A hockey general manager? Unacceptable.

When conducting an audit on the Avalanche’s dizzying collapse, we figured the Kroenke ownership group would do exactly what the team needed.

Instead, Stan and Josh Kroenke did just the opposite.

A week after the Golden Knights turned the Avs’ season to dust, Colorado lost Chris MacFarland, outbid by Nashville.

Not Montreal. Or Boston. But a division rival.

MacFarland did not have a wandering eye, and was not looking to leave. He broke down when breaking the news to his former coworkers. He cried at his introductory press conference with the Predators, struggling to come to grips with leaving a Colorado organization where he worked and excelled for 11 years.

Losing MacFarland is not a win for the Avs, despite what fans insisted on my social media timelines last week.

That was an appropriate response by Rockies fans when the Rockies mercifully moved on from futile general manager Bill Geivett and insufferable team president Greg Feasel.

MacFarland helped the Avs win the Stanley Cup in 2022. He is one of three finalists for the Jim Gregory NHL GM of the Year award this season. If he wins this summer, he will accept the trophy as a member of another organization.

And the Avs are better for this? Really?

I understand the love for president and resident legend Joe Sakic, who takes over in the interim through the draft and summer months. He served as the GM when the Avs claimed their last championship. But there is a reason he handed over the reins to MacFarland that next season.

McFarland was ready. And while he had misses like every GM, he was really good at his job. Nashville recognized this. The Predators went all in, throwing a bunch of money at MacFarland and a longer title for his business card — president of hockey operations.

He got the position because of his . Yes, that Nick Saban.

MacFarland is a grinder, a hockey lifer, a man who could watch film and scout until his eyes bleed. His success reflects his dedication to the process. Saban recognized this.

And the Avs let him out of the building.

If you want to stand on your porch or scream that it was all about the promotion to president, have at it. But let’s acknowledge that the Avs tried to keep MacFarland.

That makes his departure look worse.

It also raises a few questions. Are you going to tell me that they could not make MacFarland vice president, and provide him a big raise and a transition plan to succeed Sakic?

Given how emotional MacFarland was, given his family’s connection to the community, I think it would have been hard for him to say no. Maybe he still leaves.

But why not make it as difficult as possible given that the Avs are clearly, regardless of how disappointing the Las Vegas series was, in a championship window?

Which brings us to another issue.

The Avs did right by MacFarland in granting him permission to interview, unlike the petty and classless Golden Knights, who continue to hold former coach Bruce Cassidy hostage.

However, as the Predators’ pursuit of MacFarland picked up steam, Stan and Josh Kroenke were at Selhurst Park across the pond carrying the English Premier League championship trophy to Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta. Given how suspiciously and viciously the team’s fans reacted to their ownership through the years, the Kroenkes deserved this snapshot.

But who was manning the phones back at the home office?

As the Predators were making a final push for MacFarland, the Los Angeles Rams were acquiring Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett from the Browns, a seismic move that conjures images of Reggie White signing with the Packers. With the Super Bowl at their SoFi Stadium, the Kroenkes are all in with the Rams.

But are they spread too thin?

Nobody can question their success as owners. They have delivered championships in basketball, hockey and soccer. Forbes recently placed the value of KSE’s six-team sports empire at $21.7 billion.

And yet that does not make them immune from criticism.

They can be great and make mistakes. Letting MacFarland go is one of them.

Were the Kroenkes too busy, too distracted, too ambivalent?

They have Sakic as the safety net, so everyone keeps saying it is no big deal. But Sakic left the GM role by choice. He wanted to move upstairs, unburdened by the exhaustive duties.

And let’s be clear: Sakic did not succeed in a vacuum. His best days as a GM were with MacFarland as his right-hand man.

It just doesn’t sit right. The Avs are hockey royalty. They are the standard of excellence in our city with 22 playoff berths and three parades in 31 years.

With another championship in reach, the timing of MacFarland’s exit stinks.

We will find out more about this issue in the future, but Sakic filling the void made any debate over coach Jared Bednar’s future moot. Sakic was not firing Bednar even if his style has been exposed as ineffective in the playoffs against defensive, possession-oriented teams like Dallas and Las Vegas.

KSE’s strongest argument against finding a way to keep MacFarland is that the Kroenkes have navigated this territory before.

Former Nuggets GM Tim Connelly left for Minnesota under similar circumstances in 2022, accepting a five-year, $40 million package with equity in the team. Calvin Booth, if only briefly, showed acumen, making critical moves to help the Nuggets win their only NBA championship in 2023 before his sour relationship with coach Michael Malone led to both their firings in 2025.

So, give the Kroenkes the benefit of the doubt if you want. They don’t like paying top dollar for executives. I get it.

But watching them celebrate Arsenal, seeing them land Garrett, it sure feels like they squandered a chance to have a moment like this with the Avs by losing MacFarland.

Count to 10. Deep breath. Exhale. Slowly. Put the pitchforks down and ask yourself this question:

Who could the Avalanche get to coach their team — right now — who would be better — again, right this very second — than Jared Bednar?

David Carle? Best coach in the time zone. I was in that camp a year ago, my friend.  The driver of DU’s hockey dynasty is allegedly not ready to walk through that door.

Jay Woodcroft? Can he draw up a defense? No thanks.

Craig Berube? Too much Maple Leaf. Pass.

Kris Knoblauch? Nah.

Bruce Cassidy? Sure, but there’s a catch: He’s technically off the market. The Golden Knights, classy to the last, refuse to let their former coach out of a contract that runs through 2027 — even though they’d relieved him of his duties with eight games to go in the regular season.

After Carle or Cassidy, whom the Vegas brass have locked up in in dungeon near Circus Circus, the pickings look awfully slim.

Which, we’ll grant you, isn’t the sexiest reason to run it back with Bednar. But we’ll give you another rationale: Joe Sakic is inheriting something of a hot mess, at least as championship-level teams go.

Sakic built the best house on the NHL’s block four years ago. But when he handed the keys over to Chris MacFarland, the maintenance costs went through the roof. Which, by the way, now leaks when it rains.

When MacFarland left the Avs’ general manager post to run the Nashville Predators on Tuesday, he left a pile of bills on the kitchen table and the basement unfinished. Colorado has roughly $3 million of cap space available for ’26-27 and only 17 players under contract. The Avalanche don’t have a first-round pick until 2029.

MacFarland took a Kyle Schwarber approach to roster management — C-Mac swung hard and swung from his heels, but the misses could be heard for miles. Trading Mikko Rantanen was supposed to ease the cap strain for ’26-27 and ’27-28, but the Avs landed back on that track anyway thanks to the Martin Necas contract. Swapping out Rantanen and Bo Byram didn’t age well. Neither did hanging onto Samuel Girard for as long as they did.

Cale Makar is expected to undergo surgery that will almost surely delay the start of his ’26-27 season. Also, he’s eligible for a contract extension on July 1 that could almost double his current cap number of $9 million. Necas is making $11.5 million a year through 2034 to be a playoff ghost. Brock Nelson, your 2C, is making $7.5 million a year to play defense.

Captain Gabe Landeskog turns 34 in November; Scott Wedgewood turns 34 in August. Devon Toews turns 33 next February. Valeri Nichushkin will be 32 in March. Nazem Kadri will be 36 in the fall. Nelson and Josh Manson will turn 35 in October.

, the Avs are on a track to use 56.1% of their expected ’26-27 cap space on players 31 years of age or older. That’s a lot of old dogs to try and teach new tricks.

Bednar isn’t nearly as divisive a winner as Sean Payton, but he’s getting closer by the summer. Like Sunshine Sean, Bedsy offers a high floor, good-to-brilliant regular seasons, and inevitable playoff heartbreak brought on by a combination of stubbornness and the inability to adapt on the fly. Every time that second title looks close, something happens that snatches the dream away.

A decade of Bednar has produced one Stanley Cup title, two conference final appearances and four second-round exits. For a team whose core has at least two future Hall-of-Famers in Nathan MacKinnon and Makar, and featured a third in Rantanen for most of Bednar’s era, that feels like a slightly underwhelming return on the trophy front. Very good suddenly feels very stale.

Fun fact: Seven of the last nine Western Conference championship coaches got to the Stanley Cup Final within their first 12 months on the job — including John Tortorella in Vegas, who’d only landed the gig in April.

Counter: Six of the last nine Eastern Conference-winning coaches were on their jobs six years or longer when they reached the Cup Final.

The last eight Cup championship-winning coaches did so with about four seasons with their current team already under their belts, on average. A quick-strike hire might get you there, but they usually don’t get over the line — the Final coach with the most tenure with a franchise has won three of the last five Cups and five of the last eight.

Bedsy also hasn’t lost the locker room, for whatever that’s worth. MacKinnon trusts him, which is no mean feat. Logan O’Connor has told me in multiple chats over multiple seasons that players appreciate Jared’s steady, calm voice during a nine-month grind.

“His work ethic and his preparation is something that there is zero complacency in what he does day-to-day,” O’Connor, the former Pios star, said last spring. “How (Bednar) operates, the meetings he runs, the message he delivers, what he expects from players, having good relationships with players — I think he creates a clear picture of how he wants us to play.

“And that goes from first line to fourth line, individuals to power play to penalty kill. I think you know exactly the expectations that he has for you. And then it’s on us to go out there and execute those expectations. I think he just has the utmost respect from us players. And it’s no surprise that he’s had as great of a run as he has, given the volatility in the (coaching) market. And we all love playing for him.”

For Sakic and the Kroenkes, the question of Bednar, whose current contract extension expires at the end of next season, is largely this:

Do you prefer something safe and predictable — 50-plus wins in the regular season, followed by a second-round postseason exit — or the crap shoot of a new coaching hire?

Do you want to be hockey’s version of the ’90s Atlanta Braves? Or do you want to roll the dice? After being shamed on The Strip, we’re about to find out if Super Joe’s still in a gambling mood.

General manager Chris MacFarland is leaving the organization to become president of hockey operations and GM with the Nashville Predators, the Avs’ Central Division rivals announced Tuesday.

Colorado’s president of hockey operations, Joe Sakic, will be the club’s interim GM.

“We would like to thank Chris for all he did for the Avalanche organization,” KSE vice chairman Josh Kroenke said in a statement. “Chris was instrumental in our success over the last decade and a key part of our 2022 Stanley Cup championship. This was an opportunity for him to take on a bigger role with the Predators while being closer to his family. We wish him and his family all the best in Nashville.

“Joe Sakic will resume the general manager duties for the foreseeable future, including through this month’s draft and the start of the league year. In Joe’s previous stint as GM, he helped build the current roster and led us to the 2022 Stanley Cup. We are confident in Joe’s leadership and that we will continue to build upon our recent success as we seek to bring another Cup back to Colorado.”

, and the Predators moved quickly to complete a deal. The Predators have been searching for a new lead executive since GM Barry Trotz announced Feb. 2 that he was retiring from the role.

MacFarland was promoted to GM for the Avs in July 2022, shortly after the club won its third Stanley Cup. He has been with the organization since May 21, 2015, when he was hired as an assistant general manager to Sakic, who was then the club’s GM.

One of three finalists for the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award, MacFarland has overhauled the Colorado roster around the club’s title-winning core over the past two seasons. The Avs were atop the NHL standings this season every day from Nov. 1, winning the Presidents’ Trophy with a club-record 121 points.

They were the Stanley Cup favorite until the Vegas Golden Knights swept them out of the playoffs in the Western Conference Final.

“Very well deserved,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said of MacFarland’s nomination before the conference final. “I think it’s probably a couple years coming. But oftentimes with the work you put in and the blood, sweat, and tears, there’s a delayed reaction, a delayed recognition of that. This team for me wasn’t just built in this year, it was built over the last couple years.

“To me, the decisions … I look at a lot of the tough ones that we’ve made over the years, especially in the last couple of years, they all seem to be turning out and working out pretty well for us again this year. It doesn’t always guarantee success, but I mean, I think he’s putting us in a position to have success year over year.”

MacFarland and the Avs made a historic number of in-season trades for a contending team a year ago. It started with swapping out both of the team’s opening-night goaltenders 10 days apart, becoming the first NHL team to do so before Christmas. The Avs were last in the NHL in save percentage the day of the Scott Wedgewood trade. He and Mackenzie Blackwood won the William Jennings Trophy this season for allowing the fewest goals in the NHL.

MacFarland’s biggest move came in January 2025, when he sent Mikko Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes for Martin Necas, Jack Drury and two draft picks. Necas set career highs with 38 goals and 100 points this season, and will begin an eight-year contract next season with an $11.5 million cap hit.

Rantanen ended up in Dallas six weeks later, where he knocked the Avs out of the 2025 playoffs with an epic Game 7 performance. He also just completed the first season of an eight-year pact with a $12 million cap hit. The Hurricanes, without Necas and Rantanen, reached the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in 20 years and will play Vegas for the 2026 championship.

The Avs have been among the most aggressive teams in the NHL, trading prospects and future draft capital to strengthen their current roster for several years now. The new GM will inherit a roster that just set the standard in the league for six months but fell short yet again in the postseason, and now the prospect pool and war chest of draft picks are among the league’s shallowest.

Nashville has missed the playoffs the past two seasons, and has not won a round in the postseason since beating the Avalanche in the opening round of the 2018 tournament. The Predators reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2017 but have not won a championship since joining the league as an expansion franchise in 1998.

“We could not be more pleased that Chris has elected to join the Predators organization and lead our hockey operations group,” Haslam said in a team statement. “We conducted an exhaustive search and were able to meet with several very qualified and impressive candidates, but all along, we were hopeful to interview Chris. He turned out to be a perfect fit for us – just what we were looking for to lead our organization moving forward.”

FOOTNOTE: Avs star defenseman Cale Makar finished second in the Norris Trophy voting this season. Columbus’ Zach Werenski is a first-time winner of the award. Makar has been a finalist six times in first seven years. He won in 2022 and 2025, and was also the runner-up in 2021.

Sean Keeler: Cale Makar turned 27 last October. No title window is officially closed on the Avs until Makar is either closer to 37 or 38 or no longer wearing burgundy and blue. Between Jokic and MacKinnon, you lean with Nate Dogg, if only because the Stanley Cup Playoffs are far more random than the NBA counterpart; because Cale is so young; and because the Nuggets’ path in the West now has more potholes than Monaco Street Parkway. The Wemby Era is officially upon us, my friend. Only it’s also coming at the apex of The SGA Era, which means there’s not enough room on the medal stand for everybody.

Renck: The answer is MacKinnon. He will have more legit chances than Jokic, even after the Avs wasted a prime opportunity last week against Las Vegas. No matter whether the Avs keep coach Jared Bednar or not, they will remain a contender for the next five seasons with MacKinnon and Makar. But the onus is on the 30-year-old MacKinnon to adapt to new tactics, to show he can lead a team to a title against opponents who control the middle of the ice. If the Avs remain stubborn and play a style that suits their stars in the regular season, MacKinnon might win another title, but will be at the end of his career with another team.

Keeler: After Nuggets-Timberwolves I (2024), I wondered if Jokic’s best chance for a second title might happen as a veteran big man off the bench for another franchise — think the Lakers’ version of Dwight Howard or the Celtics’ version of Bill Walton. Not anymore. I think the Joker is going to play out this next, massive contract extension, and try like holy heck to finish what he started here. And then that’ll be it — ring or no ring, it’s back to Sombor, to the horses, to family, and to the next chapters of his life.

Renck: Jokic, 31, cannot be considered a Top 10 all-time great without another ring, finishing in the rankings in the second tier a tick ahead of Moses Malone, Dirk Nowitzki, Giannis Antetokounmpo. Given how the NBA works and how the collective bargaining agreement is structured, teams don’t get title shots every season since owners view the aprons as hard caps. After capitulating against the Timberwolves, the Nuggets must take a step back, trade away Cam Johnson and Aaron Gordon, and load up for a three-year run in Jokic’s final sprint starting in 2029. Even then, there is a 7-foot-5 problem. Victor Wembanyama is now the face of the league (and everyone’s favorite player after eliminating the Oklahoma City Floppers). At 22 years old, Wembanyama is the youngest player to lead his team in points per game and rebounds in a season when his team makes the NBA Finals. He is not going anywhere. For Jokic to win, it will likely require a much different, more athletic supporting cast. MacKinnon, if he shows adaptability, probably only needs a different coach.

Keeler: Just because “everything” is on the table for Josh Kroenke doesn’t mean KSE is comfortable ordering the most expensive menu items in front of them. The greatest speed bump lodged between two of Denver’s all-time greats and a second ring might be the entity that owns them both. With the Nuggets, the Kroenkes are reluctant to splash serious cash to upgrade the coaching staff or the front office and reportedly unwilling to eat more luxury tax penalties. With the Avs, Stan and Josh seem content to know what they don’t know and let Joe Sakic run that branch of the family business. In both cases, the longer KSE remains resistant to change, the shorter Jokic’s and MacKinnon’s title windows become.

He was positioned between the two benches as part of ESPN’s broadcast team while the Vegas Golden Knights stunningly swept the Presidents’ Trophy out of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs in the Western Conference Final. It’s been a few days, but the shock of the result is still fresh.

For more than six months, the Avs set the standard in the NHL this season. Then, it was washed away in a week.

“In each of the first three games, there was a point in the game — like a significant moment — and Colorado lost all of those moments,” Ferraro told The Denver Post. “It����ap not like they lost 5-1. They were in every game, but in those big moments that were available to turn each game, they lost every one.”

So now the offseason beckons, and it has suddenly become arguably the most important one of the Nathan MacKinnon-Cale Makar era. Everything was building over the past two years, from the historic in-season overhaul two seasons ago to the high-profile additions ahead of the March trade deadline, towards a championship run this spring.

For two rounds, the Avs looked like a juggernaut. Now, there are questions everywhere.

Will this group be able to win a second championship together? What can they possibly do now, after this dream season didn’t produce a title?

“When you’re in the air Colorado is, to nudge forward it����ap a really high bar to climb over. Where they are, to improve some of the decisions are pretty minute,” Ferraro said. “You can change the system. You can change a coach. But if the top end of your roster gives you no goals, then you lose.

“To me it becomes simple, but the solutions probably aren’t simple. In my mind, it’s how would you improve a really good team? And it’s not easy.”

‘They’re not the chances you need’

As the series against the Golden Knights progressed, Colorado’s ability to create high-level chances diminished. The Avs had plenty in Game 1, but Vegas grabbed the lead and Carter Hart kept the league’s top offense at bay.

In Games 2 and 3, the Avs had more shot attempts, more shots on goals and, at least in their minds, enough quality scoring chances to win. By Game 4, the mounting injuries and frustration were too much to overcome.

After losing a series in 2025 where the Avs felt like they outplayed Dallas, is there a through line to be drawn?

“I don’t think they made the right adjustments,” said Bruce Boudreau, former coach and NHL Network analyst. “When you’re playing a team like Vegas or Carolina that clogs up the neutral zone and is very aggressive against you, you’ve got to change your tactics a little bit.

“They’re the best team in the league at coming up the ice with four guys. But when they don’t have the neutral zone ice to skate it in and make those plays, they need to figure something else out. … It����ap not easy to check, because they have some great, skilled players, but the formula is easy to check, if that makes sense.”

Boudreau was at the helm of a dynamic, electric offensive team in Washington. Those Capitals teams, led by Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom, were young and had not won a championship. They were inundated with questions about whether they could play the right way at the crucial time of year.

This Avalanche team has won. Jared Bednar’s plan worked, and this core executed it with near-flawless precision in 2022.

But each of the past four seasons has produced an ending more agonizing than the last. The questions that are usually reserved for teams and players who haven’t done it are now resurfacing for this Avs group.

“It is a good question. I don’t know if it is a major change,” said Cory Schneider, an analyst for NHL Network and MSG Network. “Maybe just a small philosophical change of not getting stubborn. It does seem like they can get frustrated, like you can frustrate them, you can frustrate some of their top guys if you don’t give them what they want. If the other team is saying we’ll give you A, but we won’t give you B, then if we can get some good goaltending, we can frustrate you.

“I don’t think it����ap a major overhaul, but how can they find another way? It probably starts at the top with the top guys. It might be more of a mentality change than a big personnel change.”

Colorado’s top six scorers during the regular season did not score a goal against Vegas. The top guys didn’t score enough. The depth guys didn’t score enough.

“That reminds me of 2010,” Boudreau said of his Presidents’ Trophy-winning club in Washington. “We had 121 points, but then all of a sudden you run into some adversity and the power play doesn’t go, and I can see some similarities so quickly. It����ap the frustration of … this never happened to us before, so what do we do?”

Vegas found a way to stifle the Avs, just as Dallas has done the two previous years. It was excellent defense. It was great goaltending, at times.

What are some potential solutions for when this problem arises again could be the key to unlocking another title, regardless of any personnel changes that might happen.

“What can be different? Until they get in between the circles for their chances, they’re not the chances that you need,” Ferraro said. “How do you generate more Grade A chances? I think they had probably as many as Vegas. They didn’t finish as well, and they did not, in my mind, between the circles as much as Vegas did.”

‘It����ap going to be an interesting summer’

The first big domino is Bednar’s status.

The Avs pushed their end-of-season media availability to early next week. A year ago, it came three days after losing to Dallas in Game 7. The power play’s failure in that series cost assistant coach Ray Bennett his job.

Bednar is the winningest coach in franchise history. He’s the second-longest tenured coach in the NHL, behind Tampa Bay’s Jon Cooper. The Lightning have not won a single playoff round since Bednar’s Colorado team defeated them in the 2022 Cup Final, but there has been far less chatter about Cooper’s job security.

“I happen to think Bednar is really good,” Ferraro said. “He’s a really, really good coach that coaches a team that just had 121 points. If they’re letting him go, they better have a really good idea of who’s coming next.”

The other big domino is general manager Chris MacFarland. Multiple outlets have reported that Nashville wants to speak with MacFarland, who is nominated for GM of the Year. If he were to leave, that opens the door to an entirely new set of questions for this offseason.

If MacFarland stays, the biggest long-term item on the to-do list is Makar’s next contract. But, in the short term, what can or will the Avs do that will affect the 2026-27 edition of the team?

There are 17 players who appeared in at least three of the club’s 13 playoff games under contract for next season. Jack Drury is a restricted free agent. Defensemen Brett Kulak, Brent Burns, Nick Blankenburg and Jack Ahcan are all unrestricted free agents, along with forward Joel Kiviranta.

Colorado has a shade below $3 million in cap space, . That’s not enough to revamp the back half of the defense corps, not to mention a new deal for Drury and room for a 13th forward.

“I’m reading different opinions on “blow it up” and I don’t think people quite understand A) the impossibility of that and B) would you look at a team that had 121 points, or would you look at seven days?” Ferraro said. “I can almost guarantee they’re not going to have eight new players next year. That����ap not happening.”

At least one, if not two, of those 17 players under contract will need to be moved to create the cap flexibility to fill out the roster. The Avs were in a similar spot last summer. They traded Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood to Columbus.

That allowed them to sign Brent Burns, and it gave them enough breathing room below the cap ceiling to add Kulak, Nicolas Roy and Nazem Kadri before the trade deadline.

To do more than that will be its own challenge. The Avs are short on draft picks and prospects to use in trades, but there are also lots of teams with plenty of cap space who might want to add one of the Colorado veterans.

“I think it must be the most torturous and difficult task to sit there and go, ‘I think we should be patient. I don’t think we should make major moves,’ ” Ferraro said. “It must be really disappointing and really frustrating, because you’re close, and then you’re losing four games, so are you close? That’s what they’re wrestling with.”

When the season ends the way it did, it feels like everything and anything could be on the table. There were similar feelings a year ago, with a stunning Game 7 loss to Dallas still fresh in everyone’s minds.

MacFarland, along with team president Joe Sakic, preached patience then, and belief in this group. They were rewarded with the best regular season in franchise history, and an 8-1 romp through the first half of the playoffs.

But then the Western Conference Final happened. How the Avs respond will affect not only their chances of winning the Stanley Cup in 2027 but also years beyond that.

It’s an aging group. It’s also a group that just ran the league for six months. The forthcoming decisions are not going to be easy.

“It����ap going to be an interesting summer, because they’ve shown they will be aggressive,” Schneider said. “They’re similar to Vegas in that sense, where they’re not afraid to make a change. There’s no sacred cows there. If anybody was willing to pull off a pretty bold move, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was them.”

T.J. Hughes was the most high-profile college free agent of this cycle, and after a decorated career at Michigan, he chose to sign with the Colorado Avalanche. His contract with the parent club starts next season, so he joined Letestu’s Colorado Eagles and quickly became an integral part of a deep postseason run.

“You go through the bio and I see a similar player to myself,” said Letestu, who played 567 NHL games and is in his first season as the Eagles’ head coach. “Somebody who played in the Alberta Junior League, an undersized right shot that did really well in college and signs a college free agent, so right away him and I have had some common ground.”

Hughes and the Eagles lost Game 1 of the Western Conference Final to the Chicago Wolves on Thursday night, but this is the deepest the club has advanced in the Calder Cup Playoffs since becoming an AHL franchise. Game 2 is Saturday night at Blue FCU Arena.

A four-year star at Michigan, Hughes helped the Wolverines to a pair of Big Ten championships and three trips to the Frozen Four. He could have left the program early, but decided to stay through his senior year because he wanted to graduate, trusted the Michigan staff to help him keep developing and wanted another shot at a national title.

That run ended when the University of Denver knocked the Wolverines out in a double-overtime classic semifinal. Two days later, he had signed with the Avalanche and was on a plane to Colorado.

“I think it’s a mix of a few things,” Hughes said about choosing the Avs. “One, just the coaching staff and the front office. They were expressing a lot of interest, and came to see me play a lot at Michigan. I think we built a great relationship over the year. Then obviously, the Colorado Eagles and the Colorado Avalanche — just two really good teams. I wanted to go play for a great team and try to find a spot that I kind of play similar to the way that they like to play. They like to play with the puck, play fast and make plays, so that was very appealing to me.

“Then, of course, Colorado is an amazing place to play and place to live. I’ve really liked my time here, just the weather and everything about Colorado and Loveland. Everything’s been great.”

The 24-year-old Hughes was a great player for the Brooks Bandits in the AJHL before Michigan. He played with current Eagles teammate Taylor Makar for two seasons and then won a league title in his third.

Hughes was not drafted but has remained a star at every level. He’s listed at 6 feet and 185 pounds, and he’s not a high-end skater. Hughes has made up for those perceived deficiencies with his brain and his skill level.

“His offensive IQ is certainly ahead of the rest of his game,” Letestu said. “I mean, that’s what got him noticed. That’s what gets him in the door.

“Right away you can see how smart he is, how he processes the game. He’s earned a lot of trust with me, obviously, immediately on the offensive side. That’s always going to be there, but he’s taking direction on the defensive side, trying to become more complete because he wants to be an NHL player. That’s the part of his game that he has to earn trust from (Jared Bednar) when he gets up there.”

The jump from NCAA hockey to the AHL has been a smooth one for Hughes. He played in two regular-season games for the Eagles and is now an integral part of their lineup in this postseason.

He has three goals and seven points in 11 games, including a beautiful assist in Game 1 against the Wolves. Hughes played on a line with Makar in Game 1. He’s also played with Gavin Brindley as well — another familiar face.

Hughes and Brindley were freshmen together at Michigan. Brindley left after two years, but they’re back together again after Colorado acquired Brindley in a trade last summer.

“Awesome. Yeah, it’s great to have him,” Brindley said. “He’s done a great job stepping in here. He’s one of the big pieces on this team now. It’s been just awesome to see his face every day and interact with him at the pro level and try to help him with anything he needs.

“I think his IQ is elite. The way he thinks the game — he’s not the fastest player, but man, he thinks the game at a high level. Kudos to him. He’s had a long season and I’m sure he’s a little drained, but he doesn’t look like it on a day-to-day basis.”

Hughes said that having Brindley and Makar here made the transition much easier for him. He was the captain at Michigan, and his former coach Brandon Naurato raved about Hughes when the Avs signed him.

Multiple people in the organization offered similar praise for Hughes since he arrived in Loveland. A “first in, last out” type of guy, a rink rat, a gym rat — Letestu said he’s not just easy to coach but that Hughes craves it.

There could be a place for Hughes with the Avalanche next season, depending on how this offseason plays out. He and his old friends Brindley and Makar might be the three guys on this Eagles team with the best chance of earning a spot in training camp next year.

For now, Hughes is chasing another championship. The Avs have had great success with college free agents, most notably Logan O’Connor and Sam Malinski.

Hughes could be up next.

“(The AHL) is definitely a step up. It’s been a little faster, a little heavier, and just trying to adjust each game, and just trying to do what I can to help the team win,” Hughes said. “This is an amazing experience. Just planning to have a great offseason and continue to work on things I need to work on. Wherever I end up, just trying to make an impact and help the team win and do my thing and do my part.

“I have such a great passion for this game of hockey, so I just want to keep grinding and keep playing.”

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����ap 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����ap 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����ap all the more frustrating right now.

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

That is all that stood between Gabe Landeskog and an ending that would make Disney executives blush.

He became the first professional hockey player to return to the NHL last May after knee cartilage transplant surgery, nothing short of a Hail Mary procedure that saved his career.

This was going to be the bookend chapter for one of the most respected athletes in Colorado sports history. Landeskog, 33, was not going to retire, but he was going to be remembered for this second act forever.

The Captain. And the Cup. Again.

Instead, the clock struck midnight and the valet brought the keys back to a pumpkin.

The Avs became a group of falling stars, going splat and getting swept by the Golden Knights in an unspeakably awful series.

A week ago, the Avs believed they could win another championship. Now, it is fair to wonder if they blew it with this group.

“I mean, you never know if you’re ever going to get the chance again. I think that’s what hurts, right?” Landeskog, always accountable, said in the visiting locker room after the 2-1 Game 4 loss. “Like, it’s hard making the playoffs, and it’s hard winning one round and two rounds, and let alone going all the way, so never know what the next opportunity is going to kind of look like and present itself looking like, but I think for us, believing in this group, believing in the guys that we have in this organization and that will give ourselves the best chance possible year after year.”

In a series that somehow featured no goals from Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Martin Necas and Brock Nelson, Landeskog carried his weight. He scored three times, including the lone goal on Tuesday night with 2:03 remaining in the game.

Predictably, Landeskog, a captain for 14 years, took zero solace in his performance.

The Avs began the season on a Stanley Cup-or-bust wagon. Becoming only the seventh No. 1 seed to be swept is not how anyone in the organization expected this season to end.

“Yeah, it’s empty, there’s no other way to describe it, really. Yeah, felt good about our team, still do, but you got to give these guys credit on the other side,” Landeskog said. “They’re good, played hard, Carter Hart, heck of a goalie, heck of a series, so, but yeah, you go from being in the battle and all of a sudden the buzzer goes and season’s over. It’s a weird feeling to try to describe to people, but empty is probably the way to do it.”

The Avs scored seven times in four games. Coach Jared Bednar, who is facing external criticism and questions about his future, praised the Golden Knights’ checking and goaltending.

The Western Conference Final is the farthest the Avs have reached since raising the Stanley Cup after the 2022 season. While this might have been the best chance to win it again, Landeskog wants this group to take another run at it next season.

“I certainly hope so. I believe in that,” Landeskog said.

On a somber night in Las Vegas, a feeling far too common for far too many in this city, Landeskog talked through the pain. This hurt. But he has come back from worse.

“I mean, it’s 32 teams that are trying to win it. 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,” Landeskog said. “Yeah, that’s the only way to do it.”

The 2026 Western Conference Final was played anywhere Vegas wanted it. The corners. The boards. The neutral zone. In between the Avalanche players’ ears, mostly.

The Golden Knights turned the NHL’s fastest team into a Corvette on cinder blocks. This wasn’t just a sweep. It was Hartbreak. It was arguably the biggest Colorado sports choke since Broncos-Jaguars in ’96. It was six days in May we’ll never get back. It was so bad, David Adelman cringed.

“Disappointed. Humiliated,” Avs forward Logan O’Connor, as stand-up as they come, told reporters at T-Mobile Arena after his season ended in a 2-1 defeat. “I think, to a man, (we) just weren’t good enough. Not a single guy was the whole entire series.”

The Golden Knights burned with hunger, fear and desperation, especially at Ball Arena, where the tone for disaster was set. Vegas players pounded the glass and drove the puck as if they’d just watched their coach get fired on March 29 — and any one of them could be next.

The Avs played hurt, yes. They also played fat and happy in Games 1 and 2. They carried the look of a roster with guaranteed contracts and guaranteed tee times, the harbinger of a fore-game sweep.

That starts at the top.

Stan Kroenke and Josh Kroenke are hoops, football and soccer guys first. They treat the Avs like a burgundy-headed stepchild. They love that their little hockey team, at least compared to the Nuggets, is a no-drama llama. They’re happy to let Joe Sakic sweat the small stuff.

Vegas fans brought the brooms Tuesday night. It’s time Super Joe started swinging his around.

The Avalanche are too stubborn. Too comfortable. If general manager Chris MacFarland wants to leave the Front Range to go rebuild the Nashville Predators, let him. C-Mac’s re-arranged deck chairs about 17 times since the Avs won it all five years ago. All it’s done is make the best fans in hockey angrier and the best roster in the game older. Way, way, waaaay older.

Once Cale Makar was out and Nathan MacKinnon got dinged in the knee, Colorado began to show its age. Brent Burns turns 42 in March. Nazem Kadri will be 36 in October; Brock Nelson and Josh Manson turn 35 that month. Scott Wedgewood turns 34 in August. Captain Gabe Landeskog turns 34 in November. Devon Toews turns 33 next February; Valeri Nichushkin will be 32 in March.

The Avs wouldn’t be running it back in 2027. They’d be hobbling. And hobbling , the smallest cushion in the NHL.

“How big their window? I don’t want to say it’s closing. But it’s not opening,” former Avs great Erik Johnson, now an ESPN analyst,

“They’ve already played (the) shake-up-your-core card with (Mikko) Rantanen, right? So they’ve played that card. What’s the next card they play, if they still feel like their window’s open — which I think it is?”

Play the Joker, Super Joe. Go wild.

The Avs need fresh eyes. Fresh legs. Fresh voices. Fresh ideas. Almost every “tough guy” MacFarland acquired lost their edge once they moved to the mountains. Almost every 2C revamp since a younger Kadri left five years ago eventually crashed or burned. Jared Bednar has become the George Karl of Avs coaches — a regular-season savant and a playoff fraud.

Bednar’s white board during the playoffs never seems to have an answer for a team that takes away the rush, clogs the neutral zone and clamps down on the tempo. Once Bedsy finds a Plan B in May, he rarely sticks to it. Colorado appeared out of gas by midway through Game 3 of the Western Conference Final. Zone entries stunk. Zone exits stunk. A team with the best record in the NHL looked like strangers playing pick-up on the pond.

Injuries? Cry us a river. Dallas beat the Avs in the first round of the ’25 playoffs without Jason Robertson and Miro Heiskanen. The Knights didn’t have captain Mark Stone for Games 1 and 2 in Denver. Injuries in the Stanley Cup are excuses — everybody’s got them. You find a path. You find a way.

The Avs rolled over. Over the last 13 minutes of the second period and the first eight minutes of the third stanza, Colorado, while trailing 1-0 in a do-or-die contest, got one shot off. One. When Vegas’ Tomas Hertl appeared to interfere with Martin Necas with 8:04 left in the second frame, the latter went down in a heap while the former just laughed. No call. MacKinnon got tripped. No call. Vegas had too many men. No call.

The bracket says a VGK sweep had to be a fluke. It wasn’t. Vegas goalie Carter Hart, icky narrative and all, was the best player in the series. The Avs ran into a bigger, smarter, sharper version of the Kings. Yet while Los Angeles knew it was out of its weight class from the jump, John Tortorella’s guys smelled a sucker with a soft underbelly. Play with your food against Vegas, they’ll take your lunch money and ransack the kitchen.

At least it was over with early, unlike Game 3’s cruel cosmic joke. Kadri didn’t track Stone some 4:42 into Game 4, and the sight of the 57-year-old winger somehow beating Kadri and Makar down the ice, then backhanding Vegas into a 1-0 lead, summed up a series in all its agony.

The hockey gods twisted a rusty knife with 6:08 left in the opening stanza. Nelson beat the Vegas defense for a point-blank look in front of the Golden Knights’ crease, not all that different from the chance Stone got. Only No. 11 fired high and saw his puck snatched out of the air by Hart, the way your uncle used to catch a mosquito and squash it in his palm.

“I think Jared Bednar is a heck of a coach,” Johnson opined. “But at the same time, if you go through the window of Landeskog, MacKinnon and Makar, and you only get one Cup in that whole Avalanche era of their greatness, I think that’s a failure, right?”

Darn straight. If you can’t find Plan B on the ice, it’s time to find it somewhere else. Until the Avs feel uncomfortable, no one should ever feel truly comfortable about them lifting Lord Stanley again.