The Colorado Avalanche are back home and just played their first game of their longest home stand of the season, defeating the Ottawa Senators in a blowout. There were many highlights from the game, but none stick out to me more than the performance of Josh Manson.
Manson put up two goals and two assists, while taking part in, and winning, a fight. A goal, assist, and a fight is what’s called a Gordie Howe hat trick. Manson was one fight away from having two Gordie Howe hat tricks in a single game, which has never been done before.
Manson’s fight reminded me of a defenseman that once played for the Avalanche—Kurtis MacDermid.
MacDermid played 131 games over the course of three seasons with the Avalanche (2021-22 to 2023-24). He had five goals and eight assists in that small amount of time, but it wasn’t his box score stats that he was there for. Manson was the enforcer for the Avalanche, sticking up for his teammates and not being afraid to drop the gloves for a fight with an opponent.
It would be awesome for the Avalanche to have several players take on an enforcer role
, but if you have one main player to do it, the others can focus their game on other things going on. Now we know that Manson has what it takes to put up some pretty solid numbers for his limited role, perhaps he can focus on getting the puck to the net a lot more often.
If Manson shows that he can be a point producer (in 2023-24, he had eight goals and 17 assists), maybe he can help out a little bit more offensively. Manson is 34 years old, so altering his role a little bit could keep him a bit fresher so that he doesn’t get too banged up.
Acquiring MacDermid would not mean completely eliminating the role of someone still on the team. MacDermid is more like a seventh defenseman, so he would not be called upon every single night.
Don’t get me wrong, I love having Manson as an enforcer, but when you can bring out more of a player’s game at any point, you should absolutely do it. Sharing some ice time with MacDermid could help boost the Avalanche for more dominance later in the season. I have a feeling that we haven’t actually seen the best out of Manson offensively. We could find some untapped potential despite his age. If that ends up happening, the Avalanche will be feared even by teams that rarely play them.
Adding MacDermid would not cost a lot. They got a seventh round pick as well as Zakhar Bardakov for him in 2024, which is more than I expected, given how Bardakov has turned out. Perhaps the Avalanche can find a way to send just a seventh-round pick and someone such as Ilya Solovyov over to Ottawa to reacquire MacDermid.