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, .

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����ap 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

Sakic was back in front of the assembled Colorado Avalanche media Thursday. MacFarland is gone, off to pilot his own franchise and what was old is new again in the Avs front office.

The message was similar, even if Sakic’s role has now changed. He sat next to Kroenke Sports & Entertainment vice-chairman Josh Kroenke this time, but belief in the Avalanche players and coaches was again a central theme.

“It’s disappointing. It stings,” said Sakic, now the president and general manager of the Avs with MacFarland in Nashville. “But we’ve got a great hockey team here, and this team was built for a 2-3 year run. We still got most of the guys coming back, and their expectations, our expectations, I know the fans’ expectations, is to try and win a (Stanley) Cup.

“And we’re hopefully going to accomplish that next year, but it really was, overall, an incredibly fun year.”

Colorado ran the league for more than six months, leading the NHL standings from Nov.  1 through the conclusion of the regular season. The Avs rolled past Los Angeles and Minnesota to reach the second half of the postseason tournament for the first time since 2022.

But the Avalanche express derailed at full speed, a stunning, fiery crash of a four-game sweep by the Vegas Golden Knights in the Western Conference Final. MacFarland is gone, but Sakic and Kroenke preached belief in the group and continuity throughout a nearly 30-minute press conference.

Sticking with Bednar

Not only will Jared Bednar return for an 11th season as head coach, but his assistants will also return. Bednar is entering the final year of his contract, but Sakic alluded to a potential extension coming later in the offseason.

“We haven’t thought about [that]. Right now, the priority is getting through the draft, free agency,” Sakic said. “Try and make our team as good as possible going into the summer. The rest of the stuff we will push that down the line. We’ll figure out later in the summer on all that stuff, but I don’t think he’s worried about it. He shouldn’t be worried about it. The contracts will come when they come.”

When asked why Bednar is returning, compared with title-winning coach Mike Malone, who was fired from the KSE-owned Denver Nuggets late in the 2024-25 season, Kroenke was succinct.

“I think he has absolute belief of the dressing room,” Kroenke said.

Sakic is now the GM of this franchise, and there is no acting or interim qualification. The structure from the past two seasons remains the same, just with MacFarland out and Sakic back in the GM chair.

While Sakic said he’s enjoyed the increased workload shifting back over the past couple of weeks, what his long-term future is and the front-office structure are still to be determined.

“I’m taking over being GM right now,” Sakic said. “We’ve got a great staff. Really confident in our group. It’s business as usual from our end. We’re going to try and, as a staff, make this team as good as possible so we can try and be a contender again.”

Colorado currently has 17 of its top 20 players from last season under contract for next year. No. 4 center Jack Drury is a restricted free agent. Two defensemen, Brett Kulak and Brent Burns, are unrestricted free agents.

The Avs do not have much room below the salary cap ceiling — a touch shy of $3 million, per PuckPedia — so just retaining those players is not an option. There is also work to be done filling out the depth beyond those 20 — extra forwards Joel Kiviranta (UFA) and Zakhar Bardakov (RFA) plus next-up defensemen Nick Blankenburg (UFA) and Jack Ahcan (UFA) all need new deals or replaced.

Sakic and Kroenke both spoke more about marginal changes than drastic ones.

“We could panic and try and blow everything up and start all over, but this team, what they’ve done over the course of the year was pretty remarkable,” Sakic said. “Now we want to give them an opportunity to try and do it again. I mean, the last two trade deadlines were meant for not just that year — to try and compete for a few years with this group and try and bring home a Stanley Cup. That’s the goal.”

Upgrades off the ice

This was the first time Kroenke spoke at an Avalanche-specific press conference since Nathan MacKinnon signed an eight-year, $100.82 million contract Sept. 20, 2022. Sakic addressed the next mega-contract Colorado expects to complete with co-franchise player Cale Makar this summer, and Kroenke had updates on a couple of other long-term franchise-building items.

One was progress on a new practice facility. The Avs currently practice at Family Sports Center in Centennial, where the team’s offices are also based. Both they and the Nuggets hope to have new spaces of their own downtown as part of KSE’s 55-acre development project around Ball Arena.

“There’s one final hurdle that we’re in,” Kroenke said. “We hope to have some information relatively soon. We’re dealing with the city, and we’re working on pedestrian access over Speer (Blvd.) in and around that. So hopefully once we are able to iron out and finalize that with the city, we’ll be able to announce something. I don’t have an exact time frame, but we’re very close.”

Another was the future of the Avalanche payroll. The NHL’s salary cap ceiling is in an era of unprecedented, rapid growth. The ceiling was $95.5 million this season, but will rise to $104 million for 2026-27 and is expected to spike to $113.5 million the following year with future, similar hikes also expected.

That has led to speculation in the NHL that far fewer franchises will be willing to spend up to or near the cap ceiling. Twelve teams, including the Avalanche, spent up to or within $1 million of the cap ceiling this year, and half the league — 16 clubs — spent more than $93 million, or within $2.5 million of the ceiling.

“I think we’ve been a cap team for how many years now?” Kroenke said. “I think with the core players that we have, we’re going to keep being as aggressive as possible. I think that some of that stuff can kind of go in cycles, but I think if you have a core of Nathan McKinnon and Cale Makar, led by Gabe Landeskog, and then the depth that we have. I think you better be pushing it, trying to go for Cups.

“I think going for Cups means you are spending as much as you can when you can, and using your resources as smartly as possible as well.”

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.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Parker Kelly and Ross Colton scored huge third-period goals Monday night to help the Avs fend off the Minnesota Wild, 5-2, in Game 4 of this second-round series at Grand Casino Arena.

The Avs, despite playing without Artturi Lehkonen and Sam Malinski, now lead the series 3-1. They can close it out Wednesday night in Game 5 at Ball Arena.

“You never know when your opportunity is going to come,” Kelly said. “Ross has been playing great, our line’s been playing great. Everyone’s just been trying to do the right thing, and you just got to stay ready. It’s one shot. It’s one play you got to bear down on that’s probably going to come your way.

“It’s just about staying ready, and all these guys in here are ready. It was a great goal by Ross to get us up, and then (Mackenzie Blackwood) shut it down for us.”

Kelly’s first goal of this postseason put the Avalanche ahead with 8:28 remaining in the third period. Jack Drury made a great play to cause a turnover and get the puck to Kelly for a shot from between the tops of the circles.

Blackwood made 19 saves in his first start during the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, including several big ones early in the third period.

Colton gave the Avs their first lead of the night at 6:56 of the third period. At the end of a long shift in the offensive zone, Nicolas Roy corralled the puck in the high slot and found Colton to his left with a great pass for a one-timer and Colton’s first goal of this postseason.

“It was a great win,” Colton said. I think it starts with (Blackwood) coming in. He was awesome all night. He kept us in it. … But like Parker said before, just the depth of this team, it’s pretty special. We’ve seen it all year. I mean, this guy (Kelly) scored 20-something (goals). That’s pretty awesome. And again, it’s kind of just the next guy mentality.”

Former Avs forward Nico Sturm leveled this one at 2-2 a little more than two minutes later. He and Brock Nelson got tangled up in the right corner, and when Sturm got up and cut to the net, Quinn Hughes found him for a one-timer. It was the first goal of this postseason for Sturm, who won the Stanley Cup with Colorado in 2022.

The Avs dominated the start of this game on the shot clock, but it took a little more than 26 minutes to solve Minnesota goalie Wallstedt. Nazem Kadri scored on his own rebound during a power play at 6:08 of the second period, seven seconds after ex-Avs forward Yakov Trenin was penalized for closing his hand on the puck.

Martin Necas set up Kadri on the play, drawing ire from the home fans for knocking Wild defenseman Brock Faber to the ice to win a puck battle before sending the puck across the zone to Kadri. It was Kadri’s second goal of the postseason and Colorado’s fifth with the extra man in this series.

Necas also set up an empty-net tally from Nathan MacKinnon in the final minute to seal the win, and then Nelson added another with eight seconds left.

The Avs held a 20-4 lead in shots on goal at one point during the second period, and a 17-1 advantage in scoring chances at 5-on-5, per Natural Stat Trick, but Wallstedt, who allowed eight goals in Game 1, a 9-6 Avs win and didn’t play in Game 2, was spectacular at times, particularly early in the second as the visitors pushed for an equalizer.

Colorado was in control for most of the opening seven minutes of this game, but a collision between Minnesota’s Michael McCarron and Josh Manson was a pivotal point in the first period. As they were wrestling on the ground away from the play, McCarron spun off Manson and writhed on the ice in apparent pain.

There was no call while the puck was in play, but the officials conferred and reviewed the tussle for a potential major penalty. The end result was a double-minor for butt-ending. The officials determined that Manson attempted to hit McCarron with the butt end of his stick.

The Avs killed off the first half, but Danila Yurov tipped a Brock Faber point shot past Blackwood to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead at 9:46 of the opening period. McCarron did a first intermission interview with ESPN, during which he called Manson a “dirty player.”

Lehkonen and Malinski were both late scratches for this game because of upper-body injuries. Both participated in the morning skate, but the team announced their absences just as pre-game warmups began.

“Obviously those two guys, they mean a lot to the team,” Blackwood said. “But I think anybody we throw in there, they know what the job is and and how to do it. I think we’re pretty resilient, and we showed that today.”

Manson returned to the lineup after missing the past four games, and Joel Kiviranta was back in the lineup after missing the past five. The Avs also gave Jack Ahcan his Stanley Cup Playoffs debut, inserting him for Nick Blankenburg.

MacKinnon exited near the end of the second period after Avalanche defenseman Devon Toews, on the left side of the Avalanche net, tried to clear a puck that the Avs star didn’t see until it hit him square in the nose. MacKinnon immediately dropped his stick and crumpled to the ice while covering his bleeding face with both hands.

After a trainer ran onto the ice, MacKinnon skated to the locker room with a towel over his face, but was back on the bench by the start of the third period.

“Looking at our roster and the way the game went, there’s a lot to like,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “I didn’t think we had any passengers tonight from our goaltender out. Guys played hard, regardless of ice time. Every time they hit the ice, they were ready to go. You have to be pretty happy with that.”

Artturi Lehkonen and Sam Malinski are both out with upper-body injuries, the team announced as warmups began. Josh Manson and Joel Kiviranta both returned from injuries.

Lehkonen has three goals and six points in seven playoff games for the Avs. Malinski has a goal and three points, and has logged 19:59 of ice time.

Mackenzie Blackwood is also making his first start of this tournament after replacing Scott Wedgewood in Game 3. Jack Ahcan is also making his Stanley Cup Playoffs debut, replacing Nick Blankenburg in the Colorado lineup.

No. 1 center Joel Eriksson Ek and key defenseman Jonas Brodin are still out of the lineup for the Wild. Neither has played in this series.

Here is Colorado’s lineup to start Game 4:

Gabe Landeskog – Nathan MacKinnon – Martin Necas

Ross Colton – Brock Nelson – Nicolas Roy

Valeri Nichushkin – Nazem Kadri – Logan O’Connor

Parker Kelly – Jack Drury – Joel Kiviranta

Devon Toews – Cale Makar

Brett Kulak – Brent Burns

Jack Ahcan – Josh Manson

Mackenzie Blackwood

Avs coach Jared Bednar wouldn’t confirm either move after the club’s morning skate at Grand Casino Arena. He did say that Manson and Joel Kiviranta are both available for Game 4 of this best-of-seven series, which Colorado leads 2-1.

Blackwood was the first goaltender off the ice Monday morning, while Scott Wedgewood stayed out late for extra work.

“Yeah, we’ll see,” Bednar said when asked about Blackwood. “Possibly.”

Wedgewood started the first seven games of this playoff run, but Bednar pulled him Saturday night after allowing three goals on 12 shots. Blackwood replaced him and allowed one goal on 13 shots in a 5-1 loss — the team’s first loss in this tournament.

“He’s so sharp for us,” Bednar said. “I’ve really liked (Blackwood’s) practices. The time that he’s spent on the ice with (goalie coach Jussi Parkkila), we’re getting good reports. Like I said at the start of the playoffs, we’re probably going to need both guys. It’s how we ran it all year. We have confidence in both guys and I think Mackenzie is ready to play.”

Manson hasn’t played since Game 3 of the opening-round series against Los Angeles. Kiviranta hasn’t played since Game 2 against the Kings.

Both players left the ice early during the morning skate, which is typically a sign that they are in the lineup that night. But the Avs didn’t leave a full set of healthy scratches out there to work with Wedgewood, forward Zakhar Bardakov and defenseman Jack Ahcan, who was recalled from the Colorado Eagles as insurance.

Manson would replace Nick Blankenburg in the lineup. It’s less clear who Kiviranta would replace if he plays. Ross Colton was a healthy scratch for the first two games against Los Angeles when Kiviranta was in the lineup.

The NHL announced the salary cap ceiling for the 2026-27 season will be $104 million, which was the reported and projected number. That is an $8.5 million increase from this season, and the Avs have already committed a chunk of that space.

Here’s the good news: This Avalanche team looks primed for a run at the Stanley Cup, and nearly all of the key figures from this group are already under contract for next season. The biggest storyline entering the offseason doesn’t even involve a contract for next season.

Here’s the less good news: The Avs have precious little cap space available this offseason, unless a current regular under contract gets moved. And nearly $2.3 million for next year is gone because the bill for this roster went a little over the limit. It was legal because Brent Burns signed an incentive-laden one-year contract. That’s where the overage is from, but the Avs will be more than happy to work around that issue next year if this group keeps winning.

The Avs have 17 guys from the current roster under contract through 2027 or beyond. They have a little less than $3 million in cap space available, about $2.98 million, . There are four unrestricted free agents — Burns, Brett Kulak, Nick Blankenburg on defense, Joel Kiviranta at forward. Two forwards, Jack Drury and Zakhar Bardakov, are restricted free agents.

So yeah, the players, coaches and fans are all focused on this Avalanche team’s chase of a fourth championship in franchise history. But Chris MacFarland and his group in the front office always have one eye towards the future.

The 2026-27 team should look very similar to the one, especially if the Avs get past the Minnesota Wild and into the Western Conference Final or beyond.

Here are the biggest questions for the offseason, barring any significant injuries in the coming weeks:

Will Cale Makar sign a new megadeal?

Makar has one more year left on his contract, but that makes him eligible to sign a new deal starting July 1. The cap ceiling is expected to keep rising at unprecedented levels — to $113.5 million in the first year of Makar’s new contract and $123 million in the second season.

The maximum cap hit for the 2026-27 season is $20.8 million. But just for reference, by Year 2 of Makar’s new deal, if the ceiling is $123 million, the max cap hit that year will be $24.6 million (which, by the way, will be the first season of Connor McDavid’s next contract).

Nathan MacKinnon famously said the day after Mikko Rantanen was traded that Makar should get $20 million. There’s little question that he would be worth it. The best players in the world have always been underpaid in the salary cap era, from Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin to MacKinnon and McDavid.

Kirill Kaprizov pushed the artificial ceiling on contracts to $17 million per year. Will Makar, or Quinn Hughes, who also has one year left, establish a new standard?

The Avs will want to get a deal done as soon as possible. Makar’s deal won’t have a huge effect on the 2026-27 team, though it could restrict which players the club might pursue to some extent.

Will they be able to keep Kulak?

Kulak has been a great fit. He’s also probably made himself some money this season, with another strong postseason after the previous two in Edmonton. He’ll also be 33 years old next year.

His current contract is at $2.75 million per year. If Kulak really wants to stay and was willing to take a shorter deal and at something close to that figure, the Avs can make it work by trading someone else. Could two or three years at $3.5-4 million work for both sides? Maybe.

But, given the amount of cap space other teams are going to have, and the dearth of quality free agents available, it’s also possible that another team would offer him double his current cap hit on a deal that will run into his late 30s. If that happens, the Avs would almost certainly have to thank him for this run and wish him luck.

Will they be able to keep Drury?

The Avs have other guys who could be the No. 4 center next year behind MacKinnon, Brock Nelson and Nazem Kadri. Nicolas Roy or Parker Kelly could play there. Bardakov could be given another shot at the role. And the Avs could reassess where things stand before the deadline.

But Drury is a really, really good No. 4 center. And he’s a restricted free agent, which means one outcome is the Avs bring him back on a one-year deal, and then he gets to test the open market the following summer. He does have arbitration rights, but Drury didn’t have great numbers this year. It’s harder to argue with intangibles and how much the coach loves you in an arbitration hearing.

If the Avs want to lock him into a longer deal, it would almost certainly mean another regular under contract has to leave. Drury does feel like the type of player who, if the Avs were to win the Cup, would be very in demand if the Avs decided to make him available in a trade.

Will Burns and the Avs want to run it back?

Burns will turn 42 next March. This could be his last ride. But … he’s played pretty well in a lesser role, been a huge hit in the dressing room and most of all, the guy just loves to play. If he does come back, he’ll also be able to take aim at Phil Kessel’s record ironman streak. He’s 57 (regular-season) games away.

If he wants to play, and the Avs want him back, a similar deal to this one (one year, $1 million-ish in salary with incentives) seems pretty easy to put together.

How will the Avs find some flexibility?

The Avs don’t have a bad contract on the books right now. And the longer they play in this tournament, the more the value of some of their players will rise. That could be an issue with trying to retain Kulak, or even Blankenburg if he gets an extended postseason look. But that does help if the Avs need to trade someone.

The most obvious someone is Ross Colton, who has played well since returning to the lineup but has had two snakebitten seasons in a row and was a healthy scratch to start the playoffs. He has one year left at $4 million, which is a fine number for a middle-six forward. And there could be plenty of teams interested in his services, if the Avs decided to prioritize Kulak or need to replace him. Colton could also be the odd man out if the Avs want to do a longer deal with Drury.

Drury tracked down the puck in the neutral zone and chipped it back into the Los Angeles end. His reward was a hard hit from Kings tough guy Jeff Mallott into the boards inches away from TNT analyst Brian Boucher.

Just as Drury offered a two-handed response, Logan O’Connor was flipping the puck over Anton Forsberg’s glove and into the Kings’ net for a two-goal lead 5:50 into the final period of a Game 1 victory at Ball Arena.

“Got the puck there, was just trying to put it in (the offensive zone),” Drury said. “OC’s so fast. I feel like he does that a lot, where he isn’t even in the picture and then all of a sudden, he has the puck. So it’s a great effort by him.

It was a grind-it-out Game 1 for the Avalanche, and a great start to the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs for the club’s “identity line.” O’Connor was the hero, scoring the game-winning goal. It was his first since the 2025 postseason.

In between were 12 long months.

“Super happy to get it out of the way,” O’Connor said. “Felt like our line over the course of the last couple weeks here during the season, we were continuing to build things. Just try to stick with our game plan. For us, our game translates well to playoffs. It����ap a lot of simplicity and muck it up and just wear teams down. It was nice to get that one and finish the job off.”

O’Connor had two goals and six points for the Avs in their seven-game series loss to the Dallas Stars a year ago. He was one of the team’s best and most consistent players throughout the epic series.

Then, for the second straight year, he needed hip surgery. He missed the end of the 2023-24 season and the 2024 playoffs because of the first hip issue.

He had offseason surgery to correct the second. The timeline for him to return was early November. But then a second, still undisclosed issue popped up. Weeks went by without the answers he needed or a plan for recovery and return.

It limited him to the final 13 regular-season games, allowing a quick tuneup before the most important part of the campaign.

“I mean, he’s worked so hard,” said Avs captain Gabe Landeskog, who missed three full regular seasons with knee issues. “Obviously, he was able to come back the last month or so, but hasn’t found the score sheet. We’ve just kept telling him to save them. Save them until we really need him, and tonight we needed it, and he put it in. It was great — well deserved.”

O’Connor thought he had his first NHL goal in 358 days a little earlier in this contest. He ripped a shot past L.A. goalie Anton Forsberg, but Drury had been knocked into the netminder by Kings defenseman Drew Doughty just before the puck sizzled by him.

The goal was waved off for goalie interference, and the decision was upheld after the Avs challenged. Undeterred, that line kept working.

Eventually, they were rewarded with another goal from O’Connor, and there was no doubt it would count.

“For OC, I’m really happy for him,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “That’s a long road to get back, and Gabe had gone through (a) similar thing. Being out of the lineup is the worst thing when you’re a player, because you’re just wanting to help and you’re wanting to make an impact. Then you come back and your game’s not going to be 100%. It’s not going to be the top tier right away.

“He’s continuing to work through that to be effective, always committed, always going to work, always going to do everything he can for the team … He’s been really good, and we know he can chip in on the offensive side of things. He did tonight, and I expect he’ll continue to make an impact.”

Depth is a clear advantage for the Avalanche in this series. Colorado’s fourth line exploited that in Game 1.

Drury, O’Connor and Joel Kiviranta were the team’s best regular trio, generating 62.3% of the expected goals while on the ice together at 5-on-5, according to Money Puck.

Bednar’s trust in his “identity line” at this time of year is a staple of the best Avs teams during his tenure. It’s not surprising that while others around him have changed, O’Connor always seems to end up on that line by mid-April.

“It’s hard work and relentlessness,” Bednar said of his fourth line. “They spent the bulk of their time playing in the offensive zone and pursuing pucks. I think that’s exactly what we need from them. We saw it from them last year in the playoffs … It’s a highly-effective line that I can trust against anybody, and that’s all because of the hard work and commitment that they have.”