Colorado Avalanche 2007 NHL Entry Draft: Ten Years Later

The 2007 NHL Draft served as a foundation for the Colorado Avalanche’s current drafting and roster woes.

In the summer of 2007, the Colorado Avalanche entered the offseason after having missed the post-season for the first time since moving to Denver from Quebec City over a decade earlier. The 2007 NHL Entry Draft marks a rough halfway point in the history of the Avalanche. As such, I think it is useful to look back with ten years of hindsight and see how that draft panned out.

The 2007 NHL Entry Draft marks the last time the Avs picked defensemen with their first two selections before this year’s draft. The Avalanche owned the 14th selection in the 2007 draft, the earliest the team had selected a player since Vaclav Nedorost in 2000. With that selection, the team took a defensemen from the USNTDP bound for Boston University, Kevin Shattenkirk.

Shattenkirk’s impact on the Avs can still be felt, although indirectly. Shattenkirk only played 46 games for the Avalanche as a rookie before being sent to St. Louis as the main piece of the Erik Johnson trade in 2011. The Avs also received the draft pick that would become Duncan Siemens in that trade. Shattenkirk has gone on to play 490 games and with 298 points in the NHL.

Colorado’s first round pick in 2007 gave the Avs the top pair defenseman the team desired, even if it was the result of a future trade. Unfortunately, the rest of the draft, which featured eight more Colorado Avalanche selections, proved less fruitful for the franchise. The Avs had three second round picks in 2007, but unfortunately only one of them came close to panning out.

With pick 45, the Avalanche selected defensemen, Colby Cohen, who had an incredibly successful college career at Boston University. Sadly, he only played 3 games for the Avs before being traded to Boston for Matt Hunwick. Unlike his college teammate Shattenkirk, Cohen never reached the NHL again, playing three successful seasons with the Providence Bruins of the AHL.

With pick 49, Colorado selected goaltender, Trevor Cann. He played 45 games for the Lake Erie Monsters, in the AHL, spending most of his career as an ECHL journeyman.

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The Avs found their most successful 2007 second rounder with pick 55, forward, T.J. Galiardi, who played 191 games for the Avalanche over the course of four seasons. Galiardi was an important piece of the 2009-10 Avalanche team, which made the playoffs, putting up a career high 39 points in 70 games. He was traded to the Sharks in 2012, for among others, Jamie McGinn.

Colorado had five late round selections in the 2007 NHL Entry Draft. Two of those five players went on to appear in games for the Avalanche. That is a pretty good ratio for the fourth round, or after.

With pick 105, the Avs selected forward Brad Malone. He appeared in 54 games for Colorado over three seasons. Pick 135, forward Paul Carey, appeared in 22 games for the Avs over two seasons. Both made appearances on the fourth line on the 2013-14 Central Division Champions. Both also appeared in a handful of playoff games for Colorado that spring.

With another late pick, the Avalanche selected goaltender, Kent Patterson, whose best pro season came with the 2013-14 Denver Cutthroats of the CHL. The final two selections for the Avs were Jens Hellgren and Johan Alcen, both of whom had successful careers in Europe. None of the three came particularly close to making an NHL roster.

With all of this information, what is one to make of the Colorado Avalanche’s 2007 draft class? On one hand, five players selected by the team appeared in at least one game for the Avalanche. The Avs have not been able to pull that off since. On the other hand, of nine total selections, only T.J. Galiardi appeared in over 60 games for Colorado. That is far less impressive.

The lack of success the Avalanche have enjoyed in the last decade can be traced to drafts like this one. Colorado has not been able to consistently draft, or develop players after the first two rounds, which is essential to thriving as a franchise. The fact that Brad Malone is one of the best late round picks the team has made in the past ten years is telling.

Next: Avs' Storied Past Shows Hope for the Future

If the Colorado Avalanche does not improve their drafting, which hopefully they have done in more recent years, the team will continue to struggle to make the playoffs consistently. Avs fans can only hope that the likes of recent late round picks, Andrei Mironov and Anton Lindholm, can buck the trend exemplified by the relative lack of success of the 2007 NHL Entry Draft class for the Avalanche.