Colorado Avalanche general manager Chris MacFarland is a man who risked a lot—traded a lot—to try to make the roster stronger. The issue isn’t the act of attempting to put the team in the best position to win. The issue is that it’s a boom or bust type of move.
This year, it just so happens that it was a bust. Yeah, the team made it to the postseason. Nobody really was too concerned about that possibility after they acquired Mackenzie Blackwood in a trade with the Sharks for Alexandar Georgiev and Scott Wedgewood while shipping Justus Annunen to Nashville. In fact, despite Blackwood’s non-existent playoff experience, I felt quite comfortable with him heading into the first-round series against the Stars. The Avalanche put the pressure on the Stars, forcing a Game 7, but that’s where the fun ended this time around. It happens.
However, the team’s inability or potentially unwillingness (depending on who you ask) to re-sign Mikko Rantanen to a long-term contract came back to haunt them, and Rantanen still is dominating in the playoffs, adding an extra dash of salt in the wounds for the Avalanche and Avs Faithful.
Martin Necas and Jack Drury, the two players the Avalanche got in a blockbuster trade with the Carolina Hurricanes, are both younger than Mikko Rantanen, who they shipped out to the Metropolitan division, who then shipped him back to the central division to the Stars. Before Carolina traded him, the trade showed early signs of success for the Avalanche and how they would be alright… But the question is, “for how long?”
We will have to judge the individual players over the course of a couple of seasons. Both Drury and Necas have contracts that expire at the end of next season, so I suppose there is a chance that we find out whether or not one or both of those players ends up leaving in free agency or used as a trade piece. Even if both players get re-signed, that won’t be the only indication of whether or not the team won that trade. Another piece to that is how Necas and Drury do on the ice in their second season with the team and if Rantanen falls off.
One move I never was in favour of was trading away two prospects (Calum Ritchie and Will Zellers) for an aging Brock Nelson. I was a huge fan of the young players and think this move will hurt them a lot.
The Colorado Avalanche’s lack of draft picks is haunting
Let’s see why the Avalanche only have two draft picks in the 2024 NHL Draft.
1st round pick in 2025: Colorado traded their first-round pick and Ryan Johansen to the Flyers for Sean Walker and a 2026 5th-round pick. The inclusion of the first-round pick was due to the trade of Johansen being a cap dump and how Philadelphia wasn’t going to keep him anyway.
2nd round pick in 2025: In March of 2023, the Avalanche sent their 2025 second-round pick to the Washington Capitals for forward Lars Eller. He played in just 24 goals, scoring just three goals and four assists.
3rd round pick in 2025: They traded prospect defenseman Jeremy Hanzel and their 2025 3rd round pick for center Yakov Trenin and defenseman Graham Seward.
5th round pick in 2025: Colorado traded their 5th-round pick in 2025, a second-round pick in 2026, forward Nikolai Kovalenko, and goaltender Alexandar Georgiev to the Sharks for goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood, forward Givani Smith, and a 2027 fifth-round pick.
6th round pick in 2025: Colorado traded their 6th-round pick and goaltender Justus Annunen to the Predators for goaltender Scott Wedgewood.
Out of all of those moves, the goaltending was the position that greatly benefitted by MacFarland’s actions. Though we’d like to see more experience from Blackwood in the playoffs, the first step was getting to the postseason and having some success.
Having just a fourth and a seventh round pick in the NHL Draft isn’t ideal, and though the Avalanche currently have eight picks in the 2026 NHL Draft, they all range from rounds four through seven.
The Avalanche have got to figure out a strong plan going forward and if those plans revolve around trade acquisitions, the team better hope that most of those additions work out. If not, there might be another short postseason for the team in the future.