Colorado Avalanche Mount Rushmore Monument Nominees

The Colorado Avalanche have enough greats in their history to create their own Mount Puckmore. Three are obvious. Who would be the fourth?

The Colorado Avalanche don’t have as long a history as, say, the Boston Bruins. But then, they’ve been around a site longer than the Vegas Golden Knights — and they have more heroes than the Minnesota Wild, obviously.

There are a lot of mountain in Colorado. Let’s say you wanted to hike over to one of those 14ers and transform it with Avalanche greats. You could create a monument for all of Colorado sports.

(Of course, if you wanted to go all Crazy Horse, with a gigantic monument, it would be John Elway of the Denver Broncos. Because football. And broncos are horses. Crazy Horse… oh, you get the point.)

This idea was actually inspired by sister site Eye on Isles, a New York Islanders site. My criteria are going to be a little different. While writer Michael Anderson opened up selection to the front offices as well, I’m not going to. Because no one wants to see a gigantic Pierre LaCroix head.

Anderson’s list was only for alumni, too. Well, I want to throw a certain player into consideration even though he’s still active. I’m not saying let’s get out the chisels. But… maybe the Avs’ Mount Rushmore will eventually have a fifth bust.

The New York Islanders are an expansion team dating back to 1972. That franchise has only ever been in New York. Conversely, as we well know, the Colorado Avalanche moved from Quebec to here. So, while Anderson didn’t have to deal with former greats, I’m going to deal with them just to state the Nordiques and Avalanche are not the same team in my book. So, no disrespect to the Nordiques, but I’m only considering Avalanche contributions.

Now, the Colorado Avalanche have five players who have been inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, and six players who’ve had their numbers retired by the team. Four of those players overlap. That still makes only three of the busts easy.

We’ll get to the fourth in due time.

Without further adieu, let’s get to the easiest inductee for the mount.

Joe Sakic

Avalanche games played: 940
Points as an Avalanche: 1015
Honors as an Avalanche: 1996, 2001 Stanley Cup; 1996 Conn Smythe; 2001 Hart Trophy

Center Joe Sakic spent his entire career with the franchise. He was drafted 15th overall by the Quebec Nordiques in 1987. He played 13 seasons with the Colorado Avalanche, all as the team captain.

Those 13 seasons spanned 940 games. In that time, he recorded 391 goals. that included a career-high 54 goals in 2000-01. That year he won the Hart Trophy for team MVP.

Joe Sakic helped the Colorado Avalanche win the Stanley Cup twice and helped the team make the playoffs all but twice in his tenure. As part of his 1996 Cup run, he won the Conn Smythe, thanks to his 13 goals and 13 assists in 21 games.

Sakic naturally had his number retired by the team when he retired in 2009. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2012, as a first-ballot nominee.

Patrick Roy

Avalanche games played: 478
Record as an Avalanche: 262-163-65
Honors as an Avalanche: 1996, 2001 Stanley Cup; 2001 Conn Smythe

Goalie Patrick Roy should be the next obvious candidate for Mount Rushmore even though he technically spent a little more time with the Montreal Canadiens. That said, he recorded a 262-163-65 record in his 478 games with the Colorado Avalanche.

As we all know, Patrick Roy’s brilliance came out in the playoffs. The Colorado Avalanche made the playoffs every single time Roy was their goalie. (He only missed the playoffs once, in 1994-95 with the Canadiens.) In the playoffs, Roy’s record with the Avs was 81-52.

Patrick Roy was a large part of the two Stanley Cups Colorado won. Indeed, he was earned the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2001 as playoff MVP. That season he had the best save percentage of his playoff career — .934.

As with Sakic and Forsberg, Patrick Roy had his number retired after he himself retired in 2003. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2006 — first ballot nominee, of course.

Adam Foote

Avalanche games played: 760
Honors as an Avalanche: 1996, 2001 Stanley Cup

Choosing the final Avalanche great for Mount Puckmore was much more challenging than the first three. The first three all had their numbers retired by the Avs and are in the Hockey Hall of Fame at least partially because of the Avalanche contributions.

Defenseman Ray Bourque has also had his number retired by the team, and he’s in the HHOF. However, that’s largely because of his contributions to the Boston Bruins. Defenseman Rob Blake is also a HHOFer, but he hasn’t had his number retired by the Avs — that’s just criteria I’m working with.

If we’re talking strictly a Colorado Avalanche Mount Puckmore, then the decision comes down to Adam Foote and Milan Hejduk. Both are equally worthy, but I had to choose just one. So I chose Foote, only because he won one more Stanley Cup with Colorado than Hejduk. (There had to be some tie-breaker.)

Like I said, though, you could just as easily give the spot to Milan Hejduk because he spent his entire career with the Avs.

In this section, I’d also like to foreshadow who may eventually take that final spot decisively — center Nathan MacKinnon. He’s already played all five of his NHL seasons (374 games) with Colorado. He has 303 points (114 goals, 189 assists) and a Calder Trophy to his name. Indeed, he’s the Avalanche’s only first-overall draft pick, and he’s living up to the hype.

What say you, Colorado Avalanche fans? Can you argue with the first three players on Mount Puckmore? Who’s your choice for the fourth bust? Leave your comments below.