Colorado Avalanche: Options for the 2nd Defensive Pairing

The Colorado Avalanche have a lot of options for the second defensive pairing. Here’s a look at some likely combinations.

The Colorado Avalanche look really good on defense. For the first time in a long time it’s a definite area of strength for the team.

At the time of writing, the Avs have eight NHL-ready defensemen listed on the roster. One of them, Ian Cole, had offseason hip surgery and isn’t expected to join the team until December.

That still leaves seven options for the second pairing.

In a previous post, I deliberated over who Colorado’s first pairing would be:

Eventually I settled on last year’s duo of Erik Johnson and Samuel Girard, provided the former is fully rehabilitated after offseason shoulder surgery.

Well, this upcoming season, the second pairing cannot go the way the first did for me — I can’t just rely on last year’s pairing. Cole was a mainstay of the line, but, like I said, he’s rehabilitating. Patrik Nemeth was another common defenseman for that pairing, but he now plays for the Detroit Red Wings.

Most importantly, though, the cornerstone of that pairing was Tyson Barrie. And he has been traded to Toronto.

So, the second defensive pairing is going to look brand new this year. Let’s shuffle the defensemen around a little to see what looks good.

Cornerstone Defenseman

Having a cornerstone of the second pairing worked out well last season. Barrie was able to cycle through three partners (the third being Nikita Zadorov). However, he provided the constant.

So, who should be the cornerstone this season? Well, if you want a similar profile to last season, you’ll want an offensive-minded defenseman. With Barrie gone, our best offensive defenseman is probably going to be Cale Makar.

I say “probably” because Makar is going to be a rookie with no regular-season experience to his name. Barrie had to work for years to get to that level of trust — Makar might just not be ready. And we don’t want to rush his development.

Now, even though he’s only a few months older than Makar, Girard is a more proven NHL defenseman. He’s not as offensive-minded, and I would prefer to see him stay with Johnson on the top pairing. However, he could be a good cornerstone second pairing d-man.

Come to that, if I’m going to break up the band, Johnson could be that cornerstone. Granted, he’s been the cornerstone of the entire defense for years, but he’s the veteran now. It’s time for him to start grooming his heir apparent — which he already started doing last season with Girard.

We have one more option for cornerstone, and it will be a controversial one — Zadorov. Nikita has had a lot of flaws in his game over the years. However, he’s 24 and has almost 300 games of NHL experience. He’s striding right into his prime as a defensman.

What I like about putting Zadorov in that position is that he game has grown a lot in the last few years. Yes, he makes mistakes. So did Barrie, and he still excelled in this position.

I also like that Zadorov represents a different kind of cornerstone of the second pairing. He’s a left-hand shot, while Barrie was right-hand shot. More to the point, he’s more physical than Barrie. Opponents need to be aware when Zadorov is on the ice, and that’s an excellent quality for a cornerstone second D.

So, I’m choosing Zadorov as my cornerstone of this position. Let’s look at who his partners might be.

Second Pairing Partners

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As noted, Zadorov is a left defenseman. Now, defensemen play out of their preferred side all the time, and the Avs will have to see that happen since they have more left D than right. However, for this second pairing, I’d rather see both players on their preferred side.

So, that leaves Colorado with only three options. One is Johnson, as mentioned above. I wouldn’t mind that pairing because both men are big. Johnson isn’t quite as physical as Zadorov, but he’s not all finesse. Both have some two-way prowess to their game, Erik more so than Nikita. I don’t hate this pairing at all. I love it.

I don’t know that I love it more than Johnson with Girard, though.

That means the other likely option is Makar. That’s weird because I said he might not be ready for the role of cornerstone, so why would he be ready for the cornerstone’s partner?

Well, that’s a conundrum. However, Makar is kind of the new Barrie, and Tyson and Nikita played well together. Plus, if he’s not on the second pairing, he’d probably be on the first, with even more responsibility.

The third option is an outlier… for now. It’s Conor Timmins. He’s the only other viable Colorado Avalanche right D in the system. But he missed an entire season of hockey with concussion symptoms. However, I think he could eventually excel in that role.

Other options are the players who would be off their favored side, such as Ryan Graves, Kevin Connauton, or Mark Barberio. Of those three, I prefer Graves, but Bednar would probably put the more seasoned Connauton in there.

So, I’d have to say, my favorite partner for the second pairing is Makar.

So, for the Colorado Avalanche’s top-six defense, I have:

Girard-Johnson

Zadorov-Makar

That’s not too shabby, Avs Nation.

What do you think? Who would be the ideal second pairing for the Colorado Avalanche?