There are several types of relationships when it comes to sports. In the world of the Colorado Avalanche, despite some notable departures, those players who once played in burgundy and blue are still sometimes close to the guys who still play on the departed player’s old team. Off the ice, they’re pals. On the ice, they’re enemies. Rivals. That’s just how it goes and how it should go.
There are still some players remaining on the Avalanche team that won the Stanley Cup a couple of years ago. While many have left, the team has kept around its core such as Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar. Some would point to the departure of Mikko Rantanen. They’d be right. That’s one area that could still come back to haunt the Avalanche for years to come. However, there’s a relationship side but there is also a business side. You can’t keep everybody that you want. It just doesn’t happen because of the salary cap.
The Avalanche saw this sort of thing following their Stanley Cup victory in 2021-22. Nazem Kadri, gone. Andre Burakovski, gone. Darcy Kuemper, gone. Evan Rodrigues, gone. Heck, even Kiefer Sherwood had a career year with the Vancouver Canucks this season. It’s just the way it goes.
One former Avalanche decided to poke the bear on X Sunday.
Rule number one : You always keep the dawgs … #96
— Nazem Kadri (@43_Kadri) May 11, 2025
Kadri seems to be hinting that the Avalanche should have kept Rantanen, as evident by “#96”. To make it a bit funnier, the Dallas Stars X account replied to Kadri’s post with a dog emoji.
It’s been quite a road for the Avalanche since winning the Stanley Cup. They’ve made the postseason every year since—and have made it every year besides head coach Jared Bednar’s rookie year, for that matter—but since their latest Stanley Cup win, they hadn’t made it past the second round of the postseason. Bednar has lost in the second round of the playoffs four times and, counting this year, three times in the first round.
Normally, when I see a player’s post on social media like Kadri’s above, I sense some sort of collapse coming as if the players knew it would happen. However, that’s not the mentality that will get anyone far. The only thing that you or I can do is just watch what happens with this team. Some have lost faith in Bednar. Some have lost faith in general manager Chris MacFarland. We can’t change anything on the team. We can talk about it and I’d love to know everyone’s thoughts on the direction they want to see the Avs go.
Colorado did fire their assistant coach, who was in charge of the team’s special teams, last week. We’ll see what comes out of that move with who they bring in to replace Ray Bennett. That was a move that desperately needed to be made, as it was one of the major things that was holding the Avalanche back late in the season and into the postseason.