At the top of the list of Colorado Avalanche players who have something to prove in the 2025-26 season, Gabriel Landeskog takes the cake. He made his remarkable return to the team in an official game during their playoff series against the Dallas Stars, but prior to that, had a two-game stint with the Colorado Eagles, the Avs’ AHL affiliate.
Landeskog has some doubters here and there, but I’d be willing to bet that most people have some cautious optimism regarding his future on the ice. He spent three years out of game action while rehabbing his awful knee injury, and to even see him suit up in an AHL game was a great thing to see.
Avs fans hoped that they’d get to see him during a longer postseason stay, but after his first game back—a 7-4 win against Dallas—they fell in Game 7 by a score of 4-2.
My hope is that the captain will be full-go and hopefully be able to participate in training camp and then play at the beginning of the season without any limitations. However, as you might have already guessed, I’m not in the building nor a fly on the wall, so maybe there is still some sort of plan for Landeskog to start back up slowly and increase his workload every week.
I would imagine that the expectation will be for Landeskog to get back up onto the second line as their left wing. In fact, that’s exactly where they put him in those two postseason games. With that in mind, it makes me feel like he’ll head right back there when the team gets going in its return to the ice for each practice.
As you might be aware, the injury that Landeskog suffered was a very uncommon one. The only other athlete that I have heard that had the same injury was Lonzo Ball, who plays in the NBA. In fact, Landeskog looked up to Ball as a sort of inspiration because of such a unique situation that not many know the feeling of.
Gabriel Landeskog could surpass expectations tremendously in 2025-26 season
What exactly is a reasonable expectation for Landeskog in his first full season back from the injury? Well, first, I suppose we will have to hear from head coach Jared Bednar if there might be any sense of restrictions to start out the year. Could he play every other game? A few games on, a few games off here and there?
Being placed on the second line creates an expectation that he will be tasked with producing pretty solid numbers. If there is one thing the Avalanche lacked last year, it was depth scoring. Too often did they have to rely on the likes of Nathan MacKinnon and Artturi Lehkonen.
During his career prior to his major injury, Landeskog’s career-low in games played was 36 games, which happened in his second season: 2012-13. There’s no doubt in my mind that his and the team’s goal is for him to surpass that number by a big margin in 2025-26. The best-case scenario for him and the team is that he plays 60 games at a minimum in my opinion. That should give the Avalanche a pretty solid chance of staying competitive in the Central Division.
I am excited to see Landeskog progress through the 2025-26 season and hopefully put doubters’ concerns to rest once and for all. If he is able to do that, the Colorado Avalanche are going to go far this upcoming season.