The Colorado Avalanche have had to deal with some tough blows over the years, and none more noted than that of captain Gabriel Landeskog. His severe knee injury that cost him three full seasons was devastating and awful to monitor. Then, he finally made his reappearance during the 2024-25 postseason.
Still, despite his remarkable comeback, he missed 22 games in his regular season return due to various injuries, one of which even required surgery.
Landeskog doesn’t only offer solid play in front of the net; He also is the team leader—their captain. Without him, the Avalanche fell flat in each of those seasons following their 2021-22 Stanley Cup victory. They felt very off at times, and sometimes it felt like there was no way out of the tough times. I can only imagine how it felt as a player or coach to go through that adversity in real time.
Now, the Avalanche have another reason for why Landeskog needs to step up and hopefully be healthy for most, if not all, of the 2026-27 season. The departure of Valeri Nichushkin to the Columbus Blue Jackets complicates things. I expect Landeskog to take on plenty of top-line responsibilities throughout the year as the team tries to figure out what works best post-Nichushkin.
There are a couple more reasons why Landeskog needs to step up.
The offense cannot only go through the likes of Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar. It’s not a one or two-man sport. Depth has been the name of the game for a long time. Unless you have Wayne Gretzky on your team, you need everything you can get from your depth players. While bumping Landeskog up to the top line would sort of eliminate the “depth” tag, the fact is that someone needs to replace Nichushkin’s talents.
Shockingly, Landeskog showed some solid physicality in his return to the ice. I was stunned to see it because that would take a lot of guts to do following what he went through. He seemed fearless out on the ice. He’ll go after the puck any time.
The power play is another focal point for the Avalanche. Last year’s outcome on the power play was atrocious. They were near the bottom of the league in success rate for most of the year. That has got to change. If the Avs aren’t letting go of Dave Hakstol (which would’ve happened by now if it was going to), Hakstol and his power play units need to have extreme focus and figure out ways to execute a lot better. Maybe it’s changing things up altogether.
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