Although preseason has begun, the real games haven’t yet, and that means that off-season type rankings and ratings articles are still prevalent. Lists of best this or best that are always popular topics, and ESPN recently rated, and the DNVR podcast recently spoke about, rating NHL teams from best to worst over the next three seasons. They considered things like current rosters and current farm systems as well as front offices and cap situations. The top ten teams may surprise you, with the Devils finishing 1st. The Hughes brothers, a second-round playoff exit, a 100-point season, and a lot of expectations helped the Devils in this rating. More importantly as related to this specific article and discussion is where the Colorado Avalanche ranked in this discussion.
Spoiler alert here, they were not even listed in the top 10 teams! The Avalanche were rated 11th best over the next three seasons. There are likely several reasons for this, none of which are accurate of course.
The Avalanche should be a clear top 10 choice for many reasons. Arguing over this is likely trivial, however, it’s clear it needs to happen. The pluses for the Avalanche far outweigh the negatives, and the likeliness they fall back into the middle of the pack or worse over the next few years is slim to none when all things are considered.
There are a multitude of reasons why Colorado isn’t going anywhere over the next several seasons to include many that won’t even make this specific list.
However ridiculous the article may be, it may behoove the Avalanche to develop their farm system a bit further and couldn’t hurt to tidy up their salary cap situation. It appears that may be in the works with some rumors coming of late, as well as regular season rosters needing to be finalized over the next several weeks.
Why are the Avalanche unjustly listed at #11 in these rankings?