Given the breakout season from Sam Malinski in 2025-26, the Avs begin the offseason with a top four of Cale Makar, Devon Toews, Josh Manson and Malinski. They also have one of the best right-side depth charts in the NHL, and typically the starboard side is tougher to fill out.

The less good news is the next four guys on the depth chart are all unrestricted free agents and the Avs are still pretty tight on salary cap space even after trading Ross Colton. So that becomes one of Joe Sakic’s biggest challenges after returning to the general manager’s chair.

Colorado played with four right-handed defensemen for most of last season. It’s a rarity, but the Avs made it work. Right now, three of their top four are righties.

In an ideal world, the Avs will add at least two left-handed defensemen this offseason, and at least one that can regularly play top-four minutes. Doing so on a limited budget could be tricky, but trading one of the veteran forwards could also help with that endeavor.

Here’s a look at some of the options that could be available, either as UFAs or in the trade market.

Unrestricted free agents

Brett Kulak
2025-26: 1 goal, 12 points, 18:58 time on ice/contest in 83 games

Kulak was a really nice fit for the Avs after arriving in a trade from the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Avs needed a more defensive-minded defenseman and he provided that. His underlying numbers in the regular season, particularly before arriving in Denver, were not great. And he’ll be 33 years old in January. He’d be a solid fit for this team as the No. 5 guy, but it’s certainly plausible that another team would be willing to pay him more if he gets to July 1.

Brent Burns
2025-26: 12 goals, 35 points, 18:52 in 82 games

Does he want to play another year? Does he want to stay in Denver? Do the Avs want to bring him back? Burns repeatedly said he wasn’t thinking beyond this year during this past season, but he certainly looked like a player who has at least one more year of competent hockey in him. Given the Avs’ cap issues, bringing him back on another one-year deal with incentives that can be pushed to the 2027-28 cap if needed does make some sense. Will they want to have four righties in the top six again?

Jack Ahcan
2025-26: 0 goals, 2 points, 11:32 in 11 games

Feels like an obvious match, particularly if he’d accept another two-way contract. Not sure he’d find a one-way deal on the open market, but he’s shown he can play in a limited role in the NHL. The Avs would probably be comfortable starting the season with him as the No. 7 guy, but just like this past year, they’d also very likely be looking for an NHL veteran or two ahead of the deadline for more insurance.

Nick Blankenburg
2025-26: 8 goals, 24 points, 16:48 in 61 games

Blankenburg’s pre-Colorado numbers seem very likely to earn him a contract that doesn’t work for the Avs. It makes sense for him to look for a regular role, perhaps even as a No. 4/5 guy. The Avs are more likely to see him as a No. 6/7 guy, particularly with all the righties in front of him.

Ryan Shea
2025-26: 6 goals, 35 points, 18:53 in 80 games

Darren Raddysh just signed an 8-year, $68 million deal after one wildly successful NHL season. Shea is going to be a smaller version of that. He had 70 NHL games before last year, but was a very solid second-pairing guy for a playoff team. The offense was definitely helped by Pittsburgh shooting better than 13% when he was on the ice at 5-on-5. He’s a medium-sized lefty who is a strong penalty killer and he doesn’t turn 30 until midseason. He is also probably the best lefty on the market right now.

Jeremy Lauzon
2025-26: 1 goal, 13 points, 17:11 in 68 games

Lauzon could be an alternative to Kulak, if he finds greener pastures elsewhere. Not as dependable from an availability standpoint in recent years, but Lauzon would add size (6-foot-3, 225 pounds) and defensive solidity. He’d fit better as the No. 3 guy on the left side, if possible. He could give Jared Bednar the option of a true shutdown pairing with Manson, or an offense-defense duo with Malinski.

Mike Reilly
2025-26: 1 goal, 9 points, 14:58 in 42 games

Reilly has had solid underlying numbers for years, but he’s also played only 60 games over the past two seasons. He’s listed at 6-foot-2, can play both sides and handles sheltered minutes quite well. He played 42 games for the Carolina Hurricanes this season, but only twice during the club’s title run. He could be that type of player for the Avs — a regular for much of the season in a third-pairing role, then potentially the No. 7 come playoff time if they add another defenseman before the trade deadline.

Carson Soucy
2025-26: 5 goals, 12 points, 16:31 in 76 games

Soucy is very tall, at 6-foot-5. He had a solid start to his season with the New York Rangers. Most of his underlying numbers were pretty similar with the New York Islanders, but the latter was outscored 21-10 with him on the ice at 5-on-5 in just 30 games. The Isles collapsed near the end of the season. Other front offices will need to do their homework to understand what went wrong there. He should be a No. 6 on the Avs, but might get paid to be more elsewhere.

Vincent Desharnais
2025-26: 1 goal, 7 points, 18:11 in 53 games

Desharnais is very tall (6-foot-7) and offers almost no offense. But he’s also a better defensive player than a couple of the other size XL defensemen in this market. He is right-handed, so he’d only be an option if Burns doesn’t return and the Avs are OK with rolling out four righties at times again next year.

Colton White
2025-26: 0 goals, 4 points, 12:15 in 23 games

White is a medium-sized guy (6-foot-1, 187 pounds) who can move the puck and hold his own in sheltered minutes. Now that he’s 29 years old, getting a full-time gig might never happen. But as a potential No. 7, he could be a solid depth addition. The Avs could do worse than White/Ahcan as their No. 7/8 defensemen.

Trade market

Bowen Byram/Morgan Rielly

Here are the two best left-handed defensemen whose names are squarely in the trade market discussion. It’s hard to see a reunion with Byram. Samuel Girard is gone, but the top-two guys — and a blocked path to the power play — are still here. Rielly is an offense-first guy that doesn’t really fit what the Avs need, given both the acquisition cost and his cap number.

Pavel Mintyukov/Olen Zellweger

The Anaheim Ducks have about $43 million in cap space this summer, and basically an entire defense corps behind Jackson Lacombe to re-sign or rebuild. Any of all of the old guys (John Carlson, Jacob Trouba, Radko Gudas) could leave, but the Ducks could also move one of their young RFAs — Mintyukov or Zellweger — if the negotiations don’t go well or the available space starts to dry up (Leo Carlsson and Cutter Gauthier also need new contracts).

Jonas Siegenthaler
2025-26: 0 goals, 16 points, 19:29 in 82 games

Siegenthaler has been a bit up and down with the New Jersey Devils, but when he’s in form, he’s a solid defense-only guy on a very reasonable contract — two years left with a $3.4 million cap hit. The Devils have a new GM, and a bit of a logjam in the defense corps.

Mason Lohrei
2025-26: 7 goals, 26 points, 16:54 in 73 games

Lohrei is a 6-foot-5 defenseman with some offensive acumen who turns 26 in January. His future value lies in the answer to one question: What improvements did he actually make on the defensive side of things last season? Two seasons ago, the Boston Bruins were outscored 72-52 with Lohrei on the ice at 5-on-5. This past season, with very similar underlying numbers, Boston outscored foes 47-30. Whether or not he’s an intriguing trade target, or why the Bruins might be willing to move him, is somewhere in the answer to that question.

FOOTNOTES: The Avs announced their four-game preseason schedule Monday. It is reduced from the typical six or seven in years’ past because the NHL is moving to an 84-game regular season in 2026-27. Colorado will play Utah at home on Sept. 20 and Winnipeg at Ball Arena on Sept. 25. The Avs will travel to Manitoba to face the Jets on Sept. 21 and to Salt Lake City to play the Mammoth on Sept. 26.

Whatever level of patience and stability Joe Sakic truly believes the Colorado Avalanche need this offseason, he’s got some work to do with the defense corps.

There could be some interesting decisions with the forwards, while the goaltending is the most likely group to look exactly the same on opening night as it does today. The blue line could generate a bunch of headlines in the next few weeks, though.

“There’s always changes, but we have the core guys here,” Sakic said at his year-end press conference. “We have a nucleus. We’re a deep team. We feel we’re strong in all the positions. Obviously, we have some UFAs that we’re going to try and sign to keep the group together, but it’s a great group.

“They care about each other. They want to win. They’re very competitive. They’re disappointed, but their expectations are to try and come back and try and compete and win a Stanley Cup.”

Two of the team’s three key free agents are part of the defense corps, and there are depth concerns as well.

What just happened

When fully healthy, the Avs defense corps was arguably the league’s best in 2025-26. Cale Makar finished second in the Norris Trophy voting despite his lowest per-game offensive output since 2020-21. The start of Devon Toews’ year wasn’t at his best, but he had a strong finish after the Olympic break and into the postseason.

Sam Malinski was one of the breakout players of the entire NHL, earned a new contract and was playing like a No. 3 defenseman at his peak. He wasn’t near the new standard he set in the Western Conference Final, and was widely believed to be playing through a compromising injury after missing two games in the second round.

Josh Manson missed four games in the playoffs, but otherwise filled his role as the club’s most physical defenseman while collecting the second-most points of his career. Brent Burns played every game like always, was a hit in the dressing room and showed he can still play even past his 41st birthday.

The addition of Brett Kulak as a steady, defense-first guy at the trade deadline was a success, even if the price tag on the day of the trade seemed a bit steep.

Former GM Chris MacFarland admitted that he tried to add three defensemen ahead of the deadline, not just Kulak and Nick Blankenburg — a sign that Colorado knew the depth of its defense during a long playoff run could be an issue. Blankenburg played to mixed results as the No. 7 guy, and Jack Ahcan ended up getting three of the eight games available because of injuries to the top six.

What¶¶Òõap next

The top priority is a new contract for Makar, who can be a UFA in July 2027. He’s eligible to sign July 1, and Sakic made it clear the Avs expect to get a deal done this summer.

But there are a lot of moves to make to build out the defense corps for next season as well. Makar, Toews, Malinski and Manson are a great foundation to build from, but the next four guys — Kulak, Burns, Blankenburg and Ahcan — are all unrestricted free agents.

The Avs are currently short on salary cap space, so one or more of the forwards could be on the move to help allocate more resources to the blue line.

Does Burns want to keep playing and do the Avs want another year with him? He can break the NHL’s ironman record next year if he continues. A similar deal to this past year — $1 million in salary with bonuses makes sense, whether that is in Denver or elsewhere.

What could Kulak get on the open market? Hint: Probably a lot. There is a strong argument that Kulak would be the No. 1 left-handed defenseman on the market, and one of the 3-5 best overall.

That leads to the next big question: Can the Avs find more balance after entering the 2026 playoffs with five righties in their top seven?

Lining up Manson and Malinski (or flip them) down the right side behind Makar is excellent, particularly if Malinski is able to retain or even build on the gains he made this past season. But the Avs need to fill out the LHD side of the depth chart. Manson and Burns worked together, but Colorado needs more lefties.

Trading Samuel Girard for a guy in the last year of his contract (Kulak) created this conundrum, but if the Avs can’t sign Kulak, they’ll be looking for a similar-style player to replace him. In an ideal world, Sakic can land a young-ish left-handed defenseman who is capable of playing on the second pairing now and possibly be the heir to Toews as the club’s No. 2 guy as he ages.

Will the Avs be able to count on any help from the Eagles? There are a couple of guys with potential to be depth options for them next season, beyond just bringing Ahcan and/or Blankenburg back.

The Avs are clearly intrigued by Alex Gagne, a 6-foot-5 lefty who was a college free agent from New Hampshire and became a solid contributor for the Eagles in his first pro season. He’ll be 24 in August. Then there is University of Denver alum Sean Behrens, who missed all of two years ago with a knee injury and just completed his first healthy pro campaign.

It’s hard to see Colorado wanting to break camp with one of those guys in the lineup, but maybe one of them can work his way up the depth chart to the No. 6 or 7 spot over the course of next season. Behrens’ size will work against him, but his smarts could help him find a depth role.

It could take some creativity, but the Avs will likely sign or trade for at least three defensemen, if not more, between now and training camp. And that’s not counting a potential mega-deal for Makar, which will help shape the salary cap puzzle for 2027-28 and beyond.

Future depth chart

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

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

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

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

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

Craig Berube? Too much Maple Leaf. Pass.

Kris Knoblauch? Nah.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A more complicated offseason

Colorado’s offseason looked pretty straightforward a week ago.

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

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

Now? Everything has to be on the table.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That starts at the top.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Play the Joker, Super Joe. Go wild.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Everyone thinks Jared Bednar is a great guy. But he is no longer a good fit for the Avalanche.

He is the best coach in franchise history. Yet, running it back would be the worst thing the organization could do.

Bednar’s resume saved him when the Avs fizzled for three consecutive years after winning the Stanley Cup.

What happened in this Western Conference Final hit different.

The best team in hockey was clobbered. The Avs were broomed away like so many cigarette butts and plastic daiquiri cups, the seventh No. 1 seed swept in NHL history.

BTS came back and performed at Allegiant Stadium across the interstate. BTA (belt to bleep) returned in Game 4 at T-Mobile Arena.

The Golden Knights, so underwhelming and uninspiring that they fired their coach with eight games remaining in the season, put the Avs out of their misery with a 2-1 victory.

Leave the miracles to Mike Eruzione, the 2004 Boston Red Sox and that perm-coiffed dude who married Selena Gomez.

This Avs’ exit needs to come with a major announcement, that president Joe Sakic and general manager Chris MacFarland have decided to dismiss Bednar with one year remaining on his contract.

There is no joy in writing this. It is not all Bednar’s fault that the Avs picked a bad week to play their worst hockey, failing to win a game in a playoff series for the first time since 2008. They almost got shut out in a closeout.

So, let’s meet in the middle and say half the onus is on Bednar because of a system that no longer works in the postseason against defensive-minded, possession-oriented pests like the Dallas Stars and Knights.

Just like their matchup against Las Vegas, the Avs are boxed in, frustrated, with no easy way out. Some version of this problem arose when Seattle and Dallas eliminated the Avs, but there was compelling evidence to stick with the coach, given Valeri Nichushkin’s absences and Gabe Landeskog’s injury.

There is no good reason for what just happened over the past six days. Only excuses.

Are the Avs, a team that won 16 more games than the Golden Knights during the regular season, so fragile that they stood no chance without Cale Makar for two games and Nathan MacKinnon compromised for a few periods?

All we talked about was their depth, starting in October and louder after the trade deadline in March when MacFarland cemented his executive-of-the-year status.

They were a Noah’s Ark team — two of everything. And no player could sway the outcome in one game? Embarrassing.

Captain Mark Stone missed the first two games of this series, and it did not undermine Las Vegas. He was a catalytic force on Tuesday, catching a long lob in stride behind the defense in the first period, most notably Nazem Kadri, and whipping it around Mackenzie Blackwood’s left leg for a 1-0 lead.

If not for Blackwood’s acrobatics, the Avs would have been routed.

Still, the Golden Knights were winning.

After the particularly disturbing Game 3 loss, when the Avs lost for only the second time in 76 playoff games when leading by three goals, Colorado resorted to whimpering.

Down 3-0, Bednar kept pointing to the metrics, insisting they were dead even. OK, Kenny Atkinson. How about we simmer down on the analytics and focus more on the manalytics.

When the Avs needed a big hit, big shot or big stop, they failed to deliver. That is what defines the postseason: shining in the clutch. Under Bednar’s watch, the Avs wilted under the LED lights washing over Bruno Mars Drive and The Strip.

The players are not blameless.

MacKinnon did not produce a goal in the series. Marty Necas, paid to provide the big performances previously delivered by Mikko Rantanen, had one in the postseason.

Brock Nelson aged like Keith Richards, and never looked the same after returning from the Olympics. Devon Toews made costly mistakes unbecoming of a player of his caliber. Kadri did not plug in the power play — 1-for-10 against Las Vegas. And even before he got hurt, Nichushkin did nothing of note.

So many breakdowns. So many errors in their own zone.

Does some of that fall on Bednar? Sure.

“At the end of the day, coaches are coaches,” Makar said in a somber postgame locker room. “He means so much to this team, and he’s allowed us to play our games and process that from years and years for this. He deserves a lot of credit for getting us to this point. Again, he’s not playing the game, he’s not out on the ice.

He’s giving us everything we possibly can, information-wise, to go out there and be the best we can be, and unfortunately … you feel like you let people down. He’s one of those guys that you feel like worked so hard, the whole coaching staff, everybody. You just feel like you let them down a little bit.”

Bednar could have changed line combinations sooner. Could have tweaked the power play lineup. Could have challenged bad calls with ferocious intensity. Could have pulled Scott Wedgewood in favor of Blackwood after the second goal on Sunday.

In reality, there is no single reason why Bednar should go. It is the aggregate.

For the past four years, the Avs have not only failed to raise another Cup — we can all agree one is not enough with this core — they have not reached the championship round.

Stand pat, always an option for Kroenke Sports, and the Avs might be a top seed again. But the regular season is not the problem. The Avs have aced those pop quizzes.

The playoffs are the final. Or the Final, if you will. That is a huge part of the grade when entering with title-or-bust expectations.

Since 2022, they are 0-for-4.

Truth is, if two-time champion Mike Shanahan can get fired by the Broncos, no professional Colorado sports coach should be safe forever. Shanahan, the GM, got Shanahan, the coach, canned. Bednar’s scheme is what could do him in.

For those defending Bednar, it is understandable. It is also misguided.

The Avs are stuck with multiple big contracts — MacKinnon, soon-to-be Makar, Landeskog, Necas, Kadri, Nelson, Toews, Blackwood, Sam Malinski — that will limit their movement unless they are willing to eat money.

It is much easier to switch out the person standing behind the bench than those sitting on it.

This could go one of two ways, like most things. The Avs thank Bednar for his services and hire a young genius like DU’s David Carle or a veteran like Bruce Cassidy. Then, they win a Cup.

Or Bednar succeeds elsewhere, and the Avs fade, making it clear the players, not the system, were the problem.

It is worth finding out.

The feeling is that Avs officials never want to pull the plug on Bednar because they like him and love how he works with everyone (which is why his situation is not comparable to Michael Malone with the Nuggets).

Whatever the case, ownership has given Sakic and MacFarland freedom to try everything the past two seasons with roster upgrades. After this playoff meltdown, they now have a responsibility they can no longer shirk.

As hard as it might be, it is time for Bednar to go because sticking with him, as the series with Las Vegas showed, is a losing bet.

Then a three-goal lead disappeared as quickly as it was created, another superstar was injured, and this once-dream season is officially on the brink.

The Vegas Golden Knights rallied after yielding the first three goals of this game, with Tomas Hertl providing the game-winner in a 5-3 victory in Game 3 of this best-of-seven series at T-Mobile Arena.

“It’s frustrating,” said Avs star Cale Makar, who returned after missing the first two games of this series. “I mean, we’ve been on the other side of that, obviously coming back from that, and it’s going to happen. But it can’t happen at this time of the year. I felt like they got some lucky bounces, but we’ve got to find a little bit better way to kind of challenge ourselves in those moments and come out of that.

“Just unfortunate. We still had a chance, obviously, in the third there.”

Vegas leads the series 3-0. The Golden Knights can complete an absolutely stunning sweep of the Presidents’ Trophy winners on their home ice on Tuesday night.

To make matters worse, Avs superstar Nathan MacKinnon was injured blocking a shot during the second period. He tried to play through it after taking a hard shot from Shea Theodore off the outside of his right knee, but his mobility was clearly limited.

MacKinnon took one normal shift in the third period, then went on the ice for Colorado’s power play. His three even-strength shifts after the injury totaled a combined 88 seconds, and the Avs were without the NHL’s leading goal scorer this season while trying to come back until MacKinnon went out again for a 6-on-5 shift.

That shift ended with Brett Howden’s empty-net goal to seal the Vegas victory. MacKinnon still managed to play 4:05 in the third period, but that’s maybe 40 percent of what he’d play when healthy in this situation.

Avs coach Jared Bednar also noted that Valeri Nichushkin was injured in the third period. Nichuhskin did not play in the final 22 minutes of this contest.

“Well, it¶¶Òõap low,” Bednar said when asked about the emotions of his team after a loss like that. “As low as it can get, because it¶¶Òõap a big hill to climb. The next 24-to-36 hours is for … you’ve got to find a way to get over it, regroup and go again.”

A tale of two periods

The first period couldn’t have gone much better for the visitors. The second period couldn’t have gone much worse.

Colorado blew a three-goal lead in less than 13 minutes. Vegas scored three times in the period on just eight shots.

“Everything,” Bednar said when asked what fell apart after the first. “Yeah, the first 9 minutes (of the second) kind of looked like portions of Game 1 for me and parts of Game 2 where we mismanaged the puck on breakouts. Then they just got more competitive and we didn’t stay with that intensity for nine minutes. A little bit of communication, some talk and we just didn’t dig in and match their intensity at the start of the second quick enough.”

The Golden Knights began the middle period on the power play. It took them 19 seconds to convert. Vegas captain Mark Stone, who returned after missing the past five games with an injury, tapped home a pass from Mitch Marner near the right post after a perfectly executed dump-in and retrieval.

William Karlsson made it a 3-2 game at 4:05 of the period. Marner shot the puck from the right point. Scott Wedgewood made the first save, but the rebound bounced off Parker Kelly’s stick and right to Karlsson, who whipped a shot inside the near post before the Avs goaltender could get square to him.

It was the first goal of the postseason for Karlsson, who is one of the original Vegas ‘Misfits’ from the inaugural season, but missed a huge chunk of this year before returning during the last round.

MacKinnon took a hard shot off the outside of his right knee with 7:54 remaining in the period. He was writhing on the ice for 9 seconds before play was stopped.

Keegan Kolesar tied the game at 3-3 on the next shift. Kolesar deflected a shot from the top of the zone by Dylan Coghlan off the right post and then tapped the rebound into the net for his first goal of this postseason.

“To me it¶¶Òõap the full 60(-minute) effort, competitiveness at times, puck moving and some turnovers that can get you,” Bednar said. “They’re going to make it difficult on you, but you have to try create enough chances and finish off enough to win a hockey game.”

Colorado’s offense roared to life at the start of this contest after two rough nights back home at Ball Arena.

Landeskog put the Avs in front just 3:21 into this contest. Devon Toews beat Noah Hanifin to a loose puck in the neutral zone, which created a 2-on-1. Hanifin took a penalty trying to defend Toews as he took the puck to the net, but Landeskog was there to put home the rebound.

That is five goals for Landeskog in the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, just another chapter in his remarkable comeback story.

That was also Colorado’s first lead of the series. Nazem Kadri, moved up to the second line and to the wing for the first time in this postseason, doubled the advantage at 7:03 with one of the best team-effort goals of the season.

Josh Manson faked out Nic Dowd behind the Colorado net to free up space for the defenseman to hit Martin Necas with a tape-to-tape outlet pass beyond the red line. Necas split two defenders, then left the puck for Kadri, who buried a shot from the inside of the left circle for his third of the postseason.

Vegas thought it cut the lead in half during a Golden Knights power play. Pavel Dorofeyev batted the puck out of mid-air with a cross-checking motion near the edge of the Colorado crease. An official immediately waived off the goal, citing that Dorofeyev put the puck into the net with his hand.

After a lengthy review, the officials said the call on the ice was correct. Even if they had reversed it and awarded the goal, Colorado may have challenged for a high stick.

Either way, the Avs extended their lead to 3-0 just 43 seconds later. Parker Kelly backhanded the puck out of the Avs zone and two Vegas players missed it when trying to keep it in, leaving Jack Drury alone for a shorthanded breakaway. His deke fooled Vegas goaltender Carter Hart, and the Avs had a three-goal lead with 6:45 remaining in the opening period.

That lead was gone a little less than 20 minutes later. The season will end Tuesday night if the Avs can’t find a way to extend this series and get back to Ball Arena for a potential Game 5.

“You can go so many different ways, but we need to play better,” Landeskog said. “Simple as that. We need better, and we need to find a way to score more goals, and I thought we did a good job of that tonight. Obviously, build a lead, and then they claw their way into it. They’re a good team over there.”

The Vegas Golden Knights scored a pair of goals 127 seconds apart in the third period Friday night to plunder Game 2 of the Western Conference Final and seize complete control of this series. Vegas goalie Carter Hart made 29 saves in the 3-1 victory, and the Golden Knights now lead the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Avalanche 2-0 in this best-of-seven series.

“You have to deal with the task at hand and what¶¶Òõap to come,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “We’re not going to try and win four games the next night in Vegas. We’re trying to win one. It can sound cliche, but that¶¶Òõap how we approach it. Focus on our process, what we need to do.

“We played a great hockey game tonight. So did they. It could go either way.”

Game 3 will be Sunday night in Sin City at T-Mobile Arena. The Avs will now need to win four of the next five games, including at least two in Las Vegas, for this remarkable ride not to end short of the expected destination. Superstar defenseman Cale Makar did not play again after missing Game 1 with an upper-body injury.

The Avs were 41-0-0 in the regular season when leading after two periods and 4-0 in the postseason before Friday night.

“It stings for sure right now, but tomorrow we’ll wake up, have a meeting, fly to Vegas and regroup,” Avs captain Gabe Landeskog said. “That’s all you can do.”

Jack Eichel evened the score for Vegas at 9:15 of the third period. He took a shot from the right faceoff circle with Avs defenseman Devon Toews bearing down on him that beat Wedgewood on the far side just inside the left post. It was Eichel’s second goal of this postseason.

Ivan Barbashev gave Vegas its first lead of the night at 11:22. Toews tried to flip the puck out of danger in the defensive end, but Pavel Dorofeyev got a piece of it. The puck went to Eichel, who quickly shuffled it to Barbashev for a shot from the middle of the ice above the circles that rattled off the left post and in.

“It¶¶Òõap a fine margin for error, the difference of winning and losing,” Bednar said. “There’s obviously things in the game, especially you gave up two in the third period, that you don’t like. There’s a lot of that game that I really liked, and so you’ve got to keep chipping away at the margins.

Ross Colton opened the scoring at 16:59 of the first period. Brent Burns sent one of his patented stinger shots towards the Vegas net from the right point. It didn’t get there, but Colton was in the right place to corral the loose puck after the initial shot was blocked. Colton snapped one into the top-right corner of the net for his second goal of this postseason.

Given how much success the Avs had in the regular season and how well the first two rounds of this tournament went, it wasn’t hyperbole to say Colton’s goal at the time was one of the most important of the 2025-26 season for the Avalanche to date.

Vegas was in control of this game before Colton scored. The Golden Knights looked much smoother breaking the puck out of its own end, and the Avs had multiple defensive breakdowns in theirs. The quantity of chances were pretty similar in the opening 16 minutes, but the quality clearly favored the visitors.

Avs goalie Scott Wedgewood was immense in the first 20 minutes, and then his teammates were much better in the second. It was a choppier period, in part because five penalties were called. Colorado’s penalty kill was immense, erasing three Vegas opportunities and drawing an infraction as well.

“We dug a hole. It¶¶Òõap on us,” Avs forward Logan O’Connor said. “We’ve got to reset, go into Vegas and do the same thing they did to us. It starts with one game and just chip away at this thing. There are things we can learn from that game, I think we got away from our game plan in the third period, we let them hang around throughout the game and they’re gonna capitalize on their opportunities.”

Already missing Makar, the Avs appeared to dodge a disaster late in the second period. Josh Manson dished out a huge hit along the boards in his own end, but also propelled himself into the wall awkwardly. He went down the tunnel and missed the end of the period, but was able to come back for the final period.

Vegas took Game 1 of this series two nights prior, leaning on 36 saves from Hart, but also a sound defensive effort in front of him while building a three-goal lead. Colorado made a late push, but fell short in a 4-2 defeat.

“Flip the script — win two there and come back and have home ice again,” Wedgewood said. “They did it to us, no reason we can’t do it to them. … Obviously we have to find a recipe to put the puck in the net, keep it out of ours. Just flip the script and go to work.

“That why it¶¶Òõap a seven-game series. Find a way to win a game and go from there.”

FOOTNOTES: Both Makar and Vegas captain Mark Stone skated this morning at Ball Arena, but both impact players remained out of the lineup. Stone missed the final three games in the second round against Anaheim as well.

Golden Knights: 39-26-17, 92 points; 3.22 goals per game (14th); 2.95 goals against per game (12th)

Avalanche: 55-16-11, 121 points; 3.63 goals per game (1st), 2.40 goals against per game (1st)

Offense

Minnesota had star power on par with Colorado, but the Wild’s depth was wanting. Vegas is, on paper, the most complete team the Avs have faced. Jack Eichel and Mitch Marner are two of the best players on the planet, though they have been playing on different lines recently. Mark Stone is one of the best two-way forwards in the league, but he missed the end of the Anaheim series, and his availability remains in question.

Pavel Dorofeyev is a pure goal scorer and particularly lethal on the power play. William Karlsson missed most of the season with an injury, but returned against the Ducks and centers the second line between Marner and Brett Howden, though Stone’s return would shake up the forward lines. Ivan Barbashev is another under-the-radar strong offensive player.

Tomas Hertl and Nic Dowd are better than any depth center Minnesota or Los Angeles was able to throw at the Avalanche. Brandon Saad and Reilly Smith are no longer impact players, but when everyone is healthy, they are the 13th and 14th forwards for the Golden Knights — a testament to the club’s depth up front.

Sixteen players scored for Colorado in the five-game series against Minnesota, while Nathan MacKinnon scored in every game. Martin Necas had four multi-point games against the Wild, including two key primary assists in both Games 4 and 5.

The least productive line of the four against Minnesota was the second unit, but that trio also shoulders significant defensive responsibilities. The Avs could use a breakout game or two from Brock Nelson or Valeri Nichushkin on the offensive side of the puck in this series.

Gabe Landeskog continues to be Jared Bednar’s fixer, moving from line to line and immediately helping that unit play better. Parker Kelly and Jack Drury had two goals each from the fourth line against Minnesota. If Artturi Lehkonen is able to play, the Avs are fully healthy up front and still the deepest group in the NHL.

Advantage: Avalanche

Defense

Both of these teams are excellent defensively, and that includes the forward groups helping out the defense corps. This series features a handful of the best defensive forwards in the league.

Cale Makar’s health is the dominant storyline at the start of this series. Makar missed games near the end of the regular season with an injury, but was excellent against the Kings in the opening round. Then he took an awkward hit in Game 1 against Minnesota and was clearly favoring his shoulder in Game 5. Bednar has said he’s “dealing with some stuff,” so it’s probably multiple ailments. Will he be able to play in this series, and how effective will he be?

The Avs are better on the blue line … if Makar is close to his normal self. Vegas lost Alex Pietrangelo for the year, but was able to add Rasmus Andersson ahead of the trade deadline. Andersson, Shea Theodore and Noah Hanifin are the strong top-half of the defense corps — not as good Minnesota’s top three, but a strong trio. Brayden McNabb is a solid No. 4 guy, though he was ejected and suspended for a game in the last round for a dumb, late hit. Jeremy Lauzon hasn’t played since the Utah series, but could be another depth option if he gets healthy.

Avalanche star Cale Makar out for Game 1 of Western Conference Final

Colorado beat Minnesota in part because it was able to mitigate injuries to Sam Malinski and Josh Manson better than the Wild could handle not having Jonas Brodin. How will the bottom half of Vegas' defense corps perform in this series?

Advantage: Avalanche, assuming Makar can play

Special teams

Vegas was, on paper, a great team at the start of the year. The Golden Knights did not win like a great team for most of the year, in part because of poor goaltending. This was an excellent club on special teams, though. The Golden Knights finished the regular season sixth in the NHL on the power play and seventh on the penalty kill. Vegas and Pittsburgh were the only teams to finish in the top 10 in both.

It's been more of the same in the playoffs -- 25.7% on the power play (fourth) and 86.8% on the penalty kill (fifth). Vegas has also scored four times while shorthanded. No other club has more than one shorthanded tally in this tournament.

Colorado's power play started this postseason 0-for-9, but then scored six times in the next five games. It's been more effective, even in opportunities where the Avs don't convert. That said, the Avalanche allowed the most shorthanded goals during the regular season and one against Minnesota, so that will be something to watch out for.

The Avs' penalty kill was No. 1 in the NHL during the regular season. It has allowed six goals in this postseason, but two were 4-on-6 with the other goalie pulled, one was 3-on-4, and one was during the second half of a double minor. The traditional 4-on-5 PK has still been quite strong.

Advantage: Golden Knights

Goaltending

On form, Vegas goalie Carter Hart has been better of late. On track record, both Avalanche goalies were better this season.

Hart is a controversial figure. He was acquitted of sexual assault in July, reinstated by the NHL in September, signed by Vegas to a two-year contract in late October and made his return to NHL action in December. After a rocky start, Hart won his final seven decisions of the regular season, including six in April to help Vegas win the Pacific Division. He's 8-4 with a .915 save percentage in this tournament.

Scott Wedgewood was one of the best stories in the NHL this season, combining with Mackenzie Blackwood to win the William Jennings Trophy while making a career-high 43 starts. Wedgewood led the NHL in both save percentage (.921) and goals against average (2.02). He also had a sterling opening round against Los Angeles with five goals allowed in a four-game sweep.

That said, both Colorado goalies were pulled from games against Minnesota. Blackwood had a chance to take control of the net, but gave it back after just two starts. The guy with the best NHL postseason experience in this series is Vegas' Adin Hill, who led his club to the Cup in 2023 but has become an afterthought since Hart's play improved.

Advantage: Avalanche

Avalanche vs. Wild: 5 storylines to watch

1. How effective will Cale Makar be?

The Avs were able to get by against Minnesota at the end of the series, but Makar was clearly compromised in Game 5. He's had a week to heal up. He hasn't practiced, but Bednar said Tuesday he's not worried yet. His offensive impact waned in the Minnesota series, but the Avs were still getting it done defensively when he was on the ice. They're obviously going to need the best version of Makar that he can offer against Vegas.

2. Can Colorado keep up on special teams?

Colorado's dominance this season has been rooted in even-strength play, with a side of elite penalty killing. Now that the power play is improved, will the Avs be able to keep the Golden Knights from stealing games on special teams? This Vegas club is dangerous, both on the power play and the kill. If Colorado's PK has a good series and the Avs don't allowed shorthanded goals, the Avs should advance.

3. Who gets the inside track?

The DNA from Vegas' 2023 Cup run is still in there. The Golden Knights were shaky at times against Utah and Anaheim -- inferior opponents compared to Colorado — but when it was winning time, they locked it down defensively. They are adept at suppressing the best scoring chances. If there is an exposed thermal exhaust port in the Avs' 5-on-5 Death Star, it's that sometimes they will settle for Grade B-level chances and lean on their shooting talent instead of working to get into the Grade-A areas. If Vegas can lull them into that, and Hart can make the good-to-really good saves, this series will get tricky.

4. Will the Avs' goalie(s) rebound?

Wedgewood had an .872 save percentage against the Wild. Blackwood ... also had an .872 save percentage against Minnesota. It didn't hurt Colorado, because the Avs blitzed Minnesota with 24 goals, including 23 in the four wins. MacKinnon said Tuesday that he doesn't see how this won't be a long series. If it is, the Avs will likely need one of their two goalies to take control of the net and rattle off some better performances.

5. Are the Avs just better?

This could be the first storyline, but to put it bluntly ... is this Colorado team just better than Vegas? The Golden Knights, on paper, have an excellent roster. They have not played like an excellent team all year. Even this 15-4-1 run with John Tortorella as coach includes a bunch of wins over non-playoff teams and two series victories over young, untested opponents. There were times against Anaheim when it looked like Vegas had found its mojo. Is that the version the Avs will see in this series, or will Colorado have its way in a similar fashion as the last round? Minnesota was, on paper, an excellent team, too.

Avalanche vs. Wild series predictions

Corey Masisak, beat writer: If we knew on Wednesday morning that Cale Makar is good to go and close to 100%, then it feels like there aren't a lot of paths to victory here for Vegas. Carter Hart could play out of his mind. The Golden Knights could steal a game or two on special teams. Maybe this is finally the spot where the Avs beat themselves. This Colorado group has proven its mental toughness in the small spurts of adversity it has faced, though. Avs in 5.

Sean Keeler, sports columnist: Vegas can roll two lines that match Colorado's, especially if Mark Stone returns to the fold. But not four lines. No way. Per MoneyPuck.com, 25 different forward combos this postseason with at least 11 minutes of ice time had posted an expected goals percentage better than 66%. The Avs accounted for five of those tail-kicking combos -- the Kings had none; The Wild had two; Vegas has one. Cale or no Cale, Mitch Marner is on a serious heater right now. But if the Knights winger has to log more than 25 minutes per game, he'll be running on fumes by next Tuesday. Which, if you're Jared Bednar, is kind of the point. Avs in 6.

Troy Renck, sports columnist: There are some talking themselves into this as an even matchup. It is not. The Avs are the better team. But there are a few wrinkles of concern. Cale Makar doesn't look healthy, and how many more times is coach Jared Bednar going to pull the goalie before it affects Scott Wedgewood and Mackenzie Blackwood mentally? The Knights are equipped and designed to defend well in space. They have championship experience. But if Mark Stone, the Knights' version of Gabe Landeskog, remains sidelined, there is no chance Las Vegas upsets the Avs. Avs in 6.

Lori Punko, deputy sports editor: Even with the addition of Mitch Marner (ironically, traded by Toronto to Vegas for now-Av Nicolas Roy), the Golden Knights don't have the depth to keep up with the Avalanche. And Vegas could be without captain Mark Stone, who suffered a lower-body injury in Game 3 against the Anaheim Ducks, for at least several games. Colorado is averaging 3.31 goals per game to Vegas' 2.54. And the Avs, behind the tandem of Scott Wedgewood and Mackenzie Blackwood, are giving up just 1.97 goals per game to Vegas' 2.56. The Golden Knights will put up a fight, but they don't have the firepower to outscore Colorado. Avs in 5.

Kyle Newman, sportswriter: The Golden Knights were fined $100,000 and stripped of their second-round pick in this year's draft after the team didn't open the locker room and coach John Tortorella refused to meet with reporters following Vegas' series-clinching win over the Ducks last week. It seems like Tortorella is trying to cultivate an us-against-the-world attitude with his team, and that he believes blowing off the NHL's playoff media guidelines will somehow hyper-focus the Knights into beating the Avalanche. That is an approach a team would take only when they know they are seriously outmatched. Avs fans, start making Stanley Cup Final plans. Avs in 5.

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

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

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

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

Building ‘The Lumberyard’

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

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

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

Winning the Rantanen trade

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

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

Flexibility pays off

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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