Mar 30, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; Colorado Avalanche center Ryan O’Reilly (90) during the second period against the Edmonton Oilers at Pepsi Center. Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports /
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:
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
Apr 7, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; Colorado Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov (1) and center Ryan O’Reilly (90) celebrate the win over the Nashville Predators at the Pepsi Center. The Avalanche defeated the Predators 3-2.Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports /
Ryan O’Reilly
Position: Center
Age: 25 (age 18-24 with Colorado)
Avalanche Acquisition: Draft, second round, #33 in 2009
Left Avalanche: Trade, 2015
Years as an Avalanche: 6
Under-30 Colorado Stats: 427 games played, 90 goals, 156 assists
Former Colorado Avalanche center Ryan O’Reilly was involved in the most protracted contractual disputes in Avs history. This included his sitting out part of the already lockout-shortened season, alienating some of his teammates (notably Matt Duchene), and filing for salary arbitration. Therefore, the trade that sent him and Jamie McGinn to the Buffalo Sabres for Mikhail Grigorenko, Nikita Zadorov, JT Compher and a draft pick was a relief for many Avs fans.
That said, O’Reilly was popular in his time with the Colorado Avalanche. He did a lot for the team. He was drafted the same year as Duchene, and they made the team together as 18-year-olds. The two seemed to be growing up together into the center of the Avalanche core — which made his contractual disputes all the more painful for most fans.
O’Reilly was our second center, but he seemed to see that changing with the drafting of Nathan MacKinnon in 2013. What’s more, he wanted a leadership role, and that seemed far-fetched in the current Avalanche structure.
However, Ryan O’Reilly will always be a part of Colorado Avalanche history. Indeed, during the exalted Why Not Us season he earned the Lady Byng Trophy for being a gentlemanly sort of hockey player.
Let’s look at another player who broke a lot of hearts when he left the team.
Left Avalanche: Draft, second round, 44th overall in 2005
Years as an Avalanche: 8
Under-30 Colorado Stats: 538 games played, 160 goals, 298 assists
While Matt Duchene is the undeniable heart of the Colorado Avalanche, center Paul Stastny was the soul.
He played two years with the local Denver University Pioneers. Drafted in 2005, he started playing during the 2006 season. That means he got to play with some of the Avalanche greats in the twilight of their careers. Yet he came into his own in the modern era, so he served as a bridge between the two times. His father, Peter Stastny, played for the Quebec Nordiques, though he’d retired by the time the franchise moved to Colorado.
As his numbers show, Stastny had excellent seasons playing for the Colorado Avalanche. He was the runner up for the Calder Trophy his rookie year after scoring 78 points (28 goals, 50 assists), losing out to Evgeni Malkin. When he played, he had strong showings for the Avs, but he ever had a problem staying healthy.
Unlike Ryan O’Reilly, Paul Stastny also had a clear leadership role. He served as the alternate captain for many years. Indeed, he was the obvious mentor not only for very-young captain Gabriel Landeskog, but also Duchene and O’Reilly himself. He and Duchene were good friends, and they even developed their famous Bang-Bang dance:
Unfortunately, Paul Stastny was another one who saw the writing on the wall both when it came to salary structure and center positioning. As he neared unrestricted free agency at the end of the 2013-14 season, he could see that Duchene and O’Reilly were becoming solid centers, and that rookie Nathan MacKinnon was going to dazzle. That left Stastny with, at best, the third centerman position.
He wanted a big payout — something north of $6 million — and he wasn’t going to get that as long as the team’s best player, Duchene, was only making $6 million. So, though the Avalanche tried to offer him a contract extension, Stastny decided to go into free agency and sign for big money with the St. Louis Blues.
The circumstances of his leaving weren’t at all contentious, as they had been with O’Reilly. However, it still left a bad taste in many Avs fans mouths. That said, Stastny was named to the 20th Anniversary team, showing his place in Avalanche history is important.
Left Avalanche: Trade with Toronto Maple Leafs, 2011
Years as an Avalanche: 7
Under-30 Colorado Stats: 447 games played, 62 goals, 167 assists
Another gone player who made the 20th Anniversary team is John Michael Liles, and with good reason. For the seven years he played for the Colorado Avalanche, Liles was a significant factor on the team. The above stats indicate only those in his under-30 years — his total stats for the Colorado Avalanche were 68 goals and 207 assists in 523 games.
It started from day one and against one of the most hated of teams in Avs history — the Minnesota Wild. He scored his first-ever NHL goal in his first-ever NHL game, and it proved to be the game-winner. Pretty impressive start. That year he led all rookie defensemen in scoring with 34 points (10 goals, 24 assists) and became the highest scoring rookie defenseman in Avalanche history.
In his years with Colorado, he tied Hall of Famer Rob Blake for most goals scored by a defenseman, 14. He also set a team record in October 2005 for most points scored in a month by a defenseman, 14. The next season he became the first defenseman since the 1980s to score at least 10 goals in his first three NHL seasons.
Liles continued to produce points at a rate impressive for a defenseman, especially considering he was playing in the Colorado Avalanche Dark Ages. Like Stastny, he served as something of a bridge player between the old guard and the youth resurgence.
When the Colorado Avalanche traded John Michael Liles in the summer of 2011 — and for nothing more than a second round pick — to the Toronto Maple Leafs, Avs Nation lost their collective minds. For obvious reasons Liles was wildly popular.
The writing had been on the wall, though. Even before the current management team of Joe Sakic and Patrick Roy had taken over, the team was moving more toward youth and size. They’d acquired the big, young Erik Johnson from the St. Louis Blues in exchange for the also-young but small Kevin Shattenkirk.
By the time Colorado traded Liles, he was 31, set to make $4.5 million in the upcoming year and just that one season away from unrestricted free agency. He just wasn’t a player that made sense for the Avalanche anymore.
No question he had a significant impact on the team while he was around, though.
As popular as John Michael Liles was and still is, that’s how unpopular Chris Stewart is. On the face of it, he’s the perfect Colorado Avalanche forward — big, mean, speedy and inconsistent. However, for some reason that inconsistency seems to rankle Avs fans more with Stewart than with a lot of other players.
Stewart was a first-round draft pick. Maybe his 19 points (8 goals, 11 assists) didn’t put him in danger of winning the Calder Trophy that first season, but he had the exact opposite of a sophomore slump the next season, 2009-10. In 77 games he scored 28 goals and 36 assists for 64 points. He finished second only to Paul Stastny in scoring that season.
While with the Avalanche, Stewart earned two hat tricks and two Gordie Howe hat tricks (a goal, assist and fight in the same game). Like I said, he really seemed a Colorado kind of player.
Chris Stewart was on his way to matching his sophomore numbers with the Avalanche. By February he’d earned 13 goals and 17 assists. Nonetheless, he became part of the blockbuster trade that brought current cornerstone defenseman, Erik Johnson, to the team.
Speaking of that trade, this post’s Honorable Mention was a huge chunk of that trade.
Avalanche Acquisition: Draft, 14th overall in 2007
Left Avalanche: Trade to St. Louis, 2011
Years as an Avalanche: 1
Under-30 Colorado Stats: 46 games played, 7 goals, 19 assists
One of the, if not the, biggest trade for the modern Colorado Avalanche era involved Kevin Shattenkirk. On February 19, 2011, the Avalanche sent Shattenkirk and Stewart, along with a conditional second-round pick to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for Erik Johnson, Jay McClement and a conditional first round pick (used for Duncan Siemens — never mind.)
Shattenkirk was a rookie but had made a bit of a splash in Colorado. That said, his main significance to Avalanche history is the return for the trade — Erik Johnson. He’s the leader of the blueline — the defensive corps is largely built around him.
Shattenkirk has spent the rest of his six-year NHL career with the Blues. He’s small and more of an offensive defenseman. If he were still part of the Avalanche, it’s hard to say there’d be room for Tyson Barrie. And we’d have little to nothing to stop the opponents’ top lines.
John Michael Liles bridged generations. Paul Stastny helped mentor the young players leading the team now. Chris Stewart (and Kevin Shattenkirk) brought a key player in trade, and Ryan O’Reilly may prove to have done the same.
The players on this list, though gone from the team now, still gave us some of their best while with the Colorado Avalanche.
