Penalties are part of hockey’s idiosyncrasy. No other sports remove players temporarily for rule violations. But in the case of the Colorado Avalanche, having players sit in the penalty box results in a costly financial punishment.
A recent study by Casino.org has actually quantified the amount of money the Avalanche are paying players to sit in the sin bin. Spoiler: It’s not pretty.
Colorado ranks second in the league, forking over $369,840 to players for sitting in the penalty. The total is derived from individual player salaries and the number of minutes penalized.
Incidentally, that's 372.6 minutes playing shorthanded over 221 infractions. It’s worth noting that we’re not talking about the raw penalty minutes, but the time players actually sat in the box. As such, it does not include the minutes erased following a power play goal.
By that calculation, the Avalanche are actually paying $993 for every shorthanded minute they play. Given how being shorthanded is a bad thing, you would think that Colorado would get paid for it. Alas, paying to play shorthanded just adds insult to injury.
By the way, the top team is the Boston Bruins. They paid over $438K last season to guys sitting in the box. That worked out to $1,055 bucks for every minute in the sin bin.
Yikes!
Avalanche are by all means a good defensive team
Despite the eye-popping amount of money paid to sit in the penalty box, the Avalanche are actually a good penalty-killing team.
The Avs surrendered 17 power play goals last season. That’s in the bottom third of the league. And it certainly pales in comparison to the Anaheim Ducks, who gave up a league-high 32 power play tallies last year.
That’s a trend Colorado hopes will continue this season. The Avalanche can’t totally rely on their high-octane offense to carry the entire load. If anything, the Avs will be looking for a balanced approach, focusing on solid defense and reliable scoring.
The way the team is built, that’s the way to go. Reliable defensive veterans like Brock Nelson, Nazem Kadri, Logan O’Connor, and Parker Kelly should boost the club’s overall D.
Meanwhile, the elite blue line that features Cale Makar and Devon Toews should provide plenty of stability for the team in 2026-27.
Perhaps when we run the numbers again next offseason, we’ll see the Avalanche saving some cash by having guys stay out of the penalty box.
That money could go towards a nice dinner following a Stanley Cup victory in the spring of 2027.
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