The Colorado Avalanche are a different animal with Gabriel Landeskog than they are without him. This past season, they went 45-7-8 with him in the lineup, and 10-9-3 without him.
One year ago on this very day, Landeskog made his official return to the Avalanche’s lineup, in a Game 3 matchup against the Dallas Stars. He played in five games in the series before the Avalanche were knocked out by Dallas. Landeskog had one goal and three assists in that span. While those numbers aren’t spectacular, it was just the beginning.
On Thursday, Landeskog’s teammate, Parker Kelly, talked about the importance of the captain, and referred to NHL 26 as a cool way of helping fans understand the value of Landeskog.
Wanted to talk to #Avs Gabe Landeskog b/c it's the morning of Game 3. Didn't even realize ... it's exactly the one-year anniversary of his return.
— Corey Masisak (@cmasisak22) April 23, 2026
Parker Kelly: "If you can go on NHL26 and build the captain, you just copy Gabe Landeskog. That's what you're going to build."
Landeskog played in another 60 games this season and had 14 goals and 21 assists while averaging 16:25 of ice time per game. He was a +29, which is even more impressive.
It takes a special kind of heart and determination to come back from what Landeskog did. He had knee cartilage transplant early in the process of his recovery after Cale Makar accidentally cut the captain’s leg with his skate.
Gabriel Landeskog’s importance is beyond on-ice participation
You ask anyone in the NHL about the leadership of a team’s captain. Being familiar with the Avalanche, it’s easy to see the effect Landeskog has on his teammates. He’s not been the same way since being named captain at age 19 and 286 days in 2012—He’s improved his captaincy attributes through the years that he has been with the Avs.
Landeskog wasn’t named captain for no reason. It was clear at his young age that he was the right person for the title. Even though he wasn’t able to be around his teammates as often as he wanted to be while recovering and rehabbing his injury, he was still able to retain the idea of what it means to be captain and has been able to help his new teammates in whatever they need to help them improve on and off the ice.
As Game 3 is about to begin Thursday, it’s incredible to realize how far Landeskog has come. From the questions of “will he or won’t he return,” to the player he has come back to be this year, it’s such a cool thing to see him do his best each and every game.
Landeskog missed 22 games in the regular season for various reasons unrelated to the knee, so it’s amazing to be able to say with confidence that he is back. Though there were five Avalanche players to play all 82 games in the regular season, no player should feel bad for not being one of them. Injuries happen all the time. It’s just the way it goes in sports.
The main objective is to do what you can to the best of your ability with the chances you are given. That’s what Landeskog does game in and game out. He has one goal in two postseason games this year. Hopefully he is able to add on to that total Thursday night or even any of the remaining games in the series against the Kings.
The first two games of the series were very low-scoring. While those games are going to happen, it would be nice to see the Avalanche go up and stay up by multiple goals. Perhaps Landeskog gets another one in Game 3 on Thursday night. That would certainly make this milestone more special, not only to Landeskog, but the Avalanche and Avs Faithful.
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