Colorado Avalanche Should Acquire a Winger Before Opening Night

The Colorado Avalanche’s top six is all but set in stone. Matt Duchene, along with Jarome Iginla and Alex Tanguay, as well as a second line of Carl Soderberg with Gabriel Landeskog and Nate MacKinnon, is seemingly all the team needs. However, that group may turn out to be worse than expected. Therefore, it would be smart to make a push to acquire another top six forward through free agency or trade, ideally before opening night.

The Avalanche’s top six doesn’t look too bad in theory, but it may turn out to be.

That top six doesn’t look too bad in theory, but it may turn out to be. After all, Iginla and Tanguay are aging stars, and Soderberg may just be a career third liner. Duchene and Landeskog are the only two established, yet young top six forwards, with MacKinnon looking ready to get there as well.

It is tough, but it’s a fact — Iginla and Tanguay are getting old, at 38 and 35, respectively. Not old for ordinary mortals, but quite old for top athletes. While conventional hockey wisdom implies that a player hits the prime of his career around the young age of 27, science set the age for body regression to around 30.

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Both Iginla and Tanguay used to be superstars. For the Colorado Avalanche, they still are two of the best players. In fact, Iginla tied Landeskog as the team’s top scorer in the 2014-15 season at 59 points, with Tanguay being a close third with 55 points — tied with Duchene and now-Sabre Ryan O’Reilly.

Meanwhile, there are more examples of players who remained great NHL players until they retired at a high age. The most recent example would be Martin St-Louis, who recorded 21 goals and 52 points in 74 regular season games this past season — as a 39-year-old. Then there’s Jaromir Jagr — the NHL’s No. 4 in all-time scoring — who is now 43 years old, but doesn’t seem to slow down.

However, there are other examples as well. NHL legend Rod Brind’Amour dropped from 51 points in 51 games to 51 points in 80 games, and eventually to 19 points in 80 games — all within the final three years of his career. Steve Yzerman, another NHL legend, recorded 51 points in 75 games in the 2003-04 season — similar to Iginla and Tanguay in 2014-15 — but then dropped to 34 points in 61 games in his final season, which he played after the 2004-05 NHL lockout.

It would only be natural for Iginla and Tanguay to regress sooner rather than later.

It is impossible to predict whether Iginla and Tanguay will be like St-Louis and Jagr, or like Brind’Amour and Yzerman. Fact is, however, that it would only be natural for the duo to regress sooner rather than later.

What that means for the Colorado Avalanche, is more than clear: if two of the team’s best scorers crash — or get injured for that matter — the team may have to bid the playoff race farewell once more. There are quite a few prospects hoping to get a chance next season, but it is highly questionable, whether that can be enough to compete in the league’s strongest division.

There are two players that seem to have the potential to fill a top six role as early as next season — Mikhail Grigorenko and Mikko Rantanen. Unfortunately, both of them are very young and inexperienced.

The combination of veterans and prospects may be enough. However, aging veterans, inexperienced prospects and a center that has never seen a second line in the NHL before, simply bring too much uncertainty to the roster — especially if the Avalanche wants to make the playoffs again.