The goaltending position is a near-perfect reflection of where the Colorado Avalanche stand heading into the summer of 2026.

Scott Wedgewood and Mackenzie Blackwood combined for one of the best regular-season performances in franchise history, winning the William Jennings Trophy for yielding the fewest goals in the NHL. “The Lumberyard” combined for a solid showing in the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, but by the end of the Western Conference Final, there were questions about whether the duo can get the Avs where they ultimately want to go.

“They’re in a good spot,” Cory Schneider, a former NHL goaltender, teammate of both Avs netminders and analyst for NHL Network and MSG Networks, told The Denver Post. “You can sit there and blame the goaltending. It was one of a few reasons (they lost), but I don’t think it was the reason. They’re a team built to survive with good enough goaltending, kind of like in ’22 when they won with (Darcy) Kuemper and (Pavel) Francouz.

“I think most teams would be pretty envious of those two. If you went around the league and asked you trade your two for our two, I think most teams would take those guys.”

What just happened

Wedgewood led the league in save percentage, goals against average and finished fifth in Vezina Trophy voting. The 32-year-old career backup was one of the great stories in the NHL this season, smashing career bests in every statistical category.

Since arriving first, 10 days ahead of Blackwood during the 2024-25 season, Wedgewood quickly integrated with the Avs’ leadership core and became a fan favorite. Whether it was his style of play, underdog story or immersion into some of the club’s key theme nights, “Wedge-ie” chants became synonymous with his rise to opening the playoffs as the starter.

His play in the first round was near flawless, but he was replaced by Blackwood in each of the next two rounds.

“Scott had an amazing season and did everything you could ask of him,” Schneider said. “It����ap not a knock to say he just bumped into his ceiling a little bit. You need a good 1B and a guy like Scott. But I think when the chips are on the table, Mackenzie has got to become the guy who is going to carry you there.”

Blackwood had an up-and-down year. It started late because of an offseason surgery, and that in part allowed Wedgewood to kick off his career-best season. When Blackwood’s season did begin, he roared to a 13-1-1 start and ultimately was the first alternate for Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano, Italy.

The middle of his campaign was undone by another injury. His play slipped after his return: 5-7 with an .880 save percentage across 14 games between Jan. 16 and March 16.

He watched while Wedgewood started the first seven postseason games. He had two great starts, including Game 4 against Vegas, but also one that he didn’t finish.

“It����ap freaking hard not to play for so long and come into a big game,” Blackwood said after the Game 4 loss. “But you know, I just said, ‘(expletive) it and go play the best I can and give them the best chance to win and just battle.’ ”

Down a level, Trent Miner had a similar end to Wedgewood — great start to a postseason run, but the guy at the other end of the ice outplayed him in Games 6 and 7 of the AHL conference finals. Miner, 25, collected his first NHL win and a really nice year as the club’s No. 3 goalie, but will also face stiff competition to keep that place next season.

What’s next

The Avs haven’t been this stable, up and down the depth chart, in net in a long time.

Blackwood has four years remaining on his contract and currently has the 22nd-highest cap hit for the 2026-27 season at $5.25 million. Wedgewood is signed for another year at $2.5 million. There are eight goalies slated to make more than the Jennings Trophy-winning duo combined.

Still, Blackwood turns 30 in December. It’s going to be a massive year for him.

“I think Mackenzie really has to establish himself as the guy,” Schneider said. “He’s got so much talent, so much upside. But he’s starting to get older, and then it����ap not upside anymore, it����ap unrealized potential. When he’s healthy and confident, he can be an elite goaltender.

“He’s got to prove that he can be healthy and have his head on straight for an entire year. That is going to be his challenge. I think he can rise to it, but you kind of don’t know until he does it.”

Colorado has four more goaltenders under contract for next season. The headliner is Ilya Nabokov, the club’s top pick in the 2024 NHL draft and top prospect, regardless of position. The 23-year-old joined the Colorado Eagles at the end of his KHL season, but has yet to play in a North American game.

Nabokov is a wild card. He was great in the KHL for two years, though his numbers dipped this past season. Can he unseat Miner as the Eagles’ No. 1, or even challenge Wedgewood? The latter might be a stretch, but what impact he makes next year could alter the course of the depth chart behind Blackwood in 2027 and beyond.

“Goaltending was not an issue all year,” Avs president and general manager Joe Sakic said. “I like the way that it was operated. They both played well, and we expect, to be honest, I expect them to get a little bit even better next year and a little stronger. You go to Blackwood, and he had a tough start last year (with) injuries. It’s hard for goaltenders to miss all the training camp, basically, and get back and try and get in a rhythm.

“He’s 100%. He was 100% down the stretch. He’s got a whole summer to get ready and focus.”

Future depth chart

* Unrestricted free agent in 2027; + Restricted free agent in 2027

He was just waiting for the new leader of his hockey operations department to inform his former coworkers before the news broke. When Haslam called Chris MacFarland, the former Colorado Avalanche general manager told his new boss he needed a minute to compose himself, and he’d call back.

It wouldn’t be the last time MacFarland would get emotional about leaving his previous post.

The Predators introduced MacFarland as the club’s new president of hockey operations and general manager on Wednesday morning. He spent the past 11 seasons with the Avs, helping the club win the Stanley Cup in 2022 and becoming one of three finalists for the Jim Gregory NHL GM of the Year Award in 2026 after leading Colorado to its best-ever regular season in franchise history.

MacFarland spent several minutes thanking numerous members of the Avs organization during his opening remarks, and at times it was a struggle for him.

“It was going to take a hell of an opportunity and situation to get me to think about leaving Colorado,” MacFarland said. “I loved everything about it. The players and the team there, I was very attached. Still am, to a degree, I’m not going to lie. I wish them the best.”

The Predators announced Barry Trotz would step down as GM and transition into an advisory role in early February. Haslam and his ownership group, which includes former Alabama football coach Nick Saban, spent months conducting their search, but in recent days it became clear that Nashville was waiting for the chance to speak with at least one person whose team was still playing in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Haslam received permission to speak with MacFarland, who had one more year left on his contract with the Avalanche, shortly after Vegas swept Colorado out of the Western Conference Final, and the process went from a slow crawl to hyperspeed.

“When we finally could talk to Chris, we immediately took every advantage to jump in there quick with a conversation,” Haslam said. “It wasn’t a given thing that he would like us, or that the Avs would say you can talk to him. So I want to start by saying I’m really appreciative to the Avs to, I think, doing the right thing for somebody that they had a great appreciation for.

“And I’ll say up front, they didn’t let him go easily. This was a … they were very eager to keep Chris there, understandably.”

An Avalanche source told the Denver Post that the franchise made multiple offers to MacFarland in hopes of retaining him. Multiple league sources said the Predators’ offer was a significant one, beyond just the promotion to president of hockey ops.

Alex Daugherty of The Tennessean reported MacFarland’s contract with Nashville is for six years. MacFarland confirmed that the process was swift on his end.

“Bill and I had a long chat yesterday,” MacFarland said. “When you get word that a team has reached out … I had a contract and was super happy there, but it was a whirlwind for sure.”

MacFarland inherits what he called a “very attractive” situation, but with some caveats. The Predators failed to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs this season, though ex-Avalanche goaltender Justus Annunen — whom MacFarland traded to Nashville in November 2024 for Scott Wedgewood — led a late-season surge that kept the club in contention for the second wild-card spot.

Nashville has veteran players with excellent resumes — Filip Forsberg, Roman Josi, Juuse Saros, Steven Stamkos — but hasn’t won a playoff round since defeating the Avs in 2018. Why MacFarland called it a very attractive situation is the collection of future assets.

The Predators have one of the best prospect pools in the NHL, led by Brady Martin, the No. 5 pick in the 2025 NHL draft. They also have a whopping 33 selections in the next three drafts, including No. 10 overall later this month and two of Colorado’s 2027 picks — a third-rounder from the Juuso Parssinen trade and a fifth from the Nick Blankenburg deal.

“I asked Mr. Haslam, is the goal here to make the playoffs, make a wild card, feel good about that and high-five each other, or is the goal here to build a team that can compete and try to bring a Stanley Cup to Broadway?” MacFarland said. “He didn’t hesitate. He said the goal here is to try and win. That����ap really, quite honest, all I needed to hear. The city speaks for itself. The organization speaks for itself. I’ve come here as a visiting GM and scout for 25 years.

“When he answered that, that got me really excited. … That answer to me was everything.”

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.

General manager Chris MacFarland is leaving the organization to become president of hockey operations and GM with the Nashville Predators, the Avs’ Central Division rivals announced Tuesday.

Colorado’s president of hockey operations, Joe Sakic, will be the club’s interim GM.

“We would like to thank Chris for all he did for the Avalanche organization,” KSE vice chairman Josh Kroenke said in a statement. “Chris was instrumental in our success over the last decade and a key part of our 2022 Stanley Cup championship. This was an opportunity for him to take on a bigger role with the Predators while being closer to his family. We wish him and his family all the best in Nashville.

“Joe Sakic will resume the general manager duties for the foreseeable future, including through this month’s draft and the start of the league year. In Joe’s previous stint as GM, he helped build the current roster and led us to the 2022 Stanley Cup. We are confident in Joe’s leadership and that we will continue to build upon our recent success as we seek to bring another Cup back to Colorado.”

, and the Predators moved quickly to complete a deal. The Predators have been searching for a new lead executive since GM Barry Trotz announced Feb. 2 that he was retiring from the role.

MacFarland was promoted to GM for the Avs in July 2022, shortly after the club won its third Stanley Cup. He has been with the organization since May 21, 2015, when he was hired as an assistant general manager to Sakic, who was then the club’s GM.

One of three finalists for the Jim Gregory General Manager of the Year Award, MacFarland has overhauled the Colorado roster around the club’s title-winning core over the past two seasons. The Avs were atop the NHL standings this season every day from Nov. 1, winning the Presidents’ Trophy with a club-record 121 points.

They were the Stanley Cup favorite until the Vegas Golden Knights swept them out of the playoffs in the Western Conference Final.

“Very well deserved,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said of MacFarland’s nomination before the conference final. “I think it’s probably a couple years coming. But oftentimes with the work you put in and the blood, sweat, and tears, there’s a delayed reaction, a delayed recognition of that. This team for me wasn’t just built in this year, it was built over the last couple years.

“To me, the decisions … I look at a lot of the tough ones that we’ve made over the years, especially in the last couple of years, they all seem to be turning out and working out pretty well for us again this year. It doesn’t always guarantee success, but I mean, I think he’s putting us in a position to have success year over year.”

MacFarland and the Avs made a historic number of in-season trades for a contending team a year ago. It started with swapping out both of the team’s opening-night goaltenders 10 days apart, becoming the first NHL team to do so before Christmas. The Avs were last in the NHL in save percentage the day of the Scott Wedgewood trade. He and Mackenzie Blackwood won the William Jennings Trophy this season for allowing the fewest goals in the NHL.

MacFarland’s biggest move came in January 2025, when he sent Mikko Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes for Martin Necas, Jack Drury and two draft picks. Necas set career highs with 38 goals and 100 points this season, and will begin an eight-year contract next season with an $11.5 million cap hit.

Rantanen ended up in Dallas six weeks later, where he knocked the Avs out of the 2025 playoffs with an epic Game 7 performance. He also just completed the first season of an eight-year pact with a $12 million cap hit. The Hurricanes, without Necas and Rantanen, reached the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in 20 years and will play Vegas for the 2026 championship.

The Avs have been among the most aggressive teams in the NHL, trading prospects and future draft capital to strengthen their current roster for several years now. The new GM will inherit a roster that just set the standard in the league for six months but fell short yet again in the postseason, and now the prospect pool and war chest of draft picks are among the league’s shallowest.

Nashville has missed the playoffs the past two seasons, and has not won a round in the postseason since beating the Avalanche in the opening round of the 2018 tournament. The Predators reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2017 but have not won a championship since joining the league as an expansion franchise in 1998.

“We could not be more pleased that Chris has elected to join the Predators organization and lead our hockey operations group,” Haslam said in a team statement. “We conducted an exhaustive search and were able to meet with several very qualified and impressive candidates, but all along, we were hopeful to interview Chris. He turned out to be a perfect fit for us – just what we were looking for to lead our organization moving forward.”

FOOTNOTE: Avs star defenseman Cale Makar finished second in the Norris Trophy voting this season. Columbus’ Zach Werenski is a first-time winner of the award. Makar has been a finalist six times in first seven years. He won in 2022 and 2025, and was also the runner-up in 2021.

“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.

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.”

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

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

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

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

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

That starts at the top.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Play the Joker, Super Joe. Go wild.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What happened in this Western Conference Final hit different.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Still, the Golden Knights were winning.

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

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

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

The players are not blameless.

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

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

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

Does some of that fall on Bednar? Sure.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Since 2022, they are 0-for-4.

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

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

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

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

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

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

It is worth finding out.

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

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

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

A week later, the Avs are just going home.

The Vegas Golden Knights completed one of the more improbable sweeps in Stanley Cup Playoffs history Tuesday night, sending the Avalanche into the offseason with a 2-1 victory in Game 4 of the Western Conference Final at T-Mobile Arena. Colorado went from being the odds-on favorite to win the Stanley Cup to falling eight wins short of that goal in a span of seven days.

“Disappointed, humiliated,” Avs forward Logan O’Connor said. “I think to a man just weren’t good enough, not a single guy was the whole entire series.

“I think we let down coaches, each other, fans, management. It����ap on us as players to be far better than we were. The results speak for itself. Just tons, lot of disappointment right now.”

This Avs team began this season with a historic 31-2-7 run. They had won 13 of their past 15 games entering this series, including an 8-1 romp through the first two rounds of this tournament.

And then, in a figurative blink of an eye, the months-long march to a second NHL championship in five years was over.

“It’s empty, always is whether you lose 7,6,5, or 4,” Avs captain Gabe Landeskog said. “I mean, it’s an empty feeling. Yeah, sucks. There’s no other way to put it.”

This Vegas Golden Knights team fired its coach with eight games to play in the regular season because it was in a dogfight just to make the playoffs.

Now, John Tortorella and the Golden Knights will play for a second title in four years. The 2023 champs handled the 2022 champs with a level of ease no one could have seen coming.

“Right now, it����ap heartbreak, disappointment, frustration, a lot of different things,” Avs center Brock Nelson said. “I mean the group, I don’t think there was any quit in the group. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. We ran into a good team, a good goalie. We weren’t able to get it done. It sucks.”

By Game 4, the Avs were clearly at a physical disadvantage. Star center Nathan MacKinnon was able to play in this game despite getting injured in Game 3. Valeri Nichushkin was not, after missing the final 22 minutes Saturday night.

A few other key players, including star defenseman Cale Makar, Artturi Lehkonen, and Sam Malinski, have all either missed games in this series or logged less ice time than usual, likely because they were playing through injuries that kept them out of games in the second round.

Last season ended in stunning fashion, with ex-Avalanche star Mikko Rantanen’s four-point third period in Game 7. Somehow, the Avs found a different, yet equally unfathomable way to lose.

The questions, both short- and long-term, about where the Avs go from here will be plentiful.

“I feel like this is probably the most frustrating one that I’ve been part of in the postseason,” Nelson said. “Just given, the year we had, the group, how much everyone put into it to give ourselves the best chance. To have it come to an end so abruptly, I don’t know … it doesn’t really feel real right now.”

Mark Stone gave Vegas an early lead in this one. The Golden Knights captain got behind the Colorado defense and Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb flipped the puck over everyone to him. Stone caught the puck just before the Avs’ blue line, went in alone and scored his second goal in as many games after missing the first two contests of this series with an injury at 4:42 of the opening period.

It was the second shot Mackenzie Blackwood faced in his first appearance of this series. He made his first start of the conference final and third of this postseason run after Scott Wedgewood got the nod in the first three games.

Blackwood was outstanding for the Avalanche after allowing the early goal. He was a one-man show at one point during the second period as Vegas dominated play and pushed to extend the lead. Blackwood made two highlight-reel saves during a Vegas power play and stopped multiple mini-breakaways in the middle period as well.

“It����ap freaking hard not to play for so long and come into a big game,” Blackwood said. “But you know I just said (expletive) it and go play the best I can and give them the best chance to win and just battle.”

Cole Smith made it a 2-0 advantage with 5:45 left in the game. The Avs struggled mightily to create chances for about 20 minutes before Smith directed a Dylan Coghlan shot past Blackwood.

Vegas built a 3-0 lead in Game 1 and held off a late Colorado rally. The Avs failed to hold a 1-0 third-period lead in Game 2 and then a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes in Game 3. Each loss was more shocking than the last.

Colorado was 45-0 this season when leading after two periods before Game 2. It was 52-0 when building a multi-goal lead before Game 3.

“Yeah, it happened fast,” O’Connor said. “I think we let Games 2 and 3 slip away from us. Super uncharacteristic from our group to give up the leads like that, especially in consecutive games. Drifted away from the game plan, they made us pay their opportunistic off our mistakes. Like I mentioned, I don’t think a single guy in this locker room played to the standards that we expect.

This Avs team once felt inevitable, but the past week shattered that.

MacKinnon sat in front of reporters after Game 7 a year ago and said, “I don’t know what we’re going to do.”

That was a familiar feeling Tuesday night in Sin City.

“Obviously, it (expletive) sucks no matter how you do it,” Blackwood said. “I think losing like that stings a little more. Yeah, that����ap going to be pretty frustrating. We are going to have a tough pill to swallow.”

MacKinnon will play despite getting injured in Game 3. Valeri Nichushkin, who was also injured in a 5-3 loss Saturday night that put the Avs at the brink of elimination, remains a game-time decision.

“I think we’ll be able to use him (normally),” Bednar said. “He’s feeling a lot better today. We’ll see when he gets on the ice tonight and what the game brings, but he’s feeling pretty good today and feels like he’ll be ready to go.”

Mackenzie Blackwood is going to replace Scott Wedgewood in the net for Game 4. It will be his first start since being replaced by Wedgewood in the series-clinching Game 5 against Minnesota.

MacKinnon was injured in the second period of Game 3 when he blocked a Shea Theodore shot with the outside of his right knee. He writhed on the ice in pain for 9 seconds before the officials stopped play, and then for a bit longer before he was able to gingerly skate off the ice on his own power.

He missed the end of the second period and the start of the third while getting treatment, and was only able to take one 5-on-5 shift after returning from the locker room. MacKinnon still played 4:05 in the third period, but most of it was on the power play or with the goaltender pulled at the end of the game.

Nichushkin did not play the final 22 minutes of Game 3 and took only one short shift in the final 27 minutes. The Avalanche did not have Cale Makar for the first two games of this series because of an upper-body injury. Sam Malinski and Artturi Lehkonen both missed the final two games of the Minnesota series, and while they have played against Vegas, neither has been as impactful as before their injuries.

Blackwood has only started two games during this 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs run. Wedgewood outplayed him near the end of the season, earned the Game 1 start against Los Angeles and then was fantastic against the Kings in a four-game sweep. Blackwood replaced Wedgewood during Game 3 of the second round and then started Games 4 and 5.

“I think Mackenzie’s the type of guy and goalie that plays better when he’s loose and confident and he’s been doing the work to make sure that he’s ready and prepared,” Bednar said. “It����ap not a desperation move. It����ap just … you’ve got to make a change and see if something else works for me. We felt confident in both these guys all year long. I felt like (Wedgewood) kind of earned the net in (Games) 1 and 2 and we gave him the shot in (Game) 3 and we didn’t get it done. It����ap not on him, either. It����ap on our team.

“We’re just looking for (Blackwood) to come in and play to the best of his ability and be loose and have fun. The whole team’s kind of in that mode right now, and I think if you can do that, you might see the best of him.”