethora of deals.

The results are obvious: Colorado is 27-11-3 when Blackwood or Wedgewood is the goalie of record. The Avs are 14-13-0 when it’s one of the other four guys (Alexandar Georgiev, Justus Annunen, Kaapo Kahkonen, Trent Miner).

That’s a 114-point pace with Blackwood and Wedgewood, and an 84-point pace otherwise. The Avs are one of the hottest teams in the league right now, riding an 8-0-1 stretch into a three-game Eastern Canada road swing that coincides with Valeri Nichushkin returning to the lineup and MacFarland’s last mad dash of moves to infuse five more new guys before the trade deadline.

So, are the Avs playing better as a team, or do they just have better players? In goal, the answer is pretty obvious. Overall, it involves a little more context.

“I think it’s both,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “The team is growing, now that you add all these veteran guys. There’s a real belief now in the room. They feel it. It’s getting into that stretch run where you’re really focusing on what you do.

“We’re doing a lot of things better. Positionally, just tactically, even conceptually, like how we think about the game with a patient, more mature approach. But the players help. … It’s helping us a lot.”

This Avalanche season can be broken into at least three acts, if not four. The first is before the two goalie trades. The second act is with the new goalies and before the seismic Mikko Rantanen blockbuster. The third at this point is everything since.

But by the end of the season, there will be enough data to add a fourth — from the last flurry of trades until the end. For this exercise, we’re just going to break it into thirds.

Here’s a look at Avs in a few key metrics, before Dec. 3 — when Wedgewood made his Avs debut and helped rally them from an ugly four-goal deficit in Buffalo — and after.

(Click here to view chart in mobile)

xGF% – expected goals for percentage; GF% – actual goals for percentage

It might be lost to history for some, but the rest of the Avs were actually playing well in the first third of the season, save for a couple of ugly games right at the start. The goaltending, and availability issues, were clearly the big problems.

Insert two goalies who have played very well and viola, the wins have followed.

Now, here’s the same 68 games split up a different way, before the Friday night Mikko blockbuster that stunned the NHL, and after:

(Click here to view chart in mobile)

xGF% – expected goals for percentage; GF% – actual goals for percentage

The Avs, not counting the goaltenders, were actually worse from early December through late January. Nichushkin missed half of this time. Casey Mittelstadt and Ross Colton, the two guys who stepped up to support Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Rantanen at the start of the year, went into prolonged funks.

Everything has come together since the Rantanen trade. The Avs have scored the fourth-most goals and allowed the fourth-fewest. They are third in power-play goals scored, while being tied for eighth in fewest allowed on the penalty kill.

While Colorado is third in points percentage since Jan. 24, the two teams in front of them are Winnipeg and Dallas. That said, the Avalanche’s underlying metrics are superior to both of its division rivals in that span.

It’s not just the additions of Martin Necas and Jack Drury, plus the rest of the new guys who eventually arrived. Nichushkin, Artturi Lehkonen and Jonathan Drouin are all healthy now. The Avs have gone from playing one or two forwards who probably belong in the AHL most nights to now having two veteran NHL regulars sitting as healthy scratches.

Winning cures a lot of things, but the vibes are sky-high, and the recent play — both process and results — looks like a group with the ability to make a long run in the 2025 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

“I think we’re playing better with better players,” Avs forward Logan O’Connor said. “It’s a combination. We have a bit more of a swagger that we lacked earlier in the year and even at times last year. It feels like there’s a bit more of an aura around the team.

“When we can feed off that emotion and that mojo, that’s when we are at our best.”

Colorado has 25 games in a little more than seven weeks — a compressed stretch run that comes with squeezing an international tournament into the middle of a season. The Avs entered Saturday in fourth place in the Central Division — two points behind the Minnesota Wild for third (with one less game to play) and four back of the Dallas Stars, who have two extra contests.

Here are 25 thoughts that touch on potential playoff matchups, needs ahead of the trade deadline, Nathan MacKinnon’s chances of repeating as league MVP, and a lot more:

1. The No. 1 objective for the Avs should be to get out of the first wild-card spot into the top three of the Central Division. Passing Dallas and securing home-ice advantage for a series with the Stars would be ideal, but leapfrogging Minnesota matters most.

2. Why would Dallas/Winnipeg be a better playoff path than potentially facing Edmonton and Vegas? Because the Oilers are the most dangerous team in the West. Yes, the Avs have won two amazing games in Edmonton over the past two seasons, but the Oilers are even better this year than last, and the Golden Knights could now add another impact player with Shea Theodore’s injury.

3. Another reason: We don’t know when Miro Heiskanen will play again. The Stars said he was “week-to-week” immediately after a knee injury in late January. Then he had surgery a week later and it became “month-to-month.”

4. Here’s how I’d rank the non-Avs teams in the West right now, with everyone available: Edmonton, Dallas, Vegas, Winnipeg. Here’s how I’d rank them if Heiskanen can’t play in the first round: Edmonton, Vegas, Winnipeg (gap), Dallas.

5. Winnipeg has had an amazing regular season. No one outside of Manitoba is going to pick the Jets to beat the Avs in a playoff series, assuming both sides are at full strength.

6. For the Avalanche, “full strength” at this point is everyone but Gabe Landeskog. It would be shocking if he plays in a regular-season game. The Avs won’t say it, but at some point, they will shift into the same mode as last season — if he can play at some point in the playoffs, that would be great.

7. There aren’t enough tangible reasons to believe the Jets are actually the team to beat in the West. Some of the key underlying numbers for the 2023-24 Jets and this year’s edition are the “Two Spider-Mans pointing at each other” meme.

8. What����ap different with Winnipeg? Connor Hellebuyck is even better than he was last regular season. Eight key forwards are shooting a better percentage. The power play has improved by 15%. Those last two are connected, and neither feels like a great bet to continue for two months of playoff hockey.

9. All four of the best non-Avs teams in the West have enough cap flexibility to add more between now and March 7. A power ranking of those four (plus the Avs) is subject to change in the next two weeks.

10. Any of Minnesota, Los Angeles and Vancouver are good enough to win one round in the playoffs. None of them are winning more than that.

11. Nathan MacKinnon’s MVP performance at the 4 Nations Face-Off will help him when it����ap time to vote for the Hart Trophy in April. It����ap really, really hard to repeat as the league MVP. Some voters are now going to give MacKinnon the edge in a too-close-to-call voting situation. Book it.

12. I’ve thought all season that MacKinnon had a better chance of winning the Art Ross Trophy than repeating as the Hart winner, but his odds of claiming both are rising.

13. Even if MacKinnon wins the scoring title, there’s a good case for at least two other MVP candidates (Leon Draisaitl and Hellebuyck) and a sentimental/narrative-driven case for Zach Werenski. But now, MacKinnon could have two big narrative-building things on his side as well: He was MVP of the best-on-best tournament and he’s still awesome without Mikko Rantanen.

14. The No. 1 need for the Avs between now and March 7 is another defenseman, preferably one who can play on the second pairing if needed. Josh Manson’s year has been up and down, in part because of injuries. The addition doesn’t have to be the clear No. 4 on the depth chart, but a 4A/4B situation with Manson would be ideal.

15. Are the Avs ready to trust Sam Malinski as an every-game guy for a (potential) long playoff run? If not, don’t be surprised if Colorado chases two defensemen before the deadline.

16. The Avs have used a handful of guys in the final spot on defense. It����ap hard to see Jared Bednar trusting any of them for more than emergency spot duty.

17. Reliability and Valeri Nichushkin … well, that����ap been an issue. The Avs aren’t going anywhere in the postseason tournament without him. He’s got to be healthy and playing well by Game 1.

18. The most intriguing situation with the Avalanche between now and the deadline is Casey Mittelstadt. Can he get back to his peak after the 4 Nations break? If not, would the Avs make another seismic trade in their never-ending quest to find a No. 2 center?

19. Mittelstadt was really good for the Avs in the playoffs last year. That should matter. But … so was Alexandar Georgiev after Game 1 in Winnipeg.

20. It����ap going to be tough for the Avs to win a bidding war. Remember, they wanted Chris Tanev last year, but he ended up in Dallas. Those two 2025 second-round picks are nice, but several contenders have better 2025/2026 draft capital.

21. One more trade deadline item: Could Colorado poke around for a bigger bottom-six center? Parker Kelly has been solid, and Jack Drury is a huge upgrade over the other options, but both are relatively small. Maybe Kelly could slide to the wing.

22. Trent Frederic is going to be a very popular guy if the Bruins decide to sell, but old friend Nico Sturm would be an obvious target if the answer above is yes.

23. Let����ap say the Avs don’t add another forward, and everyone (but Landeskog) is healthy. They have 13 NHL forwards. Who sits for Game 1? It����ap probably one of Juuso Parssinen, Miles Wood or Joel Kiviranta, but that����ap a stretch-run competition worth watching.

24. Mackenzie Blackwood’s career high is 47 games. He’s at 41 and is going to set a new one. Would be ideal for him to not go way past his old personal best, though.

25. MacKinnon needs 34 points in the final 25 games to have the two highest single-season totals in club history since the franchise moved to Denver. Two seasons that would surpass the career bests for Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg. That����ap pretty wild.