It would probably feel that way at times for Avs fans, even if the league didn’t add two games for every team. After the most successful regular season in franchise history and rolling through the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Colorado’s season ended in stunning fashion for the second year in a row.

The Avs rebounded from a crushing Game 7 loss in Dallas two years ago. Will they be able to do it again after being swept out of the Western Conference Final by the Vegas Golden Knights?

“When it comes to playoffs, you need bounces, but you need your players to be healthy,” Avs president and general manager Joe Sakic said late last month while discussing Cale Makar’s new eight-year, $163.2 million contract. “We ran into the injury bug a little bit last year, especially with Cale.

“We had a bad week that cost us, but we had a team that was built to win. Didn’t happen, and we expect our team to be built to win for a long time.”

Here are some of the biggest questions for the Avalanche ahead of training camp starting next week.

1. Will there be the same focus at the start of this season? 

The Avs were on a mission last year, from Day 1 of training camp. After losing Game 7 on the road in Texas, that group was determined to ensure any future Game 7s would be at Ball Arena. Colorado tore through the league with a 31-2-7 start and won the Presidents’ Trophy with a franchise-record 121 points.

That didn’t work out in the end. Will the Avs collectively see that as the right process but an unfortunate result and aim to do the same? Will there be a proverbial hangover from a second-straight stunning exit?

It could be harder to shake the feeling, either internally or externally, that what the Avs do from October to early April doesn’t matter as much. It would also behoove the Avs to not worry about any of that and just try to build towards being the best version of themselves in the spring. Sometimes, that’s easier said than done.

2. How to replace Valeri Nichushkin?

Much of the 121-point team is back. The defense corps returns. The goaltenders return.

Nichushkin does not. When he was healthy, available and in form, the Avs often looked unbeatable. There are few players like him in the league, and the Avs will not be able to replace him with just one guy.

Jaden Schwartz is not Nichushkin, but he can help. Having Nazem Kadri and Nicolas Roy for a full season can help. The cap space the Avs expect to bank with the intention of adding someone in late February or early March can help.

Not having Nichushkin available was the death knell for the Avs in the 2024 playoffs. How they rebuild the forward group without him could also define the 2027 playoff run.

3. Are they too old?

The Avs will be one of the oldest teams in the NHL, regardless of the answer to the next question. Will that matter?

It didn’t look like it mattered for most of last season. The team’s collective age wasn’t the No. 1 reason the Avs lost to the Knights. Was it on the list, though? Yeah, probably.

The age issue is not at red-alert levels right now. It could be by next season or the one after that. How the Avs find a way to infuse some youth into this group could help as soon as this season, but will be even more imperative in the years to come.

4. Will any of the young players make a leap?

Sam Malinski made a leap last year. He went from a solid, offense-first third-pairing guy to someone who could help drive success and handle top-four minutes when needed.

The Avs need a young forward or two to do something similar. Colorado has nine veteran forwards to fill out the top three lines with no issues for now. The Avs should have the cap space necessary to add an impact forward before the deadline.

Still, it would be better for the ceiling of this group if one of the younger guys forced his way into that mix. Whether it is Gavin Brindley, T.J. Hughes, Zachary L’Heureux or someone else, someone showing the ability to play up in the lineup and make an impact there would be huge.

5. Will the power play be better?

The power play looked like a potential thermal exhaust port in the Colorado Death Star for most of last season. Then, it was better after Nazem Kadri returned from Calgary. Then, it went silent again — 1 for 10 in the Western Conference Final, including several empty chances at critical points in the first three games.

Schwartz probably won’t impact the power play much. Will the same guys, with the same coaches, be able to figure it out? They should be able to. The talent is obvious. The results have to be better.

6. Will the penalty kill remain elite?

This is probably the most unsettled aspect of the team at the start of training camp, which is still relative. Most of the key figures with the penalty kill are back, but two very important pieces — Nichushkin and Jack Drury — are not. Joel Kiviranta, who was sixth in penalty kill time on ice among forwards, is also gone.

Colorado’s penalty kill had been solid in recent years, but it found a new level of success last season. Who will replace those two great defensive forwards? Will the goalies continue to play great when down a man? The Avs were second in the NHL last year in shorthanded save percentage (.886).

A healthy Logan O’Connor will move toward the top of the PK forward depth chart. L’Heureux was a penalty killer when he was in the lineup for Nashville. Fedor Svechkov was not, but he might need to be to secure a spot on this team.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2026-27: Still in the mix

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

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

2027-28: The Lehkonen contract

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

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

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

2028-29: The last dance, for real?

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

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

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

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

2029-30: A new era

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

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

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

This is where things could get interesting.

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

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

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

What just happened

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What����ap next

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There are lots of questions here:

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

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

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

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

Future depth chart

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Let’s workshop this. No bad ideas.

Trade Makar!

OK, except for that one.

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

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

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

Trade Makar for draft picks!

Who let Jeff Bridich in here?

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

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

Plus, two words: Mikko Rantanen.

But we won the trade!

Did you, though?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hughes could be up next.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A more complicated offseason

Colorado’s offseason looked pretty straightforward a week ago.

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

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

Now? Everything has to be on the table.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It is time to put this series to bed.

Holding the equivalent of a 16 at the blackjack table, the Avs impressively shifted the odds in their favor Sunday night before revealing why this city is nicknamed Lost Wages with a second-period gag for the ages.

T-Mobile Arena provided a stage for a character-defining victory. Instead, the talented Avs did the unthinkable, proving Game 2 was not a fluke by falling flat on their red faces again.

Sunday night was worse, a new nadir.

The Avs squandered a 3-0 first-period lead. To Las Vegas. Not the 1977 Montreal Canadiens. Not the 1984 Edmonton Oilers. To Las Vegas? Yes, Las Vegas!

All the Avs had to do was tie a knot and hold on for 40 minutes. Instead, they collapsed, went splat in one of the worst playoff periods in franchise history.

Colorado boasted a 74-1 record when leading by three goals in a playoff game. The Knights were 0-19 when trailing by that deficit. So much for the past predicting the future.

Colorado made Las Vegas look like the Legion of Broom. That is all that is left for the Avs now, showing enough pride to avoid the indignity of a sweep.

Does it really matter at this point?

Only four NHL teams have ever won a postseason series of any kind in any round when trailing 3-0. There is no reason to believe the Avs will pull off a miracle.

Not with Cale Makar compromised — he provided a solid effort given his shoulder injury — and Nathan MacKinnon hobbled.

The Golden Knights are a bigger, stronger team.

But the Avs suffered a foundation-shaking loss because of things that go well beyond how players fill out uniforms.

Blame the MacKinnon right knee injury if it makes you feel better. The Avs were sliding into the abyss long before he blocked Shea Theodore’s shot with his leg in the second period, leaving him crumpled on the ice.

Moments after MacKinnon got hurt, Keegan Kolesar deflected a shot off the pipe, then poked the rebound past goalie Scott Wedgewood to tie the score at 3. If you haven’t heard of him, other than his relatives and Golden Knights’ fans, few have. It was his first point of the postseason, eloquently capturing the gravity of the Avs’ meltdown.

Magicians on The Strip don’t make things disappear this easily.

The common thread in the folding? Defensive breakdowns. And Marty Necas and Brock Nelson remain firmly in the witness protection program.

The Avs looked cooked, done in Denver. But in the hours before the puck dropped, they spoke with confidence about overcoming the sordid history of teams dropping the first two home games in the conference finals.

Why? They were 17-2 in their last 19 road games and won twice in Las Vegas during the regular season. That’s something, right? Nope.

“We won the President����ap Trophy for a reason,” forward Logan O’Connor said five hours before the puck dropped. “It����ap time to fight for our lives.”

If you haven’t noticed, numbers are irrelevant in this matchup.

The Knights mocked the trends, while the Avs mocked their own fans.

The Avs didn’t need to be better skaters. They needed to be tougher. They needed to put a fist to a face to stop a rally. An elbow to the chops to slow a rush. A hook to place the Knights on their heels.

Instead, the Avs were left with their heads spinning.

The Golden Knights opened the second period on a power play, and Mark Stone, returning from injury for his first action, scored in 19 seconds.

The place they called the Fortress erupted. The crowd was back into the game. And so were the Golden Knights.

This was the time to make a statement. And the Avs did. With a message so wrong, it is time to wonder how many of these players are the right fit moving forward.

The Avs could not clear the puck, a common theme over the final two periods. William Karlsson scored. It was his first goal. It was also the lone goal of the postseason for Kolesar.

And Tomas Hertl put the Avs out of their misery with the go-ahead shot at the 8:21 mark of the third, pushing the Golden Knights within a whisper of their third Stanley Cup Final in nine years.

Where were the role players for the Avs to shine? I will hang up and listen.

Everything about this loss came with an asterisk. The Avs blew a first-quarter lead. Something they never do. They squandered a second-period lead on Friday, something they had never done.

The Avs were dominant during the season, but no longer resemble that team. They cannot finish. Even when they play well, they cannot sustain it. Talk all you want about the positives, like three starburst goals from Gabe Landeskog, Nazem Kadri and Jack Drury.

They went from great to grate. Again.

It seems unthinkable for a team with this talent. But Colorado is not good enough or tough enough to beat the Golden Knights.

If Las Vegas is “Forged in Gold,” their playoff motto plastered in nearby hotels, the Avs are “Forged in Old.” They look tired, beaten. They didn’t have a shot on goal for nearly 15 minutes in the third period.

With Makar and MacKinnon not themselves, this was the moment for Necas and Nelson to pull their weight. They have been anchors.

Necas had flashes, but still did not score. And Nelson has been arguably the worst player on the ice for either team.

The Avs talked with bravado. The Golden Knights played with it.

“It wasn’t a great first period but we knew we could do it.” Hertl said. “We have done it so many times we never quit. A massive game for us.”

Sam Malinski — of course it was Malinski, the replacement for an injured Cale Makar on Colorado’s top defensive pairing — eyed a loose puck in the offensive zone. He could have charged the right circle, could have made an aggressive play on the puck. For barely an instant, he appeared to have the advantage in a potential footrace to it.

He skidded to a stop instead, then wheeled around, trying not to lose a step the other direction.

“It looks like we’re gonna get to it,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said later. “We don’t get to it. They get to it. And that’s how the rush starts to develop.”

Ivan Barbashev carried the puck out of his defensive zone, and seven seconds later, it was in Colorado’s net. For the first time in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Avs’ mortality was staring them in the face. Two minutes later, their dream season was on life support.

With two goals in 127 seconds, the Vegas Golden Knights upended the Western Conference Final and left Ball Arena in stunned silence Friday night. The first one leveled the score with 10:45 remaining in the third period of Game 2. The second gave Vegas a 2-1 edge and eventually a 2-0 series lead.

“We felt really good about our game,” captain Gabriel Landeskog said, “and then a short little lapse for two minutes, and they scored two goals.”

Bednar didn’t feel like his team played poorly in a second consecutive home loss. But the hardly perceivable details, the miniscule mistakes piled up to cost Colorado a game that meant everything. There were the opportunities to score an insurance goal before Vegas broke through, the two power plays with a 1-0 lead. And then there were the moments that sparked both Golden Knights goals.

Malinski’s brief hesitation resulted in a 3-on-2 rush for Vegas, with the young defenseman skating for his life to take away an angle from Barbashev. The Avs were scrambling to get back and cover every threat. The puck drifted across to Jack Eichel, who snapped a shot off the far post and into the net before Devon Toews could close in on him — a shot that Knights goalie Carter Hart “saw him working on this morning.”

“Two net drivers (were on the rush),” Avalanche goalie Scott Wedgewood said. “Read that first. (Eichel) kind of stalled. … Just over the pad and the arm, post and in. Perfect shot, but not a perfect goal. Back (side) pressure and feeling that maybe kept me a little bit too much (on the) strong side, and he toe-dragged it. One you want back.”

“We get back in time,” Bednar lamented, “but we don’t close it out.”

The Avs couldn’t manufacture any momentum in the offensive zone as they tried to pull themselves together. So often this season, a lead was definitive. All of a sudden, a tie meant doubt.

“Definitely think it stung,” winger Logan O’Connor said. “Try and be a mature group about it. Try and get right back to our game-plan. I think after the first one, we didn’t do that quick enough. And then the second one happens. And that’s on us to make a better adjustment there and sort of forget about what has happened and move past it. That’s something we can learn from.”

Much like how the first goal stemmed from Colorado’s failure to maintain the zone, the second arose from a botched opportunity to enter it. Valeri Nichushkin was past center-ice when the puck was poked away from him from behind, handing Vegas possession — a moment of weakness for a power forward whose every move is made with conviction, usually.

Then in the defensive zone, Avalanche teammates Toews and Brock Nelson got tangled up along the boards as Toews tried to clear the puck. The attempt was blocked. It took a deflection toward the middle of the ice, where Eichel passed to Barbashev for a one-timer. Both goals rang the post on their way in.

“Some of it is doing the right thing but not hard enough. Some of it is, there’s decisions there, too. Like, Val easily had time to put that puck in,” Bednar said. “And I don’t want to just single out Val, but that was a goal, right? And then we have it back a couple more times — we don’t get it out (of our zone). So we don’t get it in. We don’t get it out.”

“I think our puck decisions lacked some maturity at times,” O’Connor said. “And therefore we deviated from the game plan that had given us some success throughout the game.”

Whatever it was that abandoned the Avs — maturity, decisiveness, discipline — the price to pay was a season on the brink. After 127 seconds of whiplash, they have a two hours of flight time to Vegas to regain their bearings.

It wasn’t enough to play a good game on home ice. Every Avalanche error was sufficiently punished in Game 2.

“It����ap a fine margin for error, the difference of winning and losing,” Bednar said. “There’s obviously things in the game, especially when you gave up two in the third period, that you don’t like.”

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����ap 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����ap 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����ap 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����ap 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����ap 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.