It’s not common for fans to get excited about their teams’ bottom six. But in the Colorado Avalanche’s case, there’s plenty to look forward to next season.
The Avs will roll with a bit of a revamped bottom-six forward group. And it’s one that could become much more prominent than last year’s group.
For starters, the centers figure to be different. Last season, Jack Drury and Parker Kelly played down the middle for a bulk of the time. That configuration changed throughout the season. The arrivals of Nazem Kadri and Nic Roy overhauled the team’s depth down the middle.
That situation made Drury expendable, especially with his contract extension. Kelly, for his part, can now move to the wing where he can play more of a forechecking role.
And that’s the thing. The Avalanche have a bottom-six group that has better forecheckers and a heck of a lot more toughness.
As it stands, the third-line center figures to be Roy. He’ll take on that role, one that he’s more suited for, given his faceoff skills and defensive qualities. That is, of course, assuming that Nazem Kadri moves to the wing in the top six.
That situation also allows Fedor Svehckov to center the fourth line. He’s a fine replacement for Drury, who eventually manned the fourth line when Roy and Kadri arrived.
The wings will look radically different. UFA signing Jaden Schwartz should give the Avalanche much more pop on the third line. He’s a scorer and should get plenty of looks against the opposition. Since the bulk of the attention will go towards stopping the top six, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Schwartz and even Logan O’Connor feasting on some of the less talented opponents.
Lastly, Kelly and newcomer Zachary L’Heureux should provide plenty of punch and scoring to that fourth line. Kelly is coming off a 20-goal season. If he can get off to a good start, there may be a temptation to move him up the lineup. While that might mean dropping O’Connor to the fourth line, that possibility provides Jared Bednar with something he really didn’t have last season: Flexibility.
Avalanche bottom 6 give Bednar plenty of room to breathe
One of the things that the Avalanche didn’t really have last season was flexibility. That became evident in the postseason. If Bednar wanted to make adjustments based on the situation, he didn’t have many combinations to work with.
Now, he does. Assuming everyone stays mostly healthy throughout the season, Bednar won’t have to overload his usage of the top six. He can deploy the bottom six far more. That’s going to be something crucial, especially as the season wears on.
If there was one lesson from last season, it’s that the Avalanche can run out of gas. Fatigue and injuries eventually caught up to the team in the playoffs. That’s why Joe Sakic targeted depth this offseason. And it wouldn’t be surprising to see him target more depth additions around NHL trade deadline time.
For now, let’s see what happens at training camp. It’s doubtful that the Avalanche will make any additions, unless a unique possibility lands on their lap.
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