Three players, while no longer with the Colorado Avalanche, made a significant impact on the team in their youth.
Professional hockey is a young man’s game (No one tell Jaromir Jagr), and the Colorado Avalanche have long used youth to their advantage.
We’re looking at 30 players who have made valuable contributions to the team while under the age of 30 — hence the series title, 30 under 30. In the previous post I wrote about eight current players who are the foundation of the present-day Colorado Avalanche:
- Nathan MacKinnon
- Matt Duchene
- Gabriel Landeskog
- Erik Johnson
- Tyson Barrie
- Semyon Varlamov
- Calvin Pickard
- Mikhail Grigorenko
Those eight players, all under the age of 30, will determine how successful the team is in the upcoming season.
In this post, let’s look at some players who are still playing in the NHL but no longer for the Avalanche. These four players had an impact on the team while they were a part of it. For various reasons, though — mostly trade — they are no longer in burgundy and blue.
At the end of the post we’ll also look at one honorable mention. He’s a would-have, could-have sort of player, and one that yielded big return in his trade.
Next: O'Reilly