That mission was accomplished years ago for the Colorado Avalanche, and Cale Makar’s commitment to an eight-year, $163.2 million contract on Friday has ensured the club’s franchise-level players are locked in together for at least the next five seasons.

“We were trying to find a way collaboratively with the Avalanche to get Cale to a level commensurate with his standing in the league and his accomplishments and where we think the cap is going to go over the term of the contract, but also to push it only so far as it wouldn’t handicap the team’s ability to win championships,” Makar’s agent, Brian Bartlett, told The Denver Post.

“It wasn’t particularly contentious and grinding. There were a lot of different pieces that went into it. It was a lot about how did we want to do this? I don’t think there was ever a question about Cale wanting to spend his entire career here.”

But, as this core group of Avs has found out, dynasties are really hard to come by.

Winning the Stanley Cup in 2022 has not begat a string of championships. Makar’s contract ensures the superstars will stay together, but at a significant cost. The salary cap is expected to keep rising, but how will the Avs continue to compete for the Stanley Cup?

“I mean the game is in great shape. Contracts are going to go up, as they should,” Avs president/general manager Joe Sakic said. “You have Nathan [MacKinnon], you got Marty [Necas] signed long term; it makes it easier on your other decisions.”

What does the financial future look like for the Avs? Let’s dig into it.

2026-27: Still in the mix

The Makar contract didn’t affect Colorado’s cap sheet for this season, but it does make it clear that last season and this one are the best chances for this core group to win again. It doesn’t mean it can’t happen in 2028 and beyond, but the math is going to change next year, and the core around MacKinnon, Makar and Necas will likely need to as well.

Val Nichushkin is gone, so the core has already changed. Will Jaden Schwartz plus potential trade deadline additions be enough to overcome the loss of a unique, two-way force?

2027-28: The Lehkonen contract

This could happen well before next summer, but what happens with Artturi Lehkonen will have a large say in how the Avs proceed next offseason. Lehkonen is in the final year of a very team-friendly contract. He’s been worth much more than $4.5 million per season, regardless of where the cap ceiling was at.

But he’s also going to be 32 years old next year, and it’s fair to wonder how well and how long his “sacrificial lamb” style of play will remain at the level the Avs will need it to be at to justify a hefty raise. Like Nichushkin, Lehkonen would also be a very hard player to replace, and not having either of those guys would alter the calculus of how the Avs can compete for the Cup.

The rest of the roster is mostly intact for the 2027-28 season. The Avs currently have about $11.6 million in cap space, with Makar signed for 2027-28, and the league projects the cap to rise to $113.5 million. If Lehkonen eats up a lot of that, replacing Nicolas Roy, Brent Burns and Scott Wedgewood will likely involve younger, cheaper players.

2028-29: The last dance, for real?

Brock Nelson and Josh Manson have two years left on their contracts. We don’t know what the cap ceiling will look like in 2028-29 and beyond. If it continues to spike by $9-10 million per year beyond next season, that will help top-heavy clubs like the Avs.

NHL agent Allan Walsh in March for 2028-29. Colorado has seven forwards — MacKinnon, Necas, Schwartz, Gabe Landeskog, Nazem Kadri, Logan O’Connor and Parker Kelly — under contract already for that year, plus young forwards Gavin Brindley, Fedor Svechkov and Zachary L’Heureux are all restricted free agents.

The Avs need a young forward or two to pop as a development success, but if it happens, that will also cost more to keep them. If the cap gets to $123 million, the Avs currently would have about $36 million to fill out the roster, minus what Lehkonen potentially gets (and other additions).

Replacing Nelson, in particular, could be a $10 million proposition by then if the Avs don’t find a younger, cost-controlled No. 2/3 center by then. Manson is also currently signed at below-market value.

2029-30: A new era

If the Avs are going to compete for the Cup in 2030, there will be almost certainly be drastic changes to the roster between now and then.

The age of key players around MacKinnon, Makar and Necas could be an issue at any point in the near future, really, but nearly all of the current outer-circle core players will be old by NHL standards by July 2029. Devon Toews and Brett Kulak will be 35 and heading into the final years of their contract.

Landeskog, Kadri and Schwartz will all be free agents, and all will be 36 or older by then. It’s fair to project that MacKinnon, Makar and Necas will all still be great players in 2029, but the Avs are going to have to retool the roster around them to remain a contender … or brace for a potential decline period with the hopes of building another winner around them in the early 2030s.

Joe Sakic, back in the general manager role, wrapped up business for the 2025-26 season quickly in July. There were three key members of the organization entering the final year of their contracts then. All three — Cale Makar, Artturi Lehkonen and coach Jared Bednar — are still without extensions about three weeks before training camp begins.

Sakic, speaking Sunday ahead of the second annual Avalanche-University of Denver alumni game at Magness Arena, made it clear he is not concerned.

Makar, a two-time Norris Trophy winner and co-face of the franchise alongside Nathan MacKinnon, is expected to sign the largest contract in franchise history.

Avalanche 2026-27 schedule: Best matchups, toughest stretches in NHL’s new 84-game slate

"Not really an update. We continue talking," Sakic said when asked about No. 8. "I'm pretty confident that he'll be signed before the season starts.

"I'm not worried about it. I don't think Cale is worried about it. The dialogue has been great. When there's an agreement, we'll be glad to announce it. Hopefully something will be done before the start of training camp."

Lehkonen has been a critical member of the club since arriving ahead of the 2022 trade deadline. The 31-year-old Lehkonen had 21 goals and 48 points in 70 games last season, but was injured during the second round of the 2026 playoffs and did not have his typical postseason impact after returning in the conference finals against Vegas.

Bednar is the most accomplished coach in franchise history, and is entering his 11th season at the helm. He's the second-longest tenured coach in the league, behind only Tampa Bay's Jon Cooper. There have been calls to fire Bednar from outside the organization after stunning postseason endings each of the past two seasons, but management and ownership have stood firm in its support of the coach both times.

"Everything's great," Sakic said of his relationship with Bednar. "Not worried about that. There's been coaches, been players that have entered the last year of their deals before, and there's going to be in the future. Not really concerned about that, and I don't think Jared is either.

Makar is entering the final season of a six-year, $54 million contract. His next deal could be worth twice as much per season or more. The financial environment in the NHL has been changing rapidly in recent seasons as the salary cap ceiling has experienced unprecedented spikes after years of post-COVID pandemic stagnation.

There is also a new collective bargaining agreement coming in the NHL, and one part matters for Makar and the Avs. The current maximum contract length is eight years to re-sign a player and seven to sign with a new club. That will change with the CBA, and the last day Makar and the Avs could agree to an eight-year pact is Sept. 15, one day before the new CBA begins.

"No, not really worried about (that deadline)," Sakic said. "I think when there's a deal announced or signed and agreed to, both sides will be comfortable with whatever term it is."

Makar and fellow defensive superstar Quinn Hughes are both expected to reset the market for elite defensemen. The top contract for a defenseman in 2026-27 will be Pittsburgh's Erik Karlsson with an $11.5 million cap hit. Former Avs defenseman Bo Byram has signed a new deal with Chicago that starts in 2027-28 that carries a $12.5 million cap hit.

Hughes and Makar are expected to blow past that. The landscape has changed, even since Byram's surprising mega deal was announced July 1. The Anaheim Ducks matched a five-year, $90 million offer sheet for center Leo Carlsson in early July, then the San Jose Sharks signed their franchise star Macklin Celebrini to a five-year, $94 million pact. At $18.8 million per season, Celebrini has the largest contract in league history on a per-year basis.

Whether or not Makar and/or Hughes top that remains to be seen.

"I think everybody's projecting where the cap is going, and that's why you're seeing these contracts at a certain level," Sakic said. "Everybody wants to lock up their young stars, and that's what is happening."

While camp is a few weeks away, the Avs' projected lineup looks pretty similar to the one that won the Presidents' Trophy with a franchise-record 121 points before the stunning conference finals sweep by the Golden Knights. Sakic and Co. re-signed defensemen Brent Burns and Brett Kulak, so the defense corps and goaltending will be the same.

There were changes up front, notably trades of Valeri Nichushkin, Ross Colton and Jack Drury to provide some salary cap flexibility. Younger players will compete to replace Drury and Colton, while the Avs signed free agent Jaden Schwartz to a three-year, $9.75 million deal to fit somewhere among the top-nine forwards and ostensibly replace Nichushkin.

"We like the roster," Sakic said. "I think we have a good enough team to compete for the Stanley Cup. It's a long season. It's a process. Just got to try and get better every day. Obviously, there's some changes, but there's changes with every roster, every year. But we have the core here and it's a great core. They have a standard and we expect and assume that everyone's going to live up to that standard."

High-profile trades, trade requests and multiple offer sheets have breathed fire into an offseason that also features one of the weakest free agent classes the league has seen. There was a big shakeup in Denver at the start, with Chris MacFarland off to Nashville. But Joe Sakic and the Colorado Avalanche have stayed out of the fray, mostly.

The Avs look, well, a lot like the Avs from a year ago. After the best regular-season in franchise history followed by a Western Conference flameout, the current status of the roster is going to produce a variety of opinions.

One outer-circle core player and two depth players are gone. Three likely replacements have arrived. Sakic made it pretty clear the plan is to reinforce the roster in February, not early July.

There’s still plenty of time left in this offseason for a further shakeup, but Sakic sounded content after his efficient July 1 work was complete. There is still some business to be done before training camp begins.

There are still some questions to answer this offseason. Here are the biggest ones:

1. When will Cale Makar sign his next contract?

First, old friend Bowen Byram and the Chicago Blackhawks surprised everyone, both with what the team paid to acquire the former Avs defenseman and then the contract — six years at $12.5 million per year.

Byram, for now, would be the highest-paid defenseman in NHL history when his contract begins July 1, 2027. But that distinction isn’t likely to last long. Makar and Quinn Hughes are expected to sign for more this summer.

Then, Leo Carlsson sent shockwaves around the hockey world by signing an offer sheet with the Philadelphia Flyers — five years, $18 million per year. He will be the highest-paid player during the 2026-27 season, whether he stays with the Anaheim Ducks or switches coasts.

How does either of these deals affect Makar? Probably not a lot, but both of those moves have primed everyone for the new financial reality moving forward.

Makar signed his most recent contract on July 24, 2021. That was just a few days before he would have been a restricted free agent. He can be an unrestricted free agent July 1, 2027. Sakic said there will be no such suspense this time.

2. Will Artturi Lehkonen have a new contract by training camp?

‘The Sacrificial Lamb’ is the Avs’ other key potential unrestricted free agent in 2027. He’ll be 32 years old when the next contract starts, but Lehkonen has always been a critical cog in this Colorado machine, and even more so now with Valeri Nichushkin off to Columbus.

This could be a tricky contract for the Avs. His value often surpasses his traditional output. His availability is sometimes an issue. How much longer will he be a critical, impactful player? The Avs do not have any young players who can just step in and replace him. The sooner the better for the Avs on the contract, considering the rising cap ceiling and the cost of business is going up around the league.

3. What about Jared Bednar?

NHL coaches rarely coach on the final year of a contract. Bednar is about to start the final year of his current deal.

Will there be an extension before training camp? Sakic did not give a hard “yes” to a question about that earlier in the offseason, but both he and Kroenke Sports and Entertainment vice chairman Josh Kroenke voiced their support for Bednar shortly after the season ended.

“We’ll figure out later in the summer on all that stuff, but I don’t think he’s worried about it,” Sakic said. “He shouldn’t be worried about it. The contracts will come when they come.”

4. Will there be any more front office changes?

This offseason began with MacFarland leaving the club to become president and general manager of the Nashville Predators. Sakic now has the same role(s) with the Avs, adding GM duties.

MacFarland has traded for or signed several players from the organization, but he also poached Dawson Sprigings — one of the key members of the Avs’ analytics department. Sprigings is now an assistant to the GM in Music City.

The Avs quickly announced two analytics openings — one to replace Sprigings and one to expand Arik Parnass’ department.

Will the Avs have a new GM by the start of training camp? Will anyone in the current front office get a promotion? Will there be a new assistant GM hired to effectively replace MacFarland, or will Sakic’s inner circle remain one person smaller moving forward?

5. Who is coaching the Eagles?

Colorado’s AHL affiliate lost two members of the coaching staff after the Eagles had their most successful AHL season in franchise history. Assistant Kim Weiss, the second woman to be behind the bench of an AHL club, is now the head coach of the expansion PWHL team in Las Vegas.

Former head coach Mark Letestu is also heading to Sin City, for an assistant role with the Vegas Golden Knights. The Eagles will have their third head coach in three seasons, with Aaron Schneekloth also on an NHL bench in Seattle.

6. Who is playing for the Eagles?

It’s been a tough few days for a group that lost in Game 7 of the Western Conference Final. Alex Barre-Boulet and Tye Felhaber have signed with San Jose. Jack Ahcan and Chase Bradley went to Nashville with MacFarland. Jason Polin signed with Buffalo. Ivan Ivan was traded to Boston.

T.J. Tynan signed an AHL deal with Springfield. Valtteri Puustinen is off to Sweden. Jacob MacDonald, Ronnie Attard and Danil Gushchin are all free agents, the latter not qualified so he’s a UFA like the other two.

That’s six of the team’s top eight scorers from the regular season gone, plus a few other key veterans. As it stands right now, the Eagles look like they will be a much younger team next season. There are nine players who were aged 26 or older that saw Calder Cup Playoffs action who are no longer on the roster.

There were some reinforcements added. Forwards Vinnie Hinostroza and Adam Beckman, plus defenseman Domenick Fensore will all likely be staples for the Eagles.

One spot where the Eagles should excel is in net, with Trent Miner back and two young Russians — top prospect Ilya Nabokov and recent signing Nikita Novosyolov ready for their North American debuts. There will also be a few young forwards who do not make the Avs roster who will likely see big minutes for the Eagles.

Getting younger might mean fewer wins, but it could also mean more playing time for guys who might play for the big club at various points in the season.

7. Is this really everyone?

The Avs have 12 forwards, seven defensemen and two goalies on one-way contracts. Sakic made it clear they want to bank as much cap space as possible ahead of the trade deadline.

So … are the Avs really done? There could still be a couple of players added with the Eagles in mind.

There are also a lot of competent NHL players still unsigned. The prices on most, if not all, of them is likely dropping as the days before training camp tick away.

Colorado also has had some success by signing free agents late in the cycle. Jack Johnson and Joel Kiviranta both originally arrived on player-tryout contracts (PTOs) for training camp. The Avs didn’t sign Victor Olofsson until Aug. 20 a year ago.

If this really is everyone, and the Avs do start next season with the 12 forwards, seven defensemen and two goalies currently on one-way contracts, they would have $1,279,159 of cap space on opening night and $5,847,584 of projected space on trade deadline day, .

Joe Sakic said superstar Cale Makar isn’t going anywhere, but his next contract will have a huge impact on how the Avs attempt to construct a Stanley Cup-contending roster into the next decade. Artturi Lehkonen has been a critical supporting star for the Avs since arriving at the trade deadline ahead of the club’s 2022 Stanley Cup run.

Both players have one year left on their current deals. The cap ceiling is expected to be $113 million for 2027-28, the first year of their new deals. That is $29.5 million more, or about 35% more than it was when Nathan MacKinnon started his eight-year, $100.8 million contract in 2023-24.

The negotiations for each deal will be entirely different. Makar is one of the best players in the world in the prime of his career. MacKinnon famously said Makar should get $20 million per season the day after Mikko Rantanen was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes.

Lehkonen is an extremely valuable player and a beloved teammate, but he’ll also be 32 when his next contract begins. It’s hard to fathom a number too big for the Avs with Makar, but it will be different with Lehkonen.

What might their contracts look like? The salary cap ceiling is surging to previously unforeseen levels, making it more difficult to project new deals. Sakic said last week that talks on extensions that don’t kick in until next year will start in mid-July. Maybe some deals signed by current free agents will provide more data on what contracts will look like moving forward.

Let’s try to find some comparable deals, and then adjust for the rising cap. Get ready to hear a lot about the percentage of the cap in the coming days/weeks/months to justify some cap hits that look … a little different than what we’re used to.

Cale Makar

Just kidding — there are no comparables for Makar.

Well, not as of Tuesday, anyway. Makar is one of the two best defensemen in the world. The other guy, Quinn Hughes, is also entering the final year of his contract. They’re on the same timeline. Who signs first, and will it impact the other?

The other issue — no elite defenseman has signed a contract as a pending UFA in a long time. It’s a weird quirk. The nine highest-paid forwards in the NHL right now all signed deals as pending unrestricted free agents.

Only three of the 10 highest-paid defensemen did. The other seven signed their deals as pending restricted free agents. That is a slightly different negotiation. If Makar had been an unrestricted free agent when he signed his last deal, he’d have gotten more than $54 million over six years.

Erik Karlsson and Drew Doughty both signed contracts of $11 million or more that began with the 2019-20 season. No other defenseman signed for that much per season until Rasmus Dahlin signed the same pact as Doughty — 8 years, $88 million. He was a pending restricted free agent, and that deal began two years ago.

Karlsson is the most expensive defenseman at $11.5 million. Makar and Hughes will reset the top of the defense market, and then reigning Norris Trophy winner Zach Werenski will be the next megadeal for a pending unrestricted free agent next year. Calder Trophy winner Matthew Schaefer will also be ready for a new deal next summer, and it is expected he’ll blow past what Makar got coming off his entry-level contract.

Here are the top-five contracts signed by defensemen who were pending unrestricted free agents in the league right now:

The percentage of the cap in year one of those deals matters. P.K. Subban also signed a deal that was worth a touch more than 13% of the cap when he was coming off a Norris Trophy win in 2014.

Both Makar and Hughes can make the case that they are among the top five to seven players in the sport, regardless of position. If Bobby Orr or Ray Bourque were 26 or 27 years old and a year from free agency, they’d be getting paid like a top five to seven player in the league.

So here are the top five contracts in the league right now:

Back to the cap percentage idea. If the Avs sign Makar to a deal worth $17 million per season, that would actually be slightly less (15.04%) than MacKinnon’s contract in 2023-24 (15.09%).

What MacKinnon said 18 months ago isn’t wrong. Makar is worth $20 million per year. The best players in the world are all worth that much, but superstars have consistently taken less to help their teams have more cap space to build around them. Kirill Kaprizov pushed the bar higher, but Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel didn’t go with him.

Even if Makar and Hughes didn’t want to take a higher percentage than what Karlsson got eight years prior, 14.11% of a $113 million cap is still $15.944 million per season.

The other big question, of course, is the term of the contract. The new collective bargaining agreement will limit the maximum contract length in future summers to seven years. Makar and Hughes (and Lehkonen) have until Sept. 15 to ink an eight-year pact if they’d like.

Kaprizov and Eichel did eight-year deals, but McDavid signed for just two, and Auston Matthews only inked a four-year pact. Whether Makar and Hughes decide to go short and cash in again, or go long for what will likely be their last huge deal, it’s going to cost Colorado (and Minnesota, assuming Hughes does sign) an enormous sum of money.

An eight-year, $120 million contract would be a significant victory for either franchise, and either might have to settle for something similar to Kaprizov’s deal.

Artturi Lehkonen

Lehkonen has been an immensely valuable player when available who has been on an incredibly team-friendly contract for years.

But, like the recently departed Valeri Nichushkin, the phrase “when available” also plays into this, and could even more so in the future.

Here’s something that sums up the past few years for the Avs: Since 2015-16, there have been 33 wings who meet this criteria — 200-plus games played, 70-plus goals scored and 150-plus points during their age 27-30 seasons. For Lehkonen and Nichushkin, that four-year window is 2022-23 through this past season.

Nichushkin has the fewest games played of the bunch (222) and Lehkonen has the third-fewest (248). Both have been highly productive when available. Both have missed 25% or more of the regular-season games. Nichushkin missed games in three of the past four postseasons, while Lehkonen missed two games in the second round this year and looked compromised during the Western Conference Final.

Lehkonen’s full value isn’t captured by 85 goals and 178 points over the past four seasons. He’s an excellent two-year player, penalty killer and someone who produces more on a per-game basis during the playoffs than the regular season.

Finding comparable players for him isn’t easy. Are the guys who have similar total production? The players with similar per-game numbers?

Here are some wings that might fit:

The guys who have the most similar career production ahead of the new contract are Arvidsson, Tarasenko, Teravainen and Smith. Arvidsson and Tarasenko were already dealing with injuries and decline, and their contracts reflected that. It’s also worth noting that both of those guys had nice bounce-back seasons last year, at ages 32 and 34, respectively.

Rust has aged the best. Palat and Smith have aged the worst. Toffoli is a weird case because he had played for six teams by the time his current deal was signed. But he had two of his best seasons at ages 30-31 and then signed with San Jose, where he scored 49 goals in two years.

There are seven players on this list. Lehkonen is more valuable than some, for sure. He hasn’t had quite the career, from a pure production standpoint, as Rust or Toffoli, at least.

The average cap percentage for those seven contracts is 6.15%. That amount in 2027-28 would be about $6.95 million. Lehkonen, when he’s healthy, has played like a $7 million player or more.

Given the cap surge, is he a $7 million player right now? And what about in the future?

The term for Lehkonen’s next deal could be just as important as the average annual value. It’s a tricky one on both fronts.

There’s no denying his present value, and losing Nichushkin only amplifies it. But there is potential for variance in the future with any deal that starts at age 32, and there might even be more than usual with Lehkonen because of his playing style and injury history.

This is where things could get interesting.

The Avs look set in net, both at the NHL level and beyond, for next season. The defense corps needs some work, but there’s an excellent top four to build around.

But the place to look for where newly named general manager Joe Sakic might shake up this roster for next season is on the wings. It already started Tuesday, when the Avalanche sent Ross Colton to the Nashville Predators, reuniting him with Chris MacFarland, for two third-round picks.

And Colton might not be the only wing who isn’t on the roster on opening night.

What just happened

When all of Colorado’s wings were healthy last season, it was hard to name more than one or two teams with a better collection of them in the NHL.

Martin Necas had a career season, setting new highs with 38 goals and 100 points. He was also Czechia’s best player at the 2026 Winter Olympics, had a great second round against the Minnesota Wild and then was one of Colorado’s least impactful players against Vegas in the Western Conference Final.

Gabe Landeskog’s brilliant comeback story continued. He won the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, did not miss a game in the regular season because of his reconstructed knee and then had five goals and 11 points in 13 playoff games.

Valeri Nichushkin and Artturi Lehkonen were both very good and very important players, though neither produced goals at the same per-contest rate as they have in recent seasons. Both also missed time during the playoffs with injuries, and their effectiveness was limited by said ailments in other contests as well.

Colton scuffled for long stretches in the regular season and spent the first two games of the playoffs as a healthy scratch, but was one of the club’s more consistent players once inserted into the lineup. Nicolas Roy, who also saw some time at center, was a great fit as a depth scorer and versatile player after arriving from Toronto ahead of the trade deadline.

Parker Kelly had a dream season, smashing career-best totals with 21 goals and 35 points. Logan O’Connor missed nearly the entire regular season, but looked like the critical depth playoff performer of old once the postseason began.

Joel Kiviranta’s year after a breakout offensive campaign did not look as impressive on the scoresheet as the 2024-25 season, but he remained a trusted depth guy for coach Jared Bednar. Zakhar Bardakov made the team in training camp and showed flashes of intriguing energy, but the NHL rookie played in just four of the final 12 regular-season games and did not play in the playoffs. He is a restricted free agent and could return to Russia because there isn’t an obvious path to more regular time next year in Denver.

Gavin Brindley was the club’s best rookie and an early-season spark plug, but he was sent to the AHL shortly after the Avs loaded up at the deadline and did not return. Taylor Makar made the most appearances (12) of a forward who began the season with the Colorado Eagles and looked like a player who might turn out to be a fourth-line regular at some point in the future.

What¶¶Òõap next

Colton is gone … will anyone else from this group join him?

Necas is about to start the first season of an eight-year, $92 million contract. His full no-move clause kicks in July 1. He could finish with 110 points next season, but he can’t answer the big-picture questions about his ultimate value until the 2027 playoffs.

When Nichushkin and Lehkonen are healthy and in form, they give the Avs star-level value on very team-friendly contracts. But, the first part of that sentence feels more in question, given their ages and style of play. Lehkonen is also entering the final year of his contract, so all options — an extension, playing it out or a trade — seem plausible.

In each of the past two postseasons when Colorado advanced beyond the first round, Lehkonen’s impact declined. That was definitely injury-related in 2026. Nichushkin’s availability issues have been well documented.

Not everyone in this core group will age at the same rate. Finding a way to inject another impact player into this group that is closer to Necas’ age or even younger would be ideal, but the Avs don’t have the future assets (nor the cap flexibility) to do that right now. Trading another outer-circle core piece might be the only avenue.

Landeskog had no tangible issues with his knee this year, but that doesn’t mean it’s fine in perpetuity. His value obviously goes far beyond the production. Colton has to be replaced, though there could be an internal candidate or two — at least to start next season.

Either Roy or Kelly could end up back at center if Jack Drury doesn’t return. Conversely, Nazem Kadri could slide to the wing to help one of the top-two lines if Bednar thinks one of the depth guys can handle the No. 3 center spot.

Brindley and Makar will be two guys to watch during training camp, along with T.J. Hughes, who had no trouble being an impact guy for the Eagles, but his ultimate NHL ceiling is both unclear and fascinating.

There are lots of questions here:

1. Will the Avs just run this group back, minus Colton, and expect either better health luck, improved postseason results or both?

2. Will the Avs be able to find a younger top-nine forward while still rebuilding the back half of the defense corps?

3. Could the Avs afford to part with a top-end forward to specifically add one more impact defenseman, and is there enough depth up front to cover for that, at least until the trade deadline?

Moving Colton for cap flexibility kicked off the Sakic 2.0 regime and the 2026 offseason. It might not be the last big shakeup, either.

Future depth chart

^ Unrestricted free agent on July 1; * UFA in 2027; + Restricted free agent on July 1; # RFA in 2027

“As a player, you’re going to have stretches where you’re not on the scoresheet and where (Makar) could still be helping the team,” TNT analyst and former NHL center told me earlier this month. “And where Cale could still be having an impact.”

To put it another way: How much did you enjoy seeing Colorado, minus Makar, struggle to score three goals over Games 1 and 2 of the Western Conference Final?

Look, we get it. Yes, the Avs Yes, Makar is due for a contract extension as soon as July 1. Yes, that extension will probably be worth anywhere from $15-17 million per season — a healthy bump from the $9-million cap hit Makar commanded in ’25-26.

The Avs need cap space. They need draft picks. They need to get younger and fresher on the ice. They need more roster flexibility off it.

Let’s workshop this. No bad ideas.

Trade Makar!

OK, except for that one.

With an aging lineup and a shrinking Stanley Cup window, it’s definitely time to think outside the box.

Last week hurt. Vegas hurt. Be angry. Be vigilant. Just don’t be silly. Any executive shopping Makar should be exiled to

In NHL history, Makar had already done it twice by the age of 27. He won’t turn 30 until October 2028. Just get a load of the other names on the list to pull that off multiple times: Paul Coffey (seven times), Bobby Orr (six), Al MacInnis (three), Dennis Potvin (three) and Phil Housley (twice).

Trade Makar for draft picks!

Who let Jeff Bridich in here?

Depth matters in the postseason. A lot. The old adage that you go as far as your top two lines in the regular season and as far as your bottom two in the playoffs still holds up. Brock Nelson, Artturi Lehkonen, Nicolas Roy and Logan O’Connor, all of whom provided some juice against the Kings and Wild, combined for zero goals and one point against Vegas. One lousy point.

That said, anyone who tells you that a team can’t win a Stanley Cup with multiple players making $10 million or more isn’t your friend. For one, the salary cap is a moving target. For another, Florida won back-to-back titles with Aleksander Barkov and Sergei Bobrovsky on eight-figure cap hits.

Plus, two words: Mikko Rantanen.

But we won the trade!

Did you, though?

Martin Necas is one of the few forwards, granted, who can skate with Nathan MacKinnon at full tilt. No. 88 reads the game well. He also can spend so much time looking for the perfect pass that whole shifts pass him by.

The Marty Party produced one postseason goal in 2026. He’s put up two goals over 20 playoff games (with 16 helpers) for Colorado so far. He’s due to cost you $11.5 million in every cap year through 2033-34.

To general manager Chris MacFarland’s credit, he’s tried to avoid a roster that becomes too top-heavy, too Oilers South, with MacKinnon accounting for a $12.6-milion cap number and raises for Necas and Makar looming. But moving Cale just to stay in that neighborhood would be sheer Looney Tunes.

Even a shallow dive into the metrics makes Makar critics look all wet. No. 8 has strung together arguably his two least-impactful postseasons, back-to-back, in ’24-25 and ’25-26, largely due to injury. And yet, , he still logged 456 minutes and change in front of the Lumberyard tandem of Scott Wedgewood and Mackenzie Blackwood in goal. When No. 8 has been on the ice over the Avs’ last 20 playoff games, Colorado’s giving up 1.97 goals per 60 minutes in all strengths. With Makar on the bench, the Avs have allowed 2.92 goals per 60. That’s a difference of a goal per game in regulation — even before you factor in the offensive side of Makar’s arsenal.

Among NHL defensive tandems this postseason that have played at least 30 minutes together, the Makar-Devon Toews pairing still ranks fifth overall among playoff expected goals percentage (64%, with eight expected goals for and 4.5 goals expected against). That’s up from 13th a year ago (58.5%, 6.2 expected goals for and 4.4 against) and 14th in ’23-24 (58.3%, 6.3 expected goals for and 4.5 against).

“I guess the (heart) of the matter is, the numbers are what they are,” Olcyzk said of Makar. “His impact — they have such a deep team, they’re going to be able to get contributions in points from a lot of different guys. But he is always going to have an impact, and you always have to account for him, if you’re the other team. It’s just a matter of time before he gets on that heater and he has a four-or five-point game.”

There’s a fine blue line The Avalanche, however wounded, however shamed, however desperate, surely know better than to cross it.

Mikko Rantanen sent his friends and former teammates home in a blur — his third-period hat trick and assist to erase a 2-0 deficit happened in the final 13 minutes of a do-or-die Game 7. That painful night in Dallas now feels merciful, compared with what this Avs team just experienced. A four-game sweep by the Vegas Golden Knights was somehow worse. It was an internal injury diagnosed too late, triggering a week-long spiral of physical and mental anguish.

“I think it just feels like a waste, to be honest,” Avs forward Logan O’Connor said. “Eighty-two games, you get tons of great pieces and feel as though you have a team that can do something special. We said it in training camp — it’s Cup or bust for us. Regardless of where you fall short, we fell super short of that goal.”

For nine months, that loss in Dallas looked like a prologue, the catalyst for a historic start to this season and eventual legacy-cementing championship for Jared Bednar, Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and the rest of the Avs who reached the mountaintop five years ago but have languished through a variety of playoff disappointments since.

The Avs won the most games, scored the most goals and allowed the fewest during a dominant regular season. They steamrolled through the first half of the tournament, losing just once while scoring more than four goals per game.

Then the Golden Knights broke them. It took a week — a blink of an eye in the context of a long season, but the adjectives to describe how players felt in the Avalanche locker room Tuesday night were strikingly similar to that night in Dallas.

“Frustration. Sadness, I guess,” Avs defenseman Josh Manson said. “Really felt like we had a good team. We didn’t do the job. We lost. The expectations for this organization are high. And, just … didn’t go the way we wanted.”

By Game 4 of this series, the only way to tell it was the Avs on the ice at T-Mobile Arena was the uniforms. Colorado looked nothing like the team that demoralized opponents all year with its offensive and defensive prowess.

Every aspect of the Avs’ invincibility was punctured by a team that fired its head coach 51 days before this Western Conference final began and lost more games than it won during the regular season.

Colorado scored just seven goals in four games for the first time since early in the 2023-24 season. Scott Wedgewood, the NHL’s leader in goals against average and save percentage, was outplayed by a goaltender who, this time a year ago, was one of five defendants in a messy sexual assault trial and who wasn’t signed to an NHL contract until late October.

This Avs team was 45-0 when leading after two periods, until Vegas made it 45-1 in Game 2. Colorado was 52-0 when building a multi-goal lead at any point in a game, until Vegas made it 52-1 in Game 3.

This was the deepest team in the NHL, built to survive the war of attrition in the Stanley Cup playoffs. It was one of the healthiest teams in the league as well, but by the end of this run, the Avs’ injury luck was nearly as bad as their shooting woes.

Everything was leading to one outcome for the Avs — a second championship in five years, another parade and immortality for all the key figures. A week later, everything has changed, and there’s just as much uncertainty — maybe more — than the morning after Rantanen donned a green-and-black cape in Game 7.

“I mean, this one … I feel like it¶¶Òõap going to take some time to kind of digest and process,” Avs forward Brock Nelson said. “I’m not worried about next year right now.”

A more complicated offseason

Colorado’s offseason looked pretty straightforward a week ago.

Brett Kulak and Brent Burns are unrestricted free agents. Jack Drury is a restricted free agent. The biggest potential storyline was Cale Makar’s massive new contract, but that one doesn’t start until the following season.

The Avs have very little cap space, so someone under contract will likely need to be traded to retain Drury and one of the defensemen, or to replace Kulak and Burns. Pretty simple stuff, relative to what other offseasons might look like.

Now? Everything has to be on the table.

The questions begin with the future of the coaching staff. Colorado fired one of Jared Bednar’s longtime lieutenants, Ray Bennett, last May after the power play failed in the Dallas series. The power play was still a problem for much of this season, the one source of consternation, even when all of the other parts of this club were at the peak of their powers.

If the Avalanche decide to let Bednar go, he would be fielding calls from other NHL teams before the end of the day. The one candidate who has a resume similar to Bednar’s who isn’t currently one of the 32 head coaches is the guy John Tortorella replaced in Sin City, Bruce Cassidy. But one of the biggest off-ice stories of this postseason has been the Golden Knights denying Edmonton and Los Angeles permission to speak with Cassidy because he’s still under contract with Vegas.

The next major question, with both short- and long-term ramifications, is the state of the roster. This team was built to win the Stanley Cup in 2026, and every core piece is under contract at least through next year.

That felt like a great thing 10 days ago. If this Avs team did go on to win the Stanley Cup, they’d be one of the top favorites for 2026-27 as well.

Now? The Avs looked old against the Golden Knights. Beyond Burns, who will be 41 when next season begins, Colorado has six key figures who will be 32 or older when the 2027 Stanley Cup Playoffs begin — Nazem Kadri, Brock Nelson and Manson will be 35 or older, while Gabe Landeskog, Wedgewood and Devon Toews will all be at least 32.

Then there are Valeri Nichushkin and Artturi Lehkonen. Having those two excellent two-way players on team-friendly contracts has been part of Colorado’s secret sauce since 2022. No other NHL team has two secondary stars like them when they are healthy and playing well.

Their style of play and injury history, not to mention Nichushkin’s off-ice troubles, have made them high-risk, high-reward players in recent seasons. Lehkonen was hurt in the second round and far off his typical impact against Vegas. Nichushkin couldn’t finish the conference final because of an injury, and this year was his worst per-game offensive output since the 2020-21 campaign.

Martin Necas is the youngest core player on the team, but his new contract at $11.5 million per season kicks in next year. He was great against Minnesota, but the external allegations that he isn’t a postseason player resurfaced after he was one of the least impactful players on the roster against Vegas.

The Avs chose not to move any core players after losing to Dallas last year. The rationale was that they shook up the roster so much in-season that some stability going into this year would help fuel another run.

For nine months, that plan looked perfect. Staying the course looks far more uncertain now.

“I certainly hope so,” Landeskog said when asked if this core has another run in it. “I believe in that.

“It’s hard, but I think at the end of the day, if there’s one thing I learned over the last handful of years, it’s get knocked down, you just get right back up. Yeah, that’s the only way to do it.”

The team that was leading the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs in goals per game after two rounds — a club that scored nine times in one game against a strong defensive team three weeks ago — managed just seven in the entire Western Conference Final.

Of all the reasons why the Colorado Avalanche are no longer participating in this tournament, that is the hardest one to fathom.

“I felt like we were generating enough to create chances, doing enough things to find the back of the net a couple times, and yeah, it just comes down to one chance,” Avs star defenseman Cale Makar said. “I felt like every game in this series was like that.”

The Avs scored 298 goals in the regular season, seven more than the Carolina Hurricanes at the top of the league. They had scored 37 in nine games through the first two rounds of the postseason.

Other things went wrong while the Vegas Golden Knights completed one of the most shocking sweeps in recent NHL postseason history. Vegas won the goaltending battle in the first three games. The Avs made mistakes at critical times, which gave the Golden Knights great scoring chances.

But the offense going Arctic Circle levels of cold is the most shocking issue. Colorado hadn’t been held to fewer than eight goals in any four-game stretch since Oct. 26-Nov. 4, 2023.

“I think it¶¶Òõap their checking game and I thought Carter Hart had an incredible series at times,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “Sometimes I think we did a good job. Like I said before, you’re looking at this series going into this final game, the analytics are tight, they’re close in all aspects.

“(Hart) played really well and I think their team made it super difficult to create quality looks and when we did he made the saves. That had all something to do with it.”

The Avs feeling like they were getting enough chances, but not converting them was a theme throughout the series. That was definitely true in Game 1.

Colorado finished that game with 38 shots on net. The Avs also generated 4.44 expected goals, the second-most during this postseason run, but lost 4-2.

The next three games, the Avs did not create enough chances, or generate enough expected goals. It may have felt like they did, and in relation to what Vegas was producing, it was as Bednar put it, very tight.

But, the Avs generated 6.69 expected goals in Games 2-4 combined. The individual totals were three of the four worst outputs in the 2026 playoffs for Colorado. That’s an average of 2.23 per contest.

The Avs had just six games in the regular season where they generated 2.23 expected goals or less.

Colorado shot the puck more than Vegas did in this series. The Avs even had more scoring chances, at least before Game 4. The Golden Knights had a 75-72 advantage in scoring chances over the final three games.

But getting into the dirty areas and creating the best scoring chances was a huge problem. The Avalanche generated six high-danger scoring chances in each of the final three games of this series. They had just two in the third periods of those games — both in Game 3.

“I think we were generating looks still, but we just couldn’t get them in the net,” Avs defenseman Devon Toews said. “That’s the way it goes at times. There are times in the regular season where you might go 10 games where’s it just really hard to score goals.

“We went four games here where we couldn’t quite get enough to push it over the line and push a couple of games into our column.”

The individual results from this series were as improbable as the result. Colorado had six players score 20 or more goals this season.

Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Necas, Brock Nelson, Cale Makar, Parker Kelly and Artturi Lehkonen combined for 186 goals this season. None of those six players scored a goal against the Golden Knights.

Nelson had two quality chances and set up a third during one shift in Game 4. He hit the crossbar with a chance that might have curtailed Vegas’ comeback plans in Game 3. He’s had great postseasons before with the New York Islanders.

He called this the most frustrating playoff experience of his career. He might not be alone in the Colorado locker room.

“I felt like in a couple of the games, we had our fair share of looks and they didn’t go in,” Nelson said. “Yeah, which obviously it¶¶Òõap all the more frustrating right now.

“I mean, this one … I feel like it¶¶Òõap going to take some time to kind of digest and process.”

A week later, the Avs are just going home.

The Vegas Golden Knights completed one of the more improbable sweeps in Stanley Cup Playoffs history Tuesday night, sending the Avalanche into the offseason with a 2-1 victory in Game 4 of the Western Conference Final at T-Mobile Arena. Colorado went from being the odds-on favorite to win the Stanley Cup to falling eight wins short of that goal in a span of seven days.

“Disappointed, humiliated,” Avs forward Logan O’Connor said. “I think to a man just weren’t good enough, not a single guy was the whole entire series.

“I think we let down coaches, each other, fans, management. It¶¶Òõap on us as players to be far better than we were. The results speak for itself. Just tons, lot of disappointment right now.”

This Avs team began this season with a historic 31-2-7 run. They had won 13 of their past 15 games entering this series, including an 8-1 romp through the first two rounds of this tournament.

And then, in a figurative blink of an eye, the months-long march to a second NHL championship in five years was over.

“It’s empty, always is whether you lose 7,6,5, or 4,” Avs captain Gabe Landeskog said. “I mean, it’s an empty feeling. Yeah, sucks. There’s no other way to put it.”

This Vegas Golden Knights team fired its coach with eight games to play in the regular season because it was in a dogfight just to make the playoffs.

Now, John Tortorella and the Golden Knights will play for a second title in four years. The 2023 champs handled the 2022 champs with a level of ease no one could have seen coming.

“Right now, it¶¶Òõap heartbreak, disappointment, frustration, a lot of different things,” Avs center Brock Nelson said. “I mean the group, I don’t think there was any quit in the group. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. We ran into a good team, a good goalie. We weren’t able to get it done. It sucks.”

By Game 4, the Avs were clearly at a physical disadvantage. Star center Nathan MacKinnon was able to play in this game despite getting injured in Game 3. Valeri Nichushkin was not, after missing the final 22 minutes Saturday night.

A few other key players, including star defenseman Cale Makar, Artturi Lehkonen, and Sam Malinski, have all either missed games in this series or logged less ice time than usual, likely because they were playing through injuries that kept them out of games in the second round.

Last season ended in stunning fashion, with ex-Avalanche star Mikko Rantanen’s four-point third period in Game 7. Somehow, the Avs found a different, yet equally unfathomable way to lose.

The questions, both short- and long-term, about where the Avs go from here will be plentiful.

“I feel like this is probably the most frustrating one that I’ve been part of in the postseason,” Nelson said. “Just given, the year we had, the group, how much everyone put into it to give ourselves the best chance. To have it come to an end so abruptly, I don’t know … it doesn’t really feel real right now.”

Mark Stone gave Vegas an early lead in this one. The Golden Knights captain got behind the Colorado defense and Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb flipped the puck over everyone to him. Stone caught the puck just before the Avs’ blue line, went in alone and scored his second goal in as many games after missing the first two contests of this series with an injury at 4:42 of the opening period.

It was the second shot Mackenzie Blackwood faced in his first appearance of this series. He made his first start of the conference final and third of this postseason run after Scott Wedgewood got the nod in the first three games.

Blackwood was outstanding for the Avalanche after allowing the early goal. He was a one-man show at one point during the second period as Vegas dominated play and pushed to extend the lead. Blackwood made two highlight-reel saves during a Vegas power play and stopped multiple mini-breakaways in the middle period as well.

“It¶¶Òõap freaking hard not to play for so long and come into a big game,” Blackwood said. “But you know I just said (expletive) it and go play the best I can and give them the best chance to win and just battle.”

Cole Smith made it a 2-0 advantage with 5:45 left in the game. The Avs struggled mightily to create chances for about 20 minutes before Smith directed a Dylan Coghlan shot past Blackwood.

Vegas built a 3-0 lead in Game 1 and held off a late Colorado rally. The Avs failed to hold a 1-0 third-period lead in Game 2 and then a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes in Game 3. Each loss was more shocking than the last.

Colorado was 45-0 this season when leading after two periods before Game 2. It was 52-0 when building a multi-goal lead before Game 3.

“Yeah, it happened fast,” O’Connor said. “I think we let Games 2 and 3 slip away from us. Super uncharacteristic from our group to give up the leads like that, especially in consecutive games. Drifted away from the game plan, they made us pay their opportunistic off our mistakes. Like I mentioned, I don’t think a single guy in this locker room played to the standards that we expect.

This Avs team once felt inevitable, but the past week shattered that.

MacKinnon sat in front of reporters after Game 7 a year ago and said, “I don’t know what we’re going to do.”

That was a familiar feeling Tuesday night in Sin City.

“Obviously, it (expletive) sucks no matter how you do it,” Blackwood said. “I think losing like that stings a little more. Yeah, that¶¶Òõap going to be pretty frustrating. We are going to have a tough pill to swallow.”

MacKinnon will play despite getting injured in Game 3. Valeri Nichushkin, who was also injured in a 5-3 loss Saturday night that put the Avs at the brink of elimination, remains a game-time decision.

“I think we’ll be able to use him (normally),” Bednar said. “He’s feeling a lot better today. We’ll see when he gets on the ice tonight and what the game brings, but he’s feeling pretty good today and feels like he’ll be ready to go.”

Mackenzie Blackwood is going to replace Scott Wedgewood in the net for Game 4. It will be his first start since being replaced by Wedgewood in the series-clinching Game 5 against Minnesota.

MacKinnon was injured in the second period of Game 3 when he blocked a Shea Theodore shot with the outside of his right knee. He writhed on the ice in pain for 9 seconds before the officials stopped play, and then for a bit longer before he was able to gingerly skate off the ice on his own power.

He missed the end of the second period and the start of the third while getting treatment, and was only able to take one 5-on-5 shift after returning from the locker room. MacKinnon still played 4:05 in the third period, but most of it was on the power play or with the goaltender pulled at the end of the game.

Nichushkin did not play the final 22 minutes of Game 3 and took only one short shift in the final 27 minutes. The Avalanche did not have Cale Makar for the first two games of this series because of an upper-body injury. Sam Malinski and Artturi Lehkonen both missed the final two games of the Minnesota series, and while they have played against Vegas, neither has been as impactful as before their injuries.

Blackwood has only started two games during this 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs run. Wedgewood outplayed him near the end of the season, earned the Game 1 start against Los Angeles and then was fantastic against the Kings in a four-game sweep. Blackwood replaced Wedgewood during Game 3 of the second round and then started Games 4 and 5.

“I think Mackenzie’s the type of guy and goalie that plays better when he’s loose and confident and he’s been doing the work to make sure that he’s ready and prepared,” Bednar said. “It¶¶Òõap not a desperation move. It¶¶Òõap just … you’ve got to make a change and see if something else works for me. We felt confident in both these guys all year long. I felt like (Wedgewood) kind of earned the net in (Games) 1 and 2 and we gave him the shot in (Game) 3 and we didn’t get it done. It¶¶Òõap not on him, either. It¶¶Òõap on our team.

“We’re just looking for (Blackwood) to come in and play to the best of his ability and be loose and have fun. The whole team’s kind of in that mode right now, and I think if you can do that, you might see the best of him.”