Marietti spent nearly a decade with Bednar playing and coaching for the South Carolina Stingrays in the ECHL, but he had moved on by the time the Colorado Avalanche coach had become the head guy. Bednar was a young head coach, but he had some issues with a key player on the team.

One day, this player was late. The team was preparing to leave North Charleston on a road trip. Everyone was on the bus. As it was leaving the parking lot, the player arrived.

“This player kind of liked to do his own thing. He wasn’t a team-first player,” Marietti told The Denver Post. “Jared was like, ‘Nope. Keep going.’ They went to the game, won the game and then Jared put the guy on waivers.”

It wasn’t a popular move with the fanbase. But Marietti saw it as a defining moment in his friend’s early coaching career.

“When I heard that, I was like, ‘Yeah, Jared is legit.’ He’s not taking any (expletive). He’s going to do it his way. That was pretty ballsy. But he said look, ‘We are professionals and we’re going to act like professionals.’ And they ended up winning the championship.”

Bednar won the Kelly Cup with the Stingrays in only his second season as head coach. He won the Calder Cup in 2016. He won the Stanley Cup in 2022. His credentials as a very successful hockey coach are impeccable.

Now, as the Avs prepare for the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Bednar has the best team in the NHL and another chance to cement his legacy. A second Cup would silence all of the criticism after Colorado has failed to advance past the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs the past three tournaments, and put him on a track to potentially make the Hockey Hall of Fame.

“He was always and still is the same way as far as being a stickler for details,” Marietti said. “He says, ‘Do this or do that,’ or back then, if his coach said, ‘Do this or do that,’ he stuck to the chalkboard. He was a guy who played by the rules when it came to the game plan. That����ap the same way he coaches. Buy into the system, and the system will take care of itself.

“He’s the kind of guy who is going to sell whatever it is you need. If you need him as an (ECHL) veteran or a ditchdigger, he’s going to be the best veteran or ditchdigger out there.”

An old school coach who has adapted

Bednar has certainly evolved from that young guy finding his way in South Carolina. He was a bit of a journeyman as a young player — four WHL teams, two ECHL teams, a year in the IHL before settling in with the Stingrays.

The Kelly Cup in 2009 kicked his coaching career into another gear, but his first AHL head coaching job only lasted two seasons. He spent time with three different organizations while coaching in the AHL before the Avs gave him a shot at the NHL level.

Bednar doesn’t have one specific mentor or a guy he’s modeled himself after. Bryan Maxwell had a big impact as his coach with Spokane in the WHL. Jason Fitzsimmons gave him his first coaching job with South Carolina. He worked under Jim Playfair and Brad Larsen as an AHL assistant.

“I was always fortunate to be surrounded by really good people,” Bednar said. “I learned a lot from all of those guys. I think you take a little bit from every coach you’ve ever had, what you liked, what you didn’t. The guys you meet at the conferences, like the NHLCA. Guys you work with, guys you coach against — you just kind of gather information from everywhere and develop your own style.”

Bednar was a tough, rugged defenseman. He was an old-school player who played for plenty of old-school coaches.

There is still some of that in how he coaches. But he’s also been able to adapt in a lot of different areas, and it’s a big part of why he has the fourth-highest winning percentage (.569) in league history among coaches with at least 600 NHL games.

“I think his demand level went up. I noticed that,” former Avs star Mikko Rantanen said. “I think that����ap how we became a better team there, too. Every year, he started to demand more and more. I think he obviously got more comfortable, too, as a coach.

“I always liked how detailed he was, about the game style and how we want to play. He was always very detailed about opponents and what they’re going to do. And he works hard. I know he works hard off the ice, on the computer and stuff. It����ap well-deserved, the career he’s had as a coach. I’m happy for him.”

Bednar was never a star player, but a huge part of his success with the Avs has been his relationships with the world-class players that have driven this era of success. His ability to relate to everyone, up and down the lineup, is paramount.

His ability to communicate what he wants, set a standard for how the team is going to play, and then allow players to flourish within that system has helped this Avalanche team finish first in the NHL in both goals for (298) and fewest goals against (197).

They are just the fourth team since 1967 to accomplish the feat.

“I love how calm he is. There’s no confusion around the subject,” former Avs forward Jonathan Drouin said. “When he tells you something, you know what he’s talking about. You know what he wants from you. He’s very detailed as well. It was very simple, very easy to understand him. He’s very detailed in what he wants his team to do and he’ll tell you straight up.

“It goes to the foundation they’ve built there and the players they’ve had. You just put in the work, you do what you have to do and you go home. But you’re enjoying the time. I always had a smile on my face. There’s a reason they’ve had so much success in Colorado.”

‘You can’t just be a hardo’

There was a while he was leading the club to its first double-digit win season in seven years. He was borrowing from a line from Jon Gordon’s book, ‘The Power of Positive Leadership’ that said ‘great leaders are demanding, not demeaning.’

That is, in a nutshell, a huge part of modern coaching in any sport. Several of Bednar’s players, both past and present, believe it perfectly describes his coaching style.

“There are coaches out there that yell and scream all day. Then when that doesn’t work, they’re kind of out of bullets,” Avs star Nathan MacKinnon said. “So then, what? You’re going to be nice now? What����ap your next plan? We’re all intelligent humans. I think there has to be a good, intelligent message coming from the coach of like why are we doing something wrong, why do we need to change something?”

MacKinnon has played for two coaches over the past two seasons. He’s also spent a lot of time with Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper preparing for and playing in the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off and the 2026 Winter Olympics.

“It����ap no coincidence that they’re the two longest-tenured coaches,” MacKinnon said. “You can’t just be a hardo every single day. It����ap just painful. I couldn’t imagine it, to be honest, just coaching with straight emotion and no logic or reasoning would be tough.”

Bednar played for a lot of coaches like that growing up. He can be an emotional guy.

He will rip into his team in the media after a particularly porous effort, but it’s pretty rare. And it’s almost never because of one bad night. One of the tentpole’s of Bednar’s coaching throughout a long season is to break it into 10-game segments, and only when he sees a downward trend in effort or defensive responsibility does he really get agitated.

During the Avalanche’s HALO analytics conference last month, Bednar revealed that he rarely goes in the locker room after games. He used to. He loved celebrating wins with his players at the ECHL and AHL levels.

But, part of his growth as a coach was to take a step back. The players don’t need him to celebrate, and they don’t want to hear him yelling at them minutes after a game ends. He lets everyone cool off, goes over the video and meets with the players the following day.

“I think he prepares the most of any coach I’ve been coached by,” Avs goalie Scott Wedgewood said. “I’ve never seen him come in and single out anybody or expose one person. I think he controls the room well. He gives everybody both sides of it – what����ap working, what����ap not working, why it����ap not working and what you can fix.

“It����ap not just, ‘This doesn’t work. (Expletive) fix it.’ Well, what the (expletive) does that mean? He’s very good at giving you context on both sides of what point he’s trying to get across.”

Bednar’s team meetings have become a well-known staple of his identity as a coach. His ability to blend analytics with video clips has made believers out of players old-school and new.

Players come to the Avalanche and are blown away by the level of detail in the club’s pre-scout meetings on game days. They see his ability to self-scout at both the team and individual levels, and find ways to improve.

One of Bednar’s adjustments as a coach that is specific to his time with the Avs is how much input he seeks out from the players in all sorts of aspects — whether it is game-planning for an opponent, tinkering with the power play or when to practice. The Avs even famously changed when they travel to accommodate MacKinnon’s postgame workout routine, which several other players partake in as well.

“I think a lot of my beliefs are the same,” Bednar said. “But because of the time that I’ve spent with some of our guys and our key players, I think there’s a lot more give and take, a lot more communication, sharing of ideas. They’re the ones playing the game. I want to know what they’re feeling in this situation, what they’re seeing in different situations, how can we help? What information do they need? You kind of learn that it’s just experience, even then naturally start giving them the stuff that they need, based on conversations I couldn’t have with guys six years ago.

“It’s always evolving, but the trust factor with our players that we have now has grown over time, I know what to expect from them. I want them to know what to expect from me. So things then naturally change to a certain degree.”

‘I wouldn’t want another coach’

This is Bednar’s 10th season with the Avs. He guided them from the bottom of the league to the mountaintop, and has lived in a “Stanley Cup or bust” world, with all the expectations that come with that, for more than half his tenure now.

Colorado just set a franchise record for points in a season. The external expectations have not been this high since 2022, in part because of how the Avs bulldozed through the first half of the schedule.

Bednar’s ability to fuse his old-school sensibilities and strong communication skills with modern tactics, information and player management are a huge part of why this Avalanche team could be on the precipice of a second championship in five years.

“(Bednar) is a very smart guy, and that����ap why it doesn’t feel like it����ap been too long,” MacKinnon said. “He’s been my coach for 10 years and he’s great. He’s just great at communicating, and he’s a great guy. The guys really enjoy being around him.

“It����ap nice to have someone put some thought into what they’re going to say every day. I wouldn’t want another coach.”

Sam Malinski, Hank Kempf and Matt Stienburg were there, with a couple other Cornell alums. Logan O’Connor and Sean Behrens were not in the building to watch the University of Denver Pioneers cruise past the Big Red in the first-round of the NCAA tournament, but the 5-0 victory is almost certain to come up again in the locker rooms of the Colorado Avalanche and Colorado Eagles in the near future.

Behrens won two national championships at DU in 2022 and 2024, but Malinski’s Big Red knocked the Pios out of the 2023 NCAA tournament. History lessons, especially with the NCAA tournament and the IIHF world junior championships, are common source material for chirps in an NHL locker room at certain times of the year.

With the NCAA hockey tournament in full swing, we’re going to borrow an idea from Nuggets writer (and Avs beat alum) Bennett Durando. Given that hockey has a more robust path for players to reach the professional ranks, we’re not just going to focus on the NCAA guys.

It’s a little tricky, but we’re going to classify this as “before North American pro hockey.” So playing in a pro league overseas as a young player will count, but the AHL will not.

So, who were the most accomplished Avs players in their younger days? Some of the names won’t be surprises, but a couple might be.

1. Cale Makar 

It’s a pretty interesting debate between the top two guys on this list, just like it can be an intriguing discussion at times about their value to the present-day Avalanche. Makar won the Hobey Baker Award as the best player in college hockey and helped UMass reach the Frozen Four. He also won the Hockey East Player of the Year and was an NCAA All-America selection. He also helped Canada win gold at the world junior tournament. Before that, he also swept every major award in the Alberta Junior Hockey League and helped the Brooks Bandits win the league championship twice.

2. Nathan MacKinnon

MacKinnon won the QMJHL and, famously, the Memorial Cup with the Halifax Mooseheads. He was the MVP of the Memorial Cup, which included outplaying fellow potential No. 1 pick Seth Jones. He wasn’t the MVP of his team before that — Jonathan Drouin was. MacKinnon also won the Hlinka Gretzky Cup and led the tournament in scoring, but he was a depth guy on the WJC team, and Canada did not medal.

3. Artturi Lehkonen

It’s a pretty good debate about third and fourth on this list, as well. Lehkonen played for Finland at the world junior tournament three times, and won a gold medal. He also won the Liiga Rookie of the Year and a bronze medal at the U-18 world championships. Lehkonen spent a year in Sweden before coming to North America, and he won both the Swedish Hockey League and the Champions League with Frolunda.

4. Martin Necas 

Necas was a more productive junior player than Lehkonen, but it shouldn’t be a surprise that Lehkonen has done so much winning at all levels of his career. Necas has done plenty of that as well, and he’d be higher if we included his Calder Cup title with the Charlotte Checkers. Necas won the Czech Extraliga twice and was named both the league’s rookie of the year in 2017 and MVP in 2018. He also won the Hlinka Gretzky Cup and led that tournament in scoring.

5. Nicolas Roy

Roy was a superstar in the QMJHL. He was named a first-team all-star twice and led the ‘Q’ in goals one year. He has a nice collection of international medals as well — gold at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup, silver at the world juniors and bronze at the U-18 tournament.

6. Gavin Brindley

Brindley played for the Americans twice at the WJC, winning both gold and bronze medals. He also won silver at the U-18 tournament. He won Big Ten player of the year and earned NCAA All-America honors while at Michigan.

7. Valeri Nichushkin 

Nichushkin won a gold medal at the U-17 world championships and a bronze medal at the WJC. He also won rookie of the year in the KHLin 2012-13 with Traktor Chelyabinsk. During that season, he played in international tournaments with Igor Shesterkin (U-18) and Andrei Vasilevskiy (WJC) as the starting goalies.

8. Nazem Kadri 

Kadri won a silver medal at world juniors. He also played in the Ontario Hockey League with Kitchener, a team coached by Peter DeBoer, and was named a second-team OHL all-star.

9. Brock Nelson

Before he became an American Olympic champion, Nelson won bronze at the world junior tournament. He also had a strong career at North Dakota, winning the old WCHA twice and playing in the Frozen Four.

10. Logan O’Connor 

O’Connor won an NCAA championship with the Pioneers. He also won the Clark Cup in the USHL as captain of the Sioux Falls Stampede.

Honorable mentions: Devon Toews won the British Columbia Hockey League with Surrey before winning the ECAC and reaching the Frozen Four with Quinnipiac. Parker Kelly won the WHL with Prince Albert. Mackenzie Blackwood won OHL goalie of the year, made the all-rookie team and was a first-team all-star with Barrie.

A dozen years later, they’ve been reunited in the NHL with the New York Islanders. Roy is a different coach in his second go-round behind an NHL bench.

And Drouin is a different player than he was as a teenager terrorizing opposing defenses alongside Nathan MacKinnon for the Halifax Mooseheads.

“He’s very mature right now,” Roy said. “When he was in junior, he was a phenomenal playmaker. When he was playing with Nathan in Halifax, they were always a threat, and they were the leaders of their team. What I love about his game right now is that he is playing both sides. He makes really good plays for (Mathew Barzal), but he also defends really well. The 200-foot game that he’s playing shows me a lot of maturity in his game.

“I’m very impressed with him.”

Drouin’s evolution as a player has not happened on a linear path, but his two years with the Colorado Avalanche did wonders to rebuild his career and his value. The Avs got him on a bargain one-year deal after an up-and-down tenure with the Montreal Canadiens.

He fit in well and earned another one-year deal. Eventually, it was time to ask for more, and the Avalanche — with Gabe Landeskog coming back and Brock Nelson needing a long-term deal — could not provide it.

“It sucked. Obviously, sometimes you’ve got to do a decision for your family and for other reasons,” Drouin said. “I enjoyed my time in Colorado. I would have loved to stay here for the rest of my career, but the business side of it doesn’t allow it sometimes. You’ve got to move on and do different things.”

Drouin’s relationship with MacKinnon got him in the door with the Avs, but he became an integral member of the club for two seasons on his own. He had 19 goals and 56 points two seasons ago, then 11 goals and 37 points in just 43 games last year.

His development as a two-way player was a consistent talking point with Avs coach Jared Bednar. That was something Roy echoed. Drouin had 14 points in his first 17 games with the Islanders.

“He’s been a great addition for us,” Islanders forward Kyle Palmieri said. “I think he’s a guy you can put with anybody, and he elevates that line. He’s done a great job so far, and hopefully he continues to get better and more comfortable. It����ap awesome to have a guy like that in your room and your lineup.”

When last season ended, it was pretty clear there wouldn’t be room for Drouin in Denver unless he was willing to take a discount again. Asking a player to do that multiple times in the prime of their career just isn’t feasible. Drouin said there were plenty of talks with the Avalanche, but he also knew before the free-agent market opened that a return wasn’t going to happen.

So on July 1, Drouin went back to the Eastern Conference, signing a two-year, $8 million deal with the Islanders. That meant parting ways with MacKinnon.

“It was tough,” Drouin said. “Obviously, he brought me here. He was one of the main reasons I came here. It����ap a very close group over there. It sucked to leave. Some of those happen as part of the business, I guess.”

Landing with the Islanders has meant a few reunions. Drouin and Anthony Duclair have been friends going back even before his Halifax days with MacKinnon. He knew Roy well, but he’s also played for assistant coach Ray Bennett with the Avs.

And he’s now in a position to be a veteran mentor for the other guy making his return Sunday night to Ball Arena. When the Avs traded for Nelson, one of the key parts of the deal going the other way was Calum Ritchie.

Colorado selected him in the first round of the 2023 NHL draft, and he became the club’s top prospect at one point. He played seven games for the Avs at the start of last season before returning to juniors.

Ritchie started this season in the AHL, but has played eight games for the Islanders without a point.

“I’m trying to help him as much as I can, honestly,” Drouin said. “I knew him from Colorado, a couple of games before he got sent down last year. He’s been great with us. He’s a kid that wants to learn, wants to get better. That����ap always cool to see.”

That’s the weirdest part for him now. When he tunes in to check out his old pals or catches Islanders highlights, that’s not him when No. 29 makes something happen.

It’s going to be an interesting weekend for Nelson and a different kind of Sunday night at Ball Arena. The guy who used to wear No. 29 for the Islanders will play against them for the first time since being traded to the Avalanche. The guy who used to play here, Jonathan Drouin, is now the guy wearing No. 29 for his old club.

“Yeah, (Drouin) texted me just to see if it was OK,” Nelson said. “It is funny — there’s a couple times where I watch their games and that just looks funny. Anytime I watched video for 12 years, I was just so programmed to be like, ‘OK, there I am.’ It����ap weird to see somebody else out there.

“He’s a great guy, great player and it����ap just a number. I told him I’d never tell him not to wear the number. I’m not there. Go ahead. But I appreciate him even thinking that he had to reach out.”

Nelson was a marquee addition ahead of the 2025 NHL trade deadline for the Avs. He became the biggest move of the offseason as well, when the club kept him in Denver with a three-year, $22.5 million contract ahead of him reaching the free-agent market.

It’s been a pretty seamless fit with the Avalanche. He was already friends with Devon Toews from their days together on Long Island. He had an off-ice workout connection with Nathan MacKinnon.

Now Nelson will get the first of two reminders of his previous life in rapid succession. The Avs play Sunday at home against the Islanders and then travel to Long Island for the return match in less than three weeks.

“It will be fun to see those guys,” Nelson said. “There’s a lot of them I haven’t seen since the trade. I’ve talked to a lot of them. It will be weird. It will be different. Hopefully, I’ll see a few of them the day before and catch up a little bit. But I’m glad it’s here first and I get to see them before going there.”

The last time Nelson played at UBS Arena, he was named the No. 1 star of the game. His on-the-bench postgame interview was an emotional one — for him and Islanders fans. Everyone involved knew a trade was imminent.

“I’ve never really gone through anything like that,” Nelson said. “You see guys going back after long stints, and it can be emotional. So, yeah, I think it would be tough if we were going back first. It will be nice to get through this one, just to kind of see them.

“I’m sure there will be a couple of laughs, a couple funny chirps going back and forth. Just some good banter.”

Toews wasn’t with the Islanders for as long, but it was the organization that drafted him. He went through a similar situation — getting traded to Colorado, trying to find his place on a team with high expectations and settling into a completely new NHL environment for the first time.

Through Toews’ eyes, Nelson’s transition is going well.

“He’s playing great,” Toews said. “He’s not a guy that����ap ever going to dwell on stats and things like that. He’s been a positive contributor to our team. That����ap what he needs to be. Points will come when they come. He’s been a great addition to our penalty kill. He’s a great faceoff guy, which I knew from my time with him in New York. He’s finding ways to contribute in different ways.

“When you bring in guys like that, it raises your standard for your structure and your detail in your game. That����ap sometimes lacking with younger guys, guys that are still learning and finding their way. Those (veteran) guys help with those details and then help the young guys as well, making sure they’re doing the right things and are in the right places instead of just being hyper focused on producing offense.”

Nelson has been the No. 2 center since the day he arrived. There was no question about the role he would play, which helps. Having guys like Toews and MacKinnon in his corner from day one also helped.

The offensive numbers have not matched his days on Long Island to this point. He had a mid-career renaissance from 2021-24, scoring at least 34 goals and 59 points in each of those three seasons.

In 37 games with the Avs, he has 10 goals and 20 points. This year, it’s four goals and seven points in 18 games.

The one part of his role that is different is the offensive expectations. The Avs don’t need Nelson to score 30-plus goals and drive the offense on a consistent basis to be successful.

New York needed him to raise the team’s ceiling. In Denver, he has helped raise the Avs’ floor.

“If you look at his analytics and underlying numbers, they’re all good,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “He’s a really smart, really well-rounded 200-foot player. From my tally, he’s fourth on the team in scoring chances. He hasn’t scored easily so far, but he’s right there tied with Val and his defensive metrics have been good. It����ap just about trying to give him more shooting opportunities.

“Part of it is just the steadiness of his game and doing the right thing all the time.”

Nelson was a fixture in the Islanders’ core for years, but life changes quickly in the NHL. Calum Ritchie, who was part of the Avs’ package to get Nelson, will be on the other side and could be a key part of the Isles’ future. Trading Nelson was part of a reset, which was turbo-boosted when the Islanders won the draft lottery and landed defensive wunderkind Matthew Schaefer with the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NHL draft.

Drouin is helping to replace some of the offense the club lost when it traded Nelson. Schaefer looks like a runaway Calder Trophy winner and has changed the long-term outlook for the franchise.

Nelson was part of the group that helped the Islanders reach back-to-back conference finals, the best stretch of success the franchise has had since the early 1980s when it ruled the NHL. He expects to have a chance to reminisce about those days Saturday night with his old friends, and then try and beat them Sunday night.

He’s also looking forward to the game back there in a couple of weeks. His wife and kids are going to make the trip. They’ve got a couple of old stomping grounds spots lined up and plenty of friends to catch up with.

“Sometimes I think back to my routine there and how programmed I was, how I knew everything about the surroundings,” Nelson said. “There are times where it feels like you’re still kind of feeling it out here, settling in. But there are also times where it feels like I’ve been here forever. Crazy to think it was 12 years there. It feels like it went by in a blink of an eye.

“But the more you think about it and you expand the picture, you think about the life things that happened — kids, family, all that stuff, just the friends we met there — and I feel fortunate for the time I had there.”

Then the Avs spent Tuesday night backing that up.

Colorado outclassed the Los Angeles Kings on opening night with a solid performance and some dashes of excellence mixed in. The 4-1 victory looked completely different than the start to last season, which began with allowing eight goals in Las Vegas and snowballed with three more losses.

“Just no question marks at the moment,” Avs star Cale Makar said. “I think coming into the year like that, where everybody can kind of be together and you know what you’re getting right off the bat, that’s exciting. And I think it shows.”

Several of the Avs’ top performers at Crypto.com Arena weren’t on the roster at the start of last season. Colorado general manager Chris MacFarland overhauled the roster over the course of the year with several seismic trades. The Avalanche also didn’t have Gabe Landeskog, Valeri Nichushkin or Artturi Lehkonen to start the year, and Jonathan Drouin was injured against the Golden Knights.

The theme of training camp was this roster was far more settled. Colorado was healthier. Everyone who arrived in trades had the offseason and camp to get comfortable.

Then the Avs took the ice against the Kings, and they looked … settled. Comfortable. Deep and talented.

“It’s the personnel, the depth, the experience we have in our lineup right now,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “We’re starting here pretty healthy. Guys are slotted in the right places.

“Overall, a really good effort, good commitment and good competitiveness.”

One key piece is missing: starting goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood. But the first player MacFarland traded for last year, goalie Scott Wedgewood, looked calm and steady in net. There weren’t a lot of highlight-reel saves among the 24 he made, but the Avs allowed five-plus goals in each of their first seven losses last season.

It was a big part of why Wedgewood ended up with the Avs. The defensive work in front of Colorado’s goalies was also suspect at times in the early going last year.

This defense corps, with Brent Burns in and Sam Malinski shifting over to the left side, had very few hiccups. At one point, the Avs had three goals in the second period and the Kings had three shots on goal.

“I don’t know how many shots they had in the second (the Kings finished with five), but it felt relatively easy for me,” Wedgewood said. “A lot of watching, with the skill sets that we have.

“Guys blocked a lot of shots, made my job relatively easy.”

The most talented player Colorado added last season, Martin Necas, also has the biggest role to fill. While the Avs will see Mikko Rantanen this weekend, the guy replacing him is off to quite the start with a pair of pretty goals.

Nathan MacKinnon looked in midseason form, setting up scoring chances and finishing with a pair of assists. His first point of the night made him the new career leader since the franchise moved to Denver, pushing him past Joe Sakic.

MacKinnon found Necas for the first goal of the season. Makar, who had an incredible play to create Colorado’s third goal, also set up Necas for the fourth on the power play.

“Gotta keep doing it — he’s been ripping the puck all exhibition,” Bednar said of Necas. “He gets in those areas. He’s a guy who can score from distance. He seems to get there a lot, but last year he deferred to other guys a little bit.

“I see him as a goal scorer, and I think he needs to have a good balance of that.”

Then there was the return of the captain. Gabe Landeskog didn’t make any splash plays in his first regular-season game since March 2022. He, Nichushkin and Brock Nelson did look … a lot like they did against the Dallas Stars, though.

Colorado had a 6-2 advantage in shots on goal at 5-on-5 when Landeskog was on the ice. The Avs created 87.69% of the expected goals. If opposing teams are going to put their top defensive players on the ice against MacKinnon’s line, then Nelson, Landeskog and Nichushkin need to punish the second-best options.

Defensive solidity. Better goaltending. Elite offensive skill.

That’s the recipe for the Avs. They told everyone for weeks why this felt a little different.

After scrambling to climb out of a hole at the start of last season, and then the chaos of trade after trade trying to patch the holes in the roster, it was a very run-of-the-mill, news-free training camp.

The Avs were quite happy about that, and how they started Tuesday night.

“We know we have the high-end skill and the talent to put pucks in the net, but you’re just confident in each other,” Wedgewood said. “Confident in the lineup, going into every night, you know you’ve got a chance to win.”

It wasn’t the only reason the Dallas Stars prevailed in an incredible seven-game series full of twists and turns, but it was one of the biggest. One of Jared Bednar’s longtime lieutenants, Ray Bennett, was let go in large part because of it.

As the 2025-26 season nears, one of the biggest storylines for the Avalanche centers around what is next with the man advantage. Dave Hakstol replaced Bennett, but during his one stint as an NHL assistant coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs, he was not in charge of the power play.

How the assistant coaching duties will be disturbed is one part of this. What sort of tactical or philosophical changes might occur is another, too. And the final part might be the most fascinating: The Avs are going to start training camp with the deepest collection of players who could make an impact on the power play since the Stanley Cup run in 2022.

What went wrong

Seventy minutes into the opening-round series with the Stars, the Avalanche power play was fine. Nathan MacKinnon had scored with the man advantage in a Game 1 win, and he gave the club a 1-0 lead early in Game 2 with another.

At that point, the Avs were 2 for 6. They went 1 for 16 over the rest of the series, including some demoralizing missed opportunities.

Colorado had a power play at the end of regulation and to start overtime in both Games 2 and 3. The Avs also had a chance midway through the third in Game 3. A goal on any of those three chances and the series looks completely different. They had chances early in Games 5 and 7 in Dallas, but didn’t cash in.

It����ap a small sample size, but one simple diagnosis is the Avs just didn’t find enough shot attempts, both in quantity and quality. They averaged 98.41 shot attempts per 60 minutes against Dallas.

Winnipeg, which had the best power play in the regular season, and Edmonton, which is among the gold standards in the Connor McDavid era, both averaged about 115 per 60. Colorado produced 17.46 chances in the high-danger area per 60 minutes. Edmonton, Winnipeg and Toronto were all over 30.

Sometimes, shot volume and shot quality don’t matter when you have MacKinnon and Cale Makar, because they score on shots that mere mortals do not. But the same can be said for McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in Edmonton, or Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner together in Toronto.

MacKinnon had all three of Colorado’s power-play goals in the series. One was a fortuitous carom off a Dallas defender. Another was a well-placed shot through traffic. Shoot the puck … is the right play, sometimes.

While the Avs were also unlucky to some degree — their expected goals on the power play against the Stars were nearly double the actual ones — it also may have just been natural regression from the regular season.

Colorado didn’t shoot the puck enough with the extra man during the regular season, too. The Avs were between 23rd and 26th in the NHL in shot attempts, shots on goal, scoring chances and high-danger chances per 60 minutes, but still finished eighth by converting 24.8% of the chances.

The Dallas series may have also been the culmination of a years-long downward trend. From 2020-22 — the Presidents’ Trophy winning season and the Cup year — the Avalanche was third in shot attempts, shots on goal and scoring chances per 60 with the man advantage, plus eighth in high-danger chances.

All of those numbers have trended down since then, including the worst numbers this past season. From 2022-25, the Avs are between 16th and 21st in those four categories.

Lots of potential solutions

The good news for the Avalanche is the roster. Colorado has all of the components to produce a dynamite power play this coming season.

Makar, MacKinnon and three guys from a beer league could work. The Avs have far better options than that.

Gabe Landeskog was one of the best net-front players in the NHL before his knee injury. He’s back, and while it wasn’t a power-play goal, the work he did at the edge of the crease on Samuel Girard’s tally in Game 4 is exactly what could help.

While Landeskog was away, Valeri Nichushkin also became one of the league’s very best net-front guys. The Avs also added Victor Olofsson late in the offseason.

Olofsson is a left-handed shooter who has thrived playing on the right flank with the man advantage in his career. He scored five times in just 74 minutes on the power play with Vegas, and the heat map of his attempts shows exactly why he could be a good fit where Mikko Rantanen used to set up for the Avs.

(screenshot via MoneyPuck.com)

Then there is Brent Burns, who is going to end up in the Hockey Hall of Fame in part because of his skill set on the power play. He’s one of the best ever at either getting shots through from the top of the zone or putting it right where the guy in front can tip them.

Joe Pavelski was extolling Burns’ virtues while accepting a place in the U.S. Hockey of Fame earlier this month. What might some combination of Landeskog and Nichushkin be able to do if Burns is teeing them up?

The Avs have all kinds of great options now, but also a few questions. If everyone is healthy, MacKinnon, Makar, Landeskog, Nichushkin, Burns, Olofsson, Artturi Lehkonen, Devon Toews, Brock Nelson and Martin Necas are all guys who can produce on the power play.

That����ap 10 players, and doesn’t even include Girard or Ross Colton, who have seen plenty of PP ice time in recent years. So … two really good units, right? Well, the Avs have loaded up PP1 and let it play a ton for a long time. Makar and MacKinnon are probably still going to get a lot of time, so it might be more like PP1 and PP1.5 instead of a true second unit.

Will the Avs really play Olofsson over the more established stars? Jonathan Drouin’s brain and his passing ability were big pluses, but his one-timer and/or shot threat from the right circle was not. That����ap a strength for Olofsson.

Then, again, there is Burns. Will the Avs consider letting him play at the top of the zone on PP1, where Makar has patrolled for several seasons? Makar did see some time on the flank early in his NHL career. If not, where does Burns fit on PP2?

There are all kinds of possibilities. What if the Avs went outside the box and put Burns at the top, Landeskog and Nichushkin in the middle as the net-front/bumper combo, and let MacKinnon and Makar start on the flanks but float around the way McDavid and Draisaitl often do?

That unit could be devastating together, or not.

The Avs are still fourth in the league in conversion rate and third in actual power-play goals scored since Makar’s first full season. But there’s been some erosion in recent years.

Colorado has the talent, depth and varied skillsets to build an elite power play. There could be a new voice and new ideas this year.

Improving the power play is one way for the Avs to find their way back to the top of the NHL mountain.

There’s no definitive favorite as the 2025-26 NHL season draws near. Sure, the Florida Panthers are back-to-back champions and return the bulk of their roster, but a three-peat would also mean four consecutive trips to the Cup Final. That����ap really hard to do.

The Avs are relatively healthy, with training camp less than two weeks away. There was just enough offseason roster turnover, plus the expected return to full-time duty for captain Gabe Landeskog, that this camp is as much about where the pieces fit for Colorado as who is going to be in the lineup Oct. 7 at Los Angeles.

There are a couple of spots open up front, but the greatest intrigue could come from how Jared Bednar pieces the lineup together for the Kings and beyond. With that in mind, let����ap take a look at the potential position battles at Avs camp — not just the ones involving players fighting for a spot on the team.

First-line wings

• Incumbents: Artturi Lehkonen, Martin Necas
• Contenders: Gabe Landeskog, Valeri Nichushkin
• Wild cards: Ross Colton, Victor Oloffson

Who gets to play next to Nathan MacKinnon? Two of the most coveted wing positions in the NHL could be up for grabs, depending on how Bednar wants to deploy his perennial MVP candidate.

Lehkonen and Necas spent a lot of time next to MacKinnon after Brock Nelson arrived. One is a do-it-all guy (Lehkonen), and one is talented enough to match wits and skills with a superstar (Necas). It works.

That doesn’t mean Bednar won’t tinker. All coaches do. Colton had chemistry with MacKinnon early last season. Olofsson has had some good runs next to Jack Eichel. Could either of them find a home there, helping Bednar to spread the wealth?

Here’s a sicko mode idea: What if both of those guys flanked MacKinnon and allowed the Avs to load up a third line with two great wings? Given how Bednar has used MacKinnon for years now, it would be easy for him to double-shift when the No. 3 center has extra penalty killing duties or the club is chasing the game.

Second-line wings

• Incumbents: Landeskog, Nichushkin
• Contenders: Lehkonen, Necas
• Wild cards: Colton, Olofsson

The Avs finished the Dallas series with Landeskog and Nichushkin flanking Nelson — a hulking, potentially devastating line. Jonathan Drouin is gone, so that looks like Landeskog’s spot unless he moves up next to MacKinnon.

If Bednar put that trio together on the first day of camp and said they stay together until something breaks, it would make a lot of sense. If Landeskog and Nichushkin can both play close to a full season, that trio has a “best second line in the NHL” ceiling.

No. 3 center

• Incumbent: None
• Contenders: Jack Drury, Colton, Parker Kelly
• Wild card: Necas

Drury should be the clear favorite here to replace Charlie Coyle, who is off to Columbus. The best-case scenario is Drury, in a contract year, proves he can be a 3C for a contender. Colton and Kelly have played there, and can again as insurance policies. But if it����ap not Drury, the 3C for Game 1 in April is probably not on the roster right now …

… unless the Avs gave Necas another shot to play in the middle. That might not be something the player is thrilled with in a contract year, so maybe it����ap not even an option.

Third-line wings

• Incumbents: Joel Kiviranta
• Contenders: Colton, Kelly, Olofsson
• Wild card: Zakhar Bardakov

Bednar can sometimes blur the lines (pun intended) between third and fourth, particularly in cases where he just loves the way his fourth line is playing. That trio was Kelly and Logan O’Connor between Drury. LOC is not available in the near future, so his return will shake up the bottom six at some point.

For now, Colton and Drury seem like solid bets for the third line. Does Kiviranta hold onto that third spot? Is that where Olofsson slots in at even strength?

The entire fourth line

• Incumbents: Kelly
• Contenders: Bardakov, Olofsson, Kiviranta,
• Wild card: Ivan Ivan

Let����ap assume everyone besides O’Connor is healthy. That really only leaves one spot in the lineup for opening night, because five of the bottom six would be some combination of Drury, Colton, Kelly, Kiviranta and Olofsson.

So, that brings us to Bardakov. The general manager talked him up as an option over the summer. He’s coming to camp, and he’s not planning on spending any extended time in Loveland.

If he looks like an NHL player early in camp, there might not be much drama here. Bardakov may get the first crack at the No. 4 center job, but Kelly could handle it as well if needed. Ivan played 40 games for the Avs last year, but struggled at times to find his game after a demotion to the Eagles.

The Avs may not even need to carry a 13th forward in the early going, especially if they think O’Connor could return relatively soon.

Second defense pairing

• Incumbents: Samuel Girard, Josh Manson
• Contenders: Sam Malinski, Brent Burns
• Wild card: None

There is intrigue about how Bednar will deploy his defensemen, and most of it likely boils down to the second pairing. Could the Avs really tinker with this group, like putting Cale Makar on the left side and one of Malinski or Burns next to him? Sure.

Does anyone really think Makar and Devon Toews aren’t going to play together, outside of some minor tinkering when someone isn’t healthy? Didn’t think so.

So, the big question: Do Girard and Manson stay together, or does one of Malinski or Burns slide in there?

Girard-Burns and Malinski-Manson? Girard-Malinski and Burns-Manson?

Those are probably the two most likely options, and Bednar could try both early on. Don’t be surprised if Bednar tries to find some games for Keaton Middleton as well.

The Avs were quite happy with his development last year, and he does give them a third lefty to balance out the pairs. He will likely play regularly when injuries arise, but he also might get a few games early in the year even if everyone is healthy.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing. The hit rate on July 1 contracts is historically poor, and thanks to a last-second rush of clubs retaining their own pending free agents, the market was thin.

Colorado does have cap flexibility, but patience was always an option. And it might turn out to be the right one.

The Avs did sign Parker Kelly to a four-year contract extension, but that doesn’t begin until the 2026-27 campaign. Colorado didn’t add anyone Tuesday who is likely to play regularly in the NHL this season, and the Avs did not retain any of their own free agents who hit the market.

Jonathan Drouin and Ryan Lindgren both moved on, signing reasonable contracts with new clubs. Given the space Colorado has available — $8.325 million in cap space with 10 forwards, five defensemen and two goalies signed to one-way contracts — both deals were a little too rich to leave the Avalanche enough room to fill out the rest of the roster with anything more than bargain bin options.

This July 1 was not as crazy as some from the past, but there were still plenty of head-scratching contracts handed out, and most of them by teams that were not Stanley Cup contenders in April. Just take a spin through the top of the NHL. There wasn’t a lot of activity.

Clubs trying to break into contender status did plenty, but many look like they’ve just rearranged some deck chairs or made slight improvements at best.

The Edmonton Oilers spent a lot of money to retain Evan Bouchard and Trent Frederic, while losing Corey Perry, Evander Kane, Connor Brown, Viktor Arvidsson and John Klingberg and adding no one of significance. They still have the same goaltending tandem. Are the Oilers better?

Dallas did some nice business to retain Matt Duchene, Jamie Benn and welcome back Radek Faksa, but the Stars also lost Mason Marchment, Mikael Granlund, Evgenii Dadonov and Cody Ceci. They also need to shed someone else, likely Matt Dumba or Ilya Lyubushkin, to duck under the cap ceiling. Are the Stars better?

Winnipeg is going to win a news conference by adding hometown kid Jonathan Toews, but how much he helps on the ice is uncertain. The Jets also added two guys for $1 million each, while sitting on more than $20 million in cap space. They also appear set to lose Nikolaj Ehlers. Are the Jets better? A better question from their fans might be: Why aren’t they trying to be?

Vegas is the one contender in the West that made a splashy move. The Golden Knights signed Mitch Marner to an eight-year, $96 million contract. Like Mikko Rantanen with the Stars, he took less than he could have. But, Vegas also lost Nicolas Roy, Nicolas Hague and, most importantly, No. 1 defenseman Alex Pietrangelo is out for this season and maybe beyond because of injury. Are the Golden Knights better?

Los Angeles was very active, adding Perry and Joel Armia up front and Ceci, plus Brian Dumoulin on defense. The Kings also lost Vladislav Gavrikov and Jordan Spence from the blue line, which is certainly older but not better today than it was a week ago. Are the Kings better?

What about the teams trying to climb into contender status in the West? Minnesota began the offseason with lots of cap space, and the Wild’s big additions so far are … Vladimir Tarasenko and Nico Sturm. And Marco Rossi’s future with the Wild remains uncertain.

Vancouver added Kane and retained three of its key players, but also looks set to lose Pius Suter. Calgary and St. Louis weren’t very active and look about the same.

Who got better in the West over the past week or so? Utah, probably. Anaheim, maybe. But not so much that either should be expected to leap up into the group of contenders, either.

There is still plenty of time for the Avalanche and the rest of the top teams in the West to upgrade their rosters. Whether it is in the coming days — where Ehlers lands, for instance, could be a big deal — or with some smart bargain shopping in the coming weeks or big trades closer to the deadline, there will be more moves.

But the top of the West looks eerily similar today as it did three months ago. Everyone is chasing Florida in the Eastern Conference. The top 4-5 teams in the West are tightly bunched together, all with some questions to answer around the edges.

It was a pretty quiet day for the hockey team in Denver, but that’s probably OK. It was in Edmonton, Dallas and Winnipeg, too. It wasn’t a quiet day in Los Angeles, which might turn out to be not OK.

It’s very hard to win the Stanley Cup on July 1, but it’s a lot easier to make moves that help lose it.

Well, the past couple of days removed a lot of the seasoning.

Fifteen players have signed contracts worth $5 million per season or more in the past week, while veteran players Jamie Benn, Patrick Kane, John Tavares and Jonathan Toews have all agreed to deals below that threshold as well. Several of the big deals went to pending restricted free agents, but the top of the UFA class disappeared when Mitch Marner, Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad, Brad Marchand and others took their names off the market.

The names might not be as big on Tuesday, but there are still plenty of teams with a lot of salary cap space as free agency opens in the NHL, so expect to see some not-elite players sign larger-than-expected contracts.

The Colorado Avalanche has a little bit of cap flexibility, but also several depth spots on the roster to fill. Don’t expect the Avs to get into a bidding war for any of the top names still available, but they could also make another trade to free up more cap space, fill one or more of those holes or both.

Colorado does have several players hitting the free agent market Tuesday, including forwards Jonathan Drouin, Joel Kiviranta and Jimmy Vesey, plus defensemen Ryan Lindgren and Erik Johnson.

NHL free agency updates

Day 1: July 1

1:05 p.m.: The Avs bolstered the blue line for the Eagles by signing Ronnie Attard to a one-year, two-way contract. Attard, 26, was a third-round pick in the 2019 NHL draft. The 6-foot-3, 208-pound defenseman split last season between the Philadelphia Flyers’ and Edmonton Oilers’ AHL affiliates. He has 29 games of NHL experience with the Flyers, spread across the previous three seasons.

12:55 p.m.: Jonathan Drouin is moving on.

Drouin signed a two-year, $8 million contract with the New York Islanders, becoming the second UFA to leave the Avs on the first day of free agency. Drouin had 30 goals and 93 points in 122 games across two seasons with the Avs.

He signed two one-year contracts with Colorado, and was one of the best bargains in the NHL both years. Drouin came to Denver to reunite with his friend Nathan MacKinnon and help rebuild his value. In doing so, the Avs got a productive forward on a cheap contract who also evolved in a much better two-way player during his tenure.

Drouin goes to the Islanders to play for Avs legend Patrick Roy. He’s also there in part because the Isles had some extra cap space they wouldn’t have if Brock Nelson had signed before the trade deadline last season and not ended up in Denver.

11:30 a.m.: The first of Colorado’s free agents has found a new home.

Ryan Lindgren has agreed to a four-year, $18 million contract with the Seattle Kraken, according to multiple reports. Lindgren just concluded a one-year deal at the same $4.5 million AAV. The Avs acquired Lindgren, along with Jimmy Vesey, from the New York Rangers before the trade deadline for Calvin de Haan, Juuso Parssinen plus second- and fourth-round picks.

Lindgren had two goals and an assist in 18 games for the Avs. He had played mostly on New York’s top pairing with Adam Fox, but settled into a No. 4/5 role with Colorado.

10:45 a.m.: Colorado retained two key players for the Eagles on one-year contracts.

T.J. Tynan, 33, and Jack Ahcan both signed one-year deals to remain with the organization. Tynan had eight goals and 49 points in 52 games for the Eagles last season. He also had one point in nine games for the Avalanche.

Ahcan, 28, had five goals and 41 points in 69 games for the Eagles. He also played in the Avs’ final two games of the regular season.

10:20 a.m.: The Avalanche signed one of its forwards with one year remaining on his current contract, but it wasn’t the one people might have been expecting.

Parker Kelly signed a four-year, $6.8 million extension Tuesday, a league source confirmed to The Denver Post. The deal will carry a $1.7 million cap hit. It doesn’t start until 2026-27 and runs through 2030.

Kelly, 26, joined the Avs a year ago on a two-year, $1.65 million deal. He had eight goals and 19 points in 80 games for the Avalanche, spending a large chunk of the season as the No. 3 center before settling in on the wing of the fourth line after the club revamped its roster.

This was the first day Kelly was eligible to sign a new contract. Martin Necas, Jack Drury, Josh Manson, Scott Wedgewood and Sam Malinski are all eligible for new deals that begin in 2026.

10:00 a.m.: Monday was the deadline to extend a qualifying offer to restricted free agents. The Avs did not qualify forwards Jean Luc-Foudy, William Dufour, defenseman John Ludvig and goaltender Kevin Mandolese, so they are all officially unrestricted free agents.

Avalanche depth chart

Here’s where the Avalanche depth chart stands the morning of July 1, before the free agent frenzy gets started:

Artturi Lehkonen – Nathan MacKinnon – Martin Necas
Gabe Landeskog – Brock Nelson – Valeri Nichushkin
Ross Colton – Jack Drury – Parker Kelly
??? – ??? – ???

Internal options: Ivan Ivan, Nikita Prischepov, Zakhar Bardakov, Matthew Stienburg, Jason Polin

Devon Toews – Cale Makar
Samuel Girard – Josh Manson
??? – Sam Malinski

Internal options: Keaton Middleton, Wyatt Aamodt, Jacob MacDonald

Mackenzie Blackwood
Scott Wedgewood
Trent Miner

Injured: Logan O’Connor (hip)

And here’s some reading material to get updated on the Avs’ offseason to date:

Avs sign RFA Sam Malinski

Avs have clarity, cap flexibility … and could be patient

Avs trade Charlie Coyle, Miles Wood to Columbus

Avs 2025 NHL draft tracker

Renck: Avs re-signing Brock Nelson puts Chris MacFarland, Jared Bednar on notice

Avs sign Brock Nelson, answer biggest offseason question

Sam Malinski and the Avs agreed to a one-year, $1.4 million contract for the 2025-26 season, according to a league source, shoring up the team’s defensive depth while also keeping Malinski off the NHL market.

Colorado isn’t expected to be big shoppers when free agency begins Tuesday, but the Avs do have more salary cap flexibility than they’ve had in recent seasons. The Avs don’t typically make splashy signings in early July, opting instead to find talent externally through trades, and that could again be the case this summer.

It’s possible Colorado’s top six forwards, top five defensemen and both goaltenders in the opening-night lineup are already on the roster following the Malinski deal. Of the 17 players currently on one-way contracts, only one has been acquired with an early July free-agent deal: forward Parker Kelly, who signed a two-year pact on July 1, 2024.

“Every situation is different,” Avalanche general manager Chris MacFarland said Saturday after the 2025 NHL draft. “Obviously, the advantage to free agency is you’re just giving up money and you can hold onto your assets. … We’ll look at all avenues over the next few days and see if we can improve the roster.”

The Avs now have $8.325 million in cap space available with 10 forwards, five defensemen and two goalies signed to one-way contracts. One of those forwards, Logan O’Connor, is expected to miss the start of the 2025-26 campaign after offseason hip surgery.

Colorado was short on cap space until it traded Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood to the Columbus Blue Jackets last week — a move that cleared $7.75 million off the books for this upcoming season and $2.5 million in each of the following three years.

The Avs have several players who will become unrestricted free agents at midnight Tuesday, including forwards Jonathan Drouin, Joel Kiviranta and Jimmy Vesey, plus defensemen Ryan Lindgren and Erik Johnson. Drouin’s agent, Allan Walsh of Octagon Hockey, .

Drouin and the Avs have had a mutually beneficial relationship the past two seasons. Drouin was able to rebuild his value as a productive, two-way impact forward, while the team had him on a below-market contract. Drouin should find a healthy raise from the $2.5 million he made this past season.

Opening up the extra cap space could allow the Avs to still bring Lindgren and/or Kiviranta back, depending on what the market looks like for both players. Kiviranta had a career year on a league-minimum contract and should finally get a deal with some term attached to it.

Lindgren could be a fascinating player to watch. He had better results playing in a lesser role with the Avalanche after a midseason trade than he had while on the New York Rangers’ top pairing for several years.

A couple of defensemen with similar styles of play — Calgary’s Kevin Bahl and Nicolas Hague, newly acquired in Nashville — have signed contracts worth at least $5.5 million per season. There’s an argument that Lindgren, who just finished a contract at $4.5 million per year, is better than both players, but he is indisputably not as good at being very tall.

A clear trend in the NHL right now is clubs wanting big, heavy defensemen. Lindgren plays the game the way NHL GMs want their defense-first defensemen to, but he’s listed at 6-foot, not 6-foot-6 like his two peers mentioned above.

Malinski, who will turn 27 years old next month, had five goals and 15 points in 76 games in his first full NHL season this past year for the Avs.

He is listed at 5-foot-11 and 190 pounds and signed as an undrafted free agent in March 2023 after four years at Cornell. He had three goals and 10 points in 23 games in 2023-24 before becoming a regular in the lineup this past season. He spent most of the year on the third pairing, but he moved up to the second when one of the top-four guys wasn’t available.

Finding someone to partner with Malinski is one of the key offseason objectives left for the Avs. So, too, is filling out the depth roles at forward as well. The Avs can be patient if they want, but also have the cap space to do so in the coming days as well.

Footnotes: The Avs also signed RFA goaltender Trent Miner to a two-year contract Monday. Miner, 24, made his NHL debut this past season and is the club’s No. 3 goalie behind Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood. He could have a looming battle with 2024 second-round pick Ilya Nabokov in 2026 for the backup role because Wedgewood is entering the final year of his contract.