One thing I’ve learned since I started covering the Colorado Avalanche is that not all players are goal scorers. Take Kurtis MacDermid into consideration: While he was a member of the Avalanche, he scored five goals in three years.
Still, the Avalanche found a role for him: He was their enforcer. He did a lot of the “dirty work” as well as stood up for his teammates when he needed to. MacDermid had no problem getting into scrums with his opponents.
A player that could be a good selection between the fourth and seventh rounds of the draft is Carter Klippenstein. He’s a forward who played for the Brandon Wheat Kings in the WHL. Klippenstein stands at 6-foot-3 and weighs 181 pounds.
In three years with the Wheat Kings, Klippenstein played in 126 games, recording 24 goals and 25 assists, though he played in just two games during his inaugural season in Brandon and had no points.
Klippenstein went from a plus-minus of -8 to a plus-20 from 2023-24 to 2024-25.
Klippenstein is projected to fit into a team’s bottom-six, which makes perfect sense for the Avalanche, with guys like Arturri Lehkonen and Gabriel Landeskog manning the top two left wing spots on the roster, and then Miles Wood on the third line. Of course, things can change in a couple of years, so if Klippenstein can reach his full potential in perhaps 4-5 years, who knows what this team will look like by then?
Klippenstein might be able to use his physicality on special teams for the Avalanche in a couple of years. It’s one of the most important things that players can do: Excel at what they do best wherever the team asks them to play.
Klippenstein performed extremely well at the 2025 NHL Combine, coming in the top-10 in several categories, including first place in the Agility & Balance: Pro Agility – Right time (sec) category. Agility and speed can be huge factors in a player’s success, especially when he doesn’t quite have the scoring output you’d hope for.
Even if Klippenstein doesn’t make it to the NHL level, there is a chance he could play for the Colorado Eagles at some point later down the road. Ultimately, some players are destined for the NHL and some are destined for the AHL and that’s perfectly okay. It would be neat to see a player like him do very well in burgundy and blue, though.