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.

There have been six trades involving NHL players in the past week, including one by the Colorado Avalanche to free up more space below the salary cap ceiling. The first big move of Joe Sakic’s second term as the Avalanche general manager sent Ross Colton to the Nashville Predators for a pair of third-round draft picks.

What further moves will Sakic and Co. make? Who are some options that might be available?

We dug into the current state of the roster in a four-part series. The Avs look pretty set in goal.

Moving Colton also creates a hole in the forward group. The Avs have a few young players who could make a push for a full-time job during training camp, but one path forward for the club this offseason could include another forward or two on the move to refresh the roster a bit, even if Sakic said at his year-end press conference that this current group was put together with a 2-3 year run in mind.

Let’s take a look the forwards that could be available, either on July 1 in free agency or via trade. One thing to remember: There are lots of NHL teams with lots of cap space, and few impact players to spend it on. That could lead to some crazy-looking free agent contracts in July.

As an example, Bobby McMann was one of the first names on this list before he signed a six-year contract worth $5.75 million per season to stay with the Seattle Kraken. The Avs aren’t going to be able to afford that type of contract with any player unless someone else beyond Colton is moved off the current roster.

Unrestricted free agents

Oliver Bjorkstrand
2025-26: 12 goals, 32 points in 80 games

Bjorkstrand has spent most of his career as a really solid, sometimes underrated player. He wasn’t that guy last season with the Tampa Bay Lightning. He also turned 31 in April. Bjorstrand just wrapped up a contract at $5.4 million per season, but could his dip last season make him a more affordable bounce-back candidate?

Andrei Kuzmenko
2025-26: 13 goals, 25 points in 52 games

Kuzmenko had an out-of-body experience with 39 goals four years ago, but he’s settled in as a solid player who would likely produce at the same level that Colton did with the Avs. He’s bounced around a bit, but a fresh start with a better team could give Kuzmenko a boost. Given other needs, the Avs aren’t likely to replace Cotlon with a similarly-paid depth wing, though. They’d likely need a cooler-than-expected market, though Kuzmenko might thread the needle and be that player in this class.

Jack Roslovic
2025-26: 21 goals, 36 points in 69 games

Back-to-back solid seasons on cheap, one-year contracts. He will also be 29 when the season begins, which makes him one of the younger UFAs who can produce in a middle-six role. The red flags? Four teams in three years isn’t one on its own, but combine that with three goals in 51 career playoff games, and teams are probably doing a little extra homework here.

A.J. Greer
2025-26: 17 goals, 32 points in 78 games

Ex-Avs journeyman who found a home with the Florida Panthers and had a breakout year in a bigger role because of all the injuries. Did he finally get the extra opportunity needed to show he’s more than just a fourth-line energy guy? He’s a big, rugged guy who still has some championship glitter on him, so there might be a team out there that really overpays if last year was a one-hit wonder offensively.

Beck Malenstyn
2025-26: 7 goals, 14 points in 81 games

Malenstyn is big and fast. He has some of the same traits as Greer, minus the one outlier year on offense. In a normal offseason with a deeper pool of players and less collective cap space available, Malenstyn could be a nice under-the-radar pickup for a club like the Avs that might like to add someone of his profile. It’s going to be hard for anyone to make any under-the-radar value signings in early July 2026, though.

Trade candidates

Mason McTavish
2025-26: 17 goals, 41 points in 75 games

Dylan Larkin has received the most attention because of his trade request, but the chances of the Avs getting into that sweepstakes are pretty slim. McTavish is also a high-profile name in trade speculation. He’s young, and he was the No. 3 pick in the 2021 NHL draft, but he and Joel Quenneville were not simpatico this past season. Does he just need a change of scenery to fulfill his potential, or is Quenneville’s deployment a harbinger of what’s to come? Would one of the Avs’ veteran wings be enough to get a package started for McTavish, who turns 24 in January?

Warren Foegele
2025-26: 13 goals, 17 points in 68 games

Foegele scored 44 goals in the previous two seasons combined before a step back last year. He’s a UFA after next season, plus the Ottawa Senators could look a lot different with captain Brady Tkachuk reportedly on his way to Florida to play with his brother. Foegele is only $500K cheaper than Colton, but would add a little more size and has been a similar, but slightly more productive player.

Jesperi Kotkaniemi
2025-26: 2 goals, 9 points in 42 games

Kotkaniemi has size, draft pedigree and fell out of favor with a one of the other top organizations in the sport. Sound familiar? Could he be the next Avs reclamation project? He turns 26 next month. There is a chance the Carolina Hurricanes will buy out Kotkaniemi, which would make him potentially available on a shorter, cheaper contract. There could be several teams intrigued if that is what happens.

But Valeri Nichushkin has been losing playoff steam for years now, and that engine needs to be the next one Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic pawns off to somebody else.

Since April 2025, Big Val has appeared in 19 postseason games for the Burgundy and Blue. He’s scored in only four of them and picked up a point in just six.

Context: In the previous 19 Stanley Cup Playoff appearances, Val had scored in 12 of them, a run that dates back to the ’22 Western Conference Final sweep of the Oilers.

More context: The Avs since April 2023 are 8-4 in the playoffs when Nichushkin finds the back of the net. They’re 12-14 when he doesn’t. They’re 9-5 when he registers at least a point. They’re 11-13 when he doesn’t. They’re 17-12 when he suits up. They went 3-6 when he doesn’t.

Look, nobody’s happier to see the Big Nuke get his life squared away than the puck heads on the Grading The Week crew. He’s been available for two straight postseasons, now, something that we couldn’t say about 2023 and 2024. That’s progress, by any standard.

But by the same token, the clock’s ticking. And not in a good way. Val turns 32 next March; he’s in line to eat up $6.125 million in cap space through the ’29-30 season; and Cale Makar’s not likely to give the Avs a major hometown discount on his extension, is he?

Ross Colton trade setting up Nichushkin swap? — B

More to the point, Big Val is presenting to the Avs some of the same issues that the Nuggets have with Jamal Murray right now: 1.) Both the Choo Choo Train and the Blue Arrow have looked older, and played older, than their actual ages (31 and 29, respectively) as of late, and 2.) Both have lost the playoff mojo, the postseason chutzpah, that proved the “X” factor that lifted their franchises to titles earlier this decade.

Val has overcome several personal and professional demons, and again, that’s not to be discounted. Yet the returns during the window that counts, the hunt for Lord Stanley, have been visibly diminishing.

A 6-foot-4 winger with a body to bang and speed to burn, Nichushkin was invisible against the Golden Knights, who more or less shoved the Avs out of the postseason as the West’s top seed. He scored two goals in 12 playoff games in 2026. He’s averaged 0.42 points in 19 postseason appearances since the spring of ’25. He’d averaged 0.86 points per playoff tilt in the 30 Cup appearances prior to that — a production drop of 51%. With the Avalanche’s title window closing, Sakic can’t afford for Val to be half the man he used to be.

Jonathon Cooper’s mini-camp absence  — D

Cooper’s not the fave topic right now at Dove Valley, but it’s a topic, nonetheless. The courts will have their say soon. Although the admittedly unqualified legal eagles on the GTW crew aren’t too sure this was the best week for the Broncos’ in-limbo edge rusher. (While unquestionably better than, say, last week at this time, for obvious reasons.)

On the litigation front, a judge notably dropped charges against Cooper’s female companion during the time of their joint arrest on June 4. A single charge of criminal mischief was removed from her record this past Tuesday.

Cooper, meanwhile, was facing five active charges as of Friday afternoon, including felony second-degree assault by strangulation.

On the football side of things, the Broncos formally excused Cooper from mandatory training camp — but “excused” could be interpreted any number of ways, given the heat of the moment. The innocent remain so until proven guilty. But NFL precedent is not the same as the law, and it’s highly likely that the league will levy a multi-game suspension against Cooper, given the charges — whether he’s a member of the Broncos this fall or not.

Either way, Sean Payton and his staff have to plan for life without Cooper for a medium-term or a long-term window in 2026. If this past week was any indication, that process has already started.

Goaltenders | Defensemen | Wings

There are only two NHL teams besides the Colorado Avalanche who are in the conversation for best collection of centers and those clubs have combined for five Stanley Cup Final appearances in the past four seasons.

Center talent and depth was undeniably one of the reasons Colorado stormed through the regular season as the league’s top team and breezed by Los Angeles and Minnesota in the first two rounds of the playoffs. It’s also a valid reason for Avs fans to be frustrated.

Florida has two championships and a third Cup Final appearance with Aleksander Barkov, Sam Bennett and Anton Lundell. Edmonton has two trips to the Cup Final with Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.

But the Avs stalled out in the Western Conference Final this past season with Nathan MacKinnon, Brock Nelson, Nazem Kadri and Jack Drury at center, not to mention Nicolas Roy and others capable of moving to the middle when needed.

Those guys are obviously a big reason why the “Cup or bust” expectations will remain next season.

“The core guys are still here, so we’re going to shoot and try and win another Cup next year, and make it two,” Avalanche president and general manager Joe Sakic said. “But I will tell you, it’s a tough league. We’re not the only team that is trying to win the Stanley Cup. I mean, it’s a deep league. There’s a lot of great teams, and there’s only one team at the end of every year that’s happy.

“With our group, their goal is to try and win another Stanley Cup, and that’s what they’re going to shoot for, and that’s what we’re going to try and hopefully do.”

What just happened

MacKinnon led the NHL in goals for the first time and finished third in the Hart Trophy voting. His 127 points are third-most in franchise history, and he now owns the two best seasons since the club moved to Denver. When MacKinnon was injured blocking a shot with the Avs up 3-2 in Game 3 of the conference final, the season effectively ended in that moment.

Nelson had a great regular season — netting 33 goals, scoring 65 points, and finishing third in the Selke Trophy voting. When he and Valeri Nichushkin were paired together, it was the best 1-2 punch in the NHL at controlling possession and one of the league’s top penalty-killing duos as well. Nelson struggled throughout the postseason, most frustratingly when he failed to convert several great chances against Vegas.

Kadri arrived at the deadline to much fanfare. His production improved with Colorado despite moving down the lineup. He helped the power play surge in March and look competent in the first two rounds. He also sustained a broken finger in April, which kind of got lost among all the other injuries Colorado players were dealing with during the Vegas series.

Drury was OK as the club’s No. 3 center, but was excellent when moved back to his No. 4 role. He’s one of the very best 4Cs in the league and a strong penalty killer.

Roy arrived one day before Kadri, and spent most of his time on the wing. He was strong in a supporting role during the playoffs. Both Parker Kelly and Ross Colton spent some time at center, but coach Jared Bednar liked both more on the wing. Rookie Zakhar Bardakov also spent some of his limited ice time at center and looked like a player who might fit better in the long term as a wing.

“When I look at their team, I guess I lean towards not making a whole bunch of changes,” ESPN analyst Ray Ferraro told The Denver Post. “But I would wonder if there’s a way they can spruce up the middle of the ice with a little more speed? So maybe Kadri needs to go to the wing, and if you do that, can you find a centerman that can play there?

What����ap next

The Avs’ center depth and talent looked formidable before the stunning results against Vegas.

Will Nelson bounce back after a tough postseason? He was a consistent playoff performer with the Islanders.

Kadri is a slightly different case because of his history in Denver, but Nelson was much better in his first full season after the trade. Could Kadri, given the unsettling aspects of a trade and the finger injury, find a bump in play next year?

To further Ferraro’s point, Kadri turns 36 years old on Oct. 6. Nelson turns 35 nine days later. MacKinnon will be 31 in September, though he obviously remains one of the fastest, most dynamic players in the sport. Roy turns 30 in February.

It is an interesting idea, trying to find a younger center with more pace to join the group. Kadri had mixed results on the wing when he spent some time there for the Avs.

Drury is a restricted free agent and is one of the keys to this offseason. With Colton off to Nashville, the Avs have nearly $7 million in cap space. They also need to sign at least two NHL defensemen.

While Colorado views Drury as a No. 4 center and would certainly like to keep him, there is probably a team or six out there that would like to have Drury as an option for its No. 3C role. If the two sides can’t find the middle ground on a contract, the Avs could hold their ground and see what an unpleasant arbitration process yields.

That would likely lead to a one- or two-year contract and more than likely a new team in the near future. If Drury won the arbitration case, that could cause salary-cap-related problems for the club. Or the Avs could explore a trade for Drury’s rights before it ever got to that.

If everyone is here on opening night, the Avs still have a very strong 1-4 up the middle with Roy and Kelly as solid options in reserve. High-profile college free agent addition TJ Hughes can also play center. He’s been an offense-first player, but his college coach believes he can help an NHL team in the near future in any role.

Future depth chart

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

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

Now he’s traded for him.

Joe Sakic and the Colorado Avalanche sent Colton to the Nashville Predators on Tuesday, where he will reunite with the club’s former general manager. The Avs also sent along minor-league goaltender Isak Posch.

The return is two third-round draft picks, plus former University of Denver goaltender Magnus Chrona.

Moving Colton frees up $4 million of cap space for the 2026-27 season for the Avalanche. They now have nearly $7 million in space available, .

That could allow Colorado to sign No. 4 center Jack Drury, who is a restricted free agent, or UFA defenseman Brett Kulak, plus make some depth additions to fill out the roster. Sakic may still need to move another forward if he wants to keep Drury and Kulak, or invest more resources into the defense corps.

The draft picks coming to Colorado are Nashville’s 2026 third-round selection, which is No. 74 overall, and the Avs’ 2027 third, which was originally traded to the Predators for Juuso Parssinen during the 2024-25 campaign.

This trade is similar to the one MacFarland made for the Avs last summer, sending Miles Wood and Charlie Coyle to the Columbus Blue Jackets for Gavin Brindley and two picks. That deal opened more than $7 million in cap flexibility for the Avs and helped further bolster a club that went on to win the Presidents’ Trophy and finish with a franchise-record 121 points, but fell short of its ultimate goal with a stunning Western Conference Final defeat to the Vegas Golden Knights.

Colton is entering the final season of a four-year, $16 million contract he signed with the Avs in July 2023. His three years with Colorado were a bit of a mixed bag.

His production decreased each of the three years, with nine goals and 24 points in 73 games this past season. Colton had multiple stretches over the past couple of seasons where he went through a prolonged scoring drought, even though his two-way play was solid throughout much of that time.

Colton began the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs as the Avs’ 13th forward. He was a healthy scratch for the first two games against the Los Angeles Kings, but had two goals and five points in the Avs’ final 11 playoff contests.

It is possible that Nashville will give Colton another chance to play center. He started in the middle for the Avalanche in 2023-24, before moving to the wing after some trade additions. Colton also made a brief appearance back as the center of the third line this past season, but Colorado coach Jared Bednar clearly preferred him on the wing.

Chrona won a national championship with the Pioneers in 2022. He played nine games for the San Jose Sharks in 2023-24 near the end of the season, but has mostly been an AHL netminder the past three seasons.

The 25-year-old goalie was set to be an unrestricted free agent July 1, but has already agreed to a two-year contract with Brynäs in the Swedish Elite League.

Posch, 24, went 15-7-8 with an .891 save percentage for the Colorado Eagles in the AHL this season as the No. 1B/backup to Trent Miner. Moving Posch does provide a bit of clarity for Colorado’s depth chart in net.

The Avs will have top prospect Ilya Nabokov and new signing Nikita Novosyolov to compete with Miner for the No. 3 spot on the depth chart behind Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood.

Colorado has scored three goals in two games against the Vegas Golden Knights in the Western Conference Final. The Avs have been one short, before empty-net goals allowed, in both contests.

They felt like they played better for parts of Game 2, but they actually created less offense — and missed the net entirely on some of their best chances. Yes, Cale Makar’s absence is huge, and there was no update Saturday on his status for Game 3 on Sunday night at T-Mobile Arena.

But this team scored the most goals in the NHL this season, and was pouring in the most per contest in this tournament until these past two games against Vegas.

“If I felt like we played our best game in Game 1 and our best game in Game 2, and we lost, I’d be a little bit more like, ‘Oh, I’m really worried about this,’ ” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “They’re really good team, especially their strengths are very strong.  I look at our game and I break it down in different areas. … show them clear examples of it, show them some things tactically that we did well that we can repeat, show them areas of the game, say offensively, where this guy’s open, why did we just use them and we’re not recognizing it or choosing to do something different, so it����ap some decision making.

“There’s enough of it there that I say we can be much better in Game 3, that’s what gives me the confidence. It doesn’t guarantee you a win, but they still haven’t seen our best, and maybe we haven’t seen their best either. We have a number of areas in our game that we can improve for Game 3 to get us a better chance of winning.”

The surface numbers are pretty obvious, even if the sample size in this series is obviously quite small. Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Necas and Brock Nelson combined for 124 goals and 292 points in the regular season. Along with Makar’s 20 goals and 79 points, those are the top four scorers on this team.

They’ve combined for one assist in this series — when MacKinnon set up Gabe Landeskog for a power-play goal late in Game 1. They have no points at 5-on-5.

During the regular season, the Avs created 3.69 expected goals per 60 minutes when Nelson was on the ice, 3.67 when MacKinnon was out there and 3.38 with Necas. Those numbers are all down in this series.

MacKinnon is at 2.88, while Necas (2.0) and Nelson (1.84) are the lowest among the Avalanche forwards. The MacKinnon line had an excellent defensive showing in Game 2, but created just 0.75 expected goals in nearly 16 minutes at 5-on-5. In Game 1, the Avs also created 0.75 expected goals when MacKinnon was on the ice at 5-on-5.

Five days ago, MacKinnon and Necas were two of the hottest players in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The power play was also clicking. Two tough losses later, and the narrative has swung in the other direction in a hurry.

“We’ve got to find a way to produce, right?” Bednar said. “But part of the reason why their top guys are producing is we’re giving them those easy opportunities. They’re not giving those to us, right? So, according to my numbers, we’ve spent a significant more amount of time in o-zone play than them. Home-plate chances, low slot chances are pretty even. I think they’re leaning in our favor, and rush chances is an advantage to them.

“We’ve got to find a way to make it a little more difficult on (Carter) Hart and breaking his eyesight, and keep going to war in the low-slot area, try to pick up some chances. But right now when you’re looking at the chances, it’s very even. I think, again we’re handing him some easy chances and some goals against right now that we can’t afford to.”

As Bednar alluded to there, Vegas has effectively done what Colorado did to Los Angeles in the first round. The Golden Knights allowed zero odd-man rushes in Game 2, while three of their five goals against Scott Wedgewood in this series have come at the end of one.

Vegas has slowed Colorado down in the neutral zone, but also been able to defend with a compact shell once the Avs do create offensive possessions. Ross Colton’s Game 2 goal was the best example of how the Avs can navigate the problem.

Brent Burns sent the puck to the net, and Colton was in a great spot when the shot was blocked. He found the loose puck and put it past Hart because the goaltender could reset.

This isn’t some new tactical idea the Avs haven’t seen before. The Dallas Stars did something similar with Peter DeBoer as coach. Ditto the Winnipeg Jets in the first round in 2024.

The Jets had the best goalie on the planet, but the Avs broke them with a flurry of tips, deflections and screened shots that Connor Hellebuyck did not handle.

Colorado needs more goals, plain and simple. The top players on the team need to be better. The power play needs to contribute.

Even if the Avs feel the process has been good, it needs to be great if they’re going to have a chance to get back in this series.

“There’s obviously a lot of different things we can do,” Avs forward Nicolas Roy said. “I think going hard on the forecheck has been working for us. In the defensive zone, they’re trying to keep us on the outside, so kind of try to go there to the netfront and win those battles and get those rebounds as well. There’s definitely things we can do. Just look at the video and we’ll be ready.”

They were beaten, playing out the string to fulfill the NHL’s TV obligations.

This national narrative took hold after the Avs ruled out superstar defenseman Cale Makar on Friday morning.

After watching a future Hall of Famer look uncomfortable during a morning skate, an unnerving question hung over the city on Friday night.

Who would shoulder the burden?

No one.

The Avs were beaten. And now history says they are beaten.

Only one team has lost the first two games on home ice and won a conference finals series. That came in 1945 by the Detroit Red Wings. Goalies didn’t even wear masks regularly back then.

To those watching this series closely between the Avs and Golden Knights, it is not a surprise that Las Vegas is in control.

What is shocking is that the Avs did something they never do. As in ever. In falling 3-1 on Friday night, the Avs squandered a second-period lead.

They were 45-0-0 with an advantage entering the final 20 minutes this season, counting the playoffs.

They had it. Then the sellout crowd couldn’t believe what it witnessed.

In the span of 2 minutes, 7 seconds, the Golden Knights turned what was expected to be a night of joyous relief into full-scale panic and disappointment.

“It stings right now,” captain Gabe Landeskog said after Colorado lost back-to-back games in regulation for the first time since mid March.

Is there a Staples button Avs coach Jared Bednar can push to fix everything? Or anything?

The Avs dropping the opener wasn’t a surprise. Had a layoff, were rusty, and messy. The Avs collapsing in Game 2 was stunning.

It started innocently enough with Jack Eichel getting loose down the right side of the ice with 10:45 remaining for his first goal in 11 games.

If it seemed inconceivable that he had gone that long without finding the back of the net, it was equally unbelievable that he made it.

Scott Wedgewood, harder to solve than an AI-generated password, misplayed the right-handed shot over his right pad. He will not be thrilled when watching the replay, but he was left vulnerable.

“One you want back,” Wedgewood said.

Devon Toews got caught in between as Eichel stormed down the ice, trying not to cede ground while fronting Eichel in a 3-on-2 break. Given enough space, Eichel did not miss. Something the Avs did regularly.

What happened next captured why the Avs find themselves aching, their bodies and minds sore after careening into a ditch. They made a glaring mistake, the kind that the Kings and Wild were incapable of taking advantage of in the first two rounds.

Toews, trying to pick up the slack without Makar, couldn’t clear the puck twice.

Within a blink, it was on Ivan Barbashev’s stick and rocketing past Wedgewood’s mask. An empty-netter finished the scoring. And started the blaming.

Don’t pin this on Wedgewood. He played well enough to win. The fingers need to be directed at the inability to finish. Effort was not an issue. It was execution.

“It����ap all about the details. It feels like we handed them the goals,” said Avs’ Marty Necas, who has failed to get on track offensively in this series. “We had some chances we could’ve capitalized on and we didn’t. I feel we’re going to be better. We just have to have the jump from first shift. That����ap it.”

The Avs fired 30 shots on goal. But they were not of the highest quality. If Carter Hart doesn’t turn into Corey Hart and start wearing sunglasses at night, it seems unlikely the Avs stage a miraculous comeback.

Hart has allowed three goals. He is not getting beaten by anyone or any one shot. The only thing that prevented a shutout was Ross Colton plucking in a rebound off Brent Burns’ sniper off Hart’s chest.

But where were the rest of the chances like this? The Avs emphasized the importance of getting dirty goals, of winning in front of the net. And they got none of it.

It doesn’t help that some of their best players remain ghosts in this series, like Brock Nelson, and, if we are being honest, Valeri Nichushkin.

It is as if they don’t exist offensively.

No team is totally prepared to move on without a player as talented as Makar — there is no guarantee he plays in this series because of his injury — but this is why general manager Chris MacFarland traded for Nazem Kadri.

The Avs had only two power-play opportunities and a 4-on-4 that resembled one. Is it too much to ask Kadri, a huge reason the Avs won their last Stanley Cup, to become a Hartbreaker? At 35 years old, perhaps we do not want to know the answer to that after his mistake-filled evening.

That goosebumps win over the Wild seems like a long time ago. After the magical ending of the second round series, the unfathomable seems poised to happen.

The Avs are on the brink on the rink.

“We won’t get caught up in the situation (of leading 2-0),” Golden Knights coach John Tortorella said. “I know I am not going to have to worry about that because they get it.”

The Knights are calloused, legitimate. But there would be no way to view this other than as an epic fail if the Avs cannot rally.

The Golden Knights are great between the dots and, clearly, in between the Avs’ ears.

“We cannot ride the roller coaster that fans ride,” Bednar said. “We are not giving up on our season because we have lost two games.”

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.

Not again.

Right?

The Colorado Avalanche, the best team in hockey since opening night Oct. 7, are facing adversity for the first time this season after faceplanting in the first game of the Western Conference Final.

This moment will define the Avs, but not in the way you might think.

Colorado is not going to choke. These Avs cannot. They are too good, too deep. A third straight collapse from the first shift of sand under their feet is too hard to believe.

Don’t you think?

While the failures since the 2022 season were unnerving — a vanishing player, suspect coaching and an unplugged power play — another exit with parting gifts courtesy of the Golden Knights would be the worst.

Just thinking about it makes the state of Colorado collectively throw up a little bit in its mouth.

But know this: the Avs are not the Nuggets. They make trouble, not excuses. At least that is what we have all thought for the past eight months.

Now is the time to prove it. They can pull this off, though my prediction of the Avs winning in six games looks foolish after the opening night buzzkill.

This is not what you want to hear after a 4-2 loss to the Golden Knights at Ball Arena. Nobody likes to flash the Bat signal quite like Avs’ fans. What played out in front of a stunned sellout crowd caused distress and anger.

The Avs are too smart to play this dumb, to fall into this trap again. They were Yogi Bear and the Knights were the pic-a-nic baskets.

Colorado took the bait.

Anxiety overwhelmed patience, like Sam Malinski firing a shot at the end of a power play to beat an imaginary buzzer, leading to a breakaway. Brawn displaced brains as Ross Colton took a suspect penalty on a night when Cale Makar’s injury created miscommunication among multiple defenders.

We saw this movie against the Los Angeles Kings. It was boring, grueling, but ultimately rewarding.

The difference between the Kings and Golden Knights is that Las Vegas can, you know, score. The Kings played as Las Vegas did, but their endgame was to play keep-away, not to win the game.

The Golden Knights are not passengers. On Wednesday, they were more productive in space than the Artemis II astronauts.

They played better than the Avs. But they are not the better team.

Further evidence is needed, more than Dylan Coghlan beating a goalie for the first time since Gump Worsley, more than a terrific night by goalie Carter Hart to start rolling credits on the Avs’ historically great season.

You cannot convince me that a team with Nate MacKinnon now spewing venom and no longer suffering fools is going to go gentle into that good (Friday) night.

From one punch in the face? If that is the case, then everything we have heard from the Avs about their focus, belief and confidence is fraudulent.

This team is different, all involved insisted this week, because general manager Chris MacFarland did not try to fix the plane while it was in the air.

“This year, we were able to grow with our guys for quite some time. There were less additions at the deadline,” coach Jared Bednar said. “This year I feel like it’s been an easier process.”

It is why every player has celebrated nothing this postseason. There is only one goal acceptable for this core, this team.

“There is pressure. But you want that pressure,” center Nicolas Roy said. “Teams that don’t have that are either not playing or didn’t make the playoffs. You want this. You want to be in the last dance.”

This is, after all, a team with Nazem Kadri playing on the third line and Artturi Lehkonen healthy and Valeri Nichushkin percolating.

If a team like this cannot regain its balance after one bad performance, if a team like this cannot win without Makar — his status for Game 2 remains uncertain because of a right shoulder injury — then that’s pretty much all you need to know.

Drop this series, and the Avs will fold into history as a footnote, a great regular season team, the ultimate left-handed compliment for a team that could not overcome when everything did not go right.

Even with the poor execution, the metrics suggest the Avs should tilt the ice in their favor moving forward. Getting a few dirty goals on rebounds would help immensely. As would crisper, longer stick-to-stick passes.

Truth is, the Avs have no choice. They are another off night from the rink becoming the brink.

Visiting teams that capture the first two games win a playoff series 81% of the time, per the NHL database. Visiting teams that do it in the conference finals advance roughly 90% of the time.

There is no way the Avs lose Friday and overcome those odds. Las Vegas won’t allow it unless Donny Osmond takes up residency in the Golden Knights’ net. Vegas has won the opening game eight times in its last nine playoff series.

That is another reason not to panic. It wasn’t like this was totally unexpected.

“They won (the Cup) the year after us. They have a lot of guys who know what it takes. I can’t see this being a short series. It’s going to be tough,” MacKinnon said on the eve of the matchup. “We are ready for a seven gamer.”

That takes resilience, pride, grit. Things we saw in flashes, when necessary, against the Kings and Wild. Stuff that did not vanish because of a single loss.

Until proven otherwise, it was one bad game.

What is it that they say, that you never know how tall you are until you are a little over your head?

Friday night, it is time for the real Avs to stand up.