The Colorado Avalanche are bringing in several new faces to the organization this year, including forward Jaden Schwartz. Schwartz is a former member of the Seattle Kraken and St. Louis Blues, who made him the 14th overall pick in the 2010 NHL Draft.
Schwartz is coming to Colorado to be a complementary piece to a strong top-6 roster, centered by Nathan MacKinnon and Brock Nelson. He is currently listed as the third-line left wing along with Nicolas Roy at center and Logan O’Connor at right wing.
Schwartz generally isn’t a player who will blow the roof off of an arena, but he has some scoring potential. He has scored 20+ goals in six of his 15 seasons in the league, the most recent instance coming in 2024-25 with the Kraken when he lit the lamp 26 times. That could give Avalanche fans hope that his high-scoring potential is still around somewhere.
I don’t know if Roy and O’Connor are the two line-mates to bring back that firepower out of Schwartz, but head coach Jared Bednar has been known to switch his lines up here and there in hopes of getting more out of his players who aren’t performing as well as he would like. Roy and O’Connor are not known to be superstar goal scorers. Even though Schwartz could potentially bring that to the third line, maybe he would be better suited on the second line along with Brock Nelson and Gabriel Landeskog.
Schwartz also has experience on the power play, which is something the Avalanche struggled with heavily last season, as they were among the worst in the league at that area. He has 58 power play goals in his career, as well as 57 assists on the man-advantage. I expect the Avalanche to look at him on one of the two units this season. Maybe Bednar exercises the Bednar Blender and moves Nathan MacKinnon around, perhaps to the second unit to test out what works and what doesn’t. It’s a wait-and-see game and questions will have to be answered, but Schwartz will look to prove to be the team’s best signing of the offseason.
One of the concerns is that Schwartz is 34 years old but the Avalanche felt comfortable enough to sign him to a three-year contract this offseason. I guess their confidence in his abilities is relatively high, as opposed to them taking on just a one-year prove-it deal. For me, the price he came at ($3.25 million AAV) is bordering on potentially being too much for that part of the lineup. Perhaps he could benefit from sliding up a line and switching with Nazem Kadri, who occupies the 2LW role right now but could move around like I mentioned is kind of a theme of Bednar’s.
Along with his age, his availability is a bit of an issue. While he played in 81 games during the 2024-25 season, in a possible 1,148 regular season games, he has played in 861. That is a lot of games missed (287 games).
If Schwartz could generate somewhere over 20 goals in at least his first season with the Avalanche, his three-year term could look more palatable. Then, he could be the team’s best signing of the offseason. Maybe he already is, but the more he proves his worth on the scoresheet, the better this team will be.
If it were up to me, I would see if Schwartz could play second-line minutes as much as possible. Then, the more the Avalanche get out of him, the better that decision is. His contract wouldn’t look too bad, even if it still is a three-year deal.
I am very interested to see how much Schwartz has left in the tank. While 34 isn’t ancient for an NHL player, it is hovering around that stage of a player’s career. Hopefully Schwartz can prove that he can not only stay healthy, but remain a consistent threat in his role.
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