Gavin Brindley is an ace in the hole for the Colorado Avalanche

The Colorado Avalanche are coming into the 2025-26 regular season with much of the roster already set. It's no surprise to who makes up the top six and the defensive groups for the Avs. Jack Drury seems to have captured the third-line center spot and Zakhar Bardakov has impressed as fourth-line center as well. The addition of Victor Olofsson and re-signing of Joel Kiviranta has left the Avs really only needing depth forwards.

It certainly seems as if the front office and coaching staff agreed to let the young guys have a solid shot at making the roster this offseason. Last year, saw a lot of young talent in the early season with Ivan Ivan, Nikita Prishchepov, and Matt Stienburg, who have had decent showings this offseason. Some recently acquired prospects like Daniil Gushchin and Gavin Brindley have impressed in the offseason. Brindley, in particular, has been highly effective and is getting high praise from head coach Jared Bednar.

What Gavin Brindley brings to the Avalanche

When the Avalanche acquired Brindley in the Miles Wood and Charlie Coyle deal with Columbus, there's been some excitement around him, with a lot of people commenting how competitive he is. He needs that high motor as he's only 5'8" and 173 pounds, though his frame speaks to his strengths as he's got great speed and plays very well positionally. He could provide a solid scoring touch to the bottom-six.

However, there is still the question of how does he fare defensively against NHL-level talent. His first two preseason games were against mostly prospects for Utah and Dallas. He had a solid showing in these two games with a total of three goals and an assist. A promising start for a prospect completely new to the team and system.

The next test came on a back-to-back with the Vegas Golden Knights. In the opening game, Brindley impressed on the top line for that game with Jack Drury and Ross Colton, setting up two goals with smart hockey plays. Both teams chose to dress their stars in the second game, so this again was against lesser competition. Brindley was then fairly quiet during his first contest against a solid NHL squad. He had a decent showing, continued to play hard, and held his own against a physical Vegas team.

The different ways the Avalanche can utilize Brindley

If Brindley can continue to improve his play and possibly earn time with the NHL team this year, he provides the Avalanche a number of options on how to move forward in shaping their roster. With the changing landscape due to the rise in salary cap and the new collective bargaining agreement, GM Chris MacFarland and the Avalanche front office have exhibited some patience with the roster. I feel that will be the same with Brindley as they may have struck gold with him.

Brindley finding his way on the roster, whether it's this season or next is going to push someone out. Next year the likes of Kiviranta and Olofsson are on expiring one-year contracts and could not be re-signed in favor of Brindley. Olofsson in particular makes a lot of sense as he's slated for the third line and that's where I'd project Brindley to start in the lineup.

However, I think that the most likely scenario is that Brindley pushes Ross Colton to the top of the trade block. At $4 million for this year and next, Ross Colton is a solid middle six winger that has good value. Using him as a trade piece at the deadline or the offseason could bring in a solid second pair defenseman where the Avs could use a little more reliability with Josh Manson and Sam Girard who find themselves shelved by injuries fairly often.

At this point, I think he just misses his chance to make the big squad right now, but has a solid AHL campaign on an excellent Colorado Eagles team. This could possibly propel him into a depth role during the playoffs. Even further than that, I think he very much wins a roster spot next season and will have a third line spot in the opening game of the 2026-27 season.