The Colorado Avalanche are off to a booming start to the 2025-26 season, having won 24 of their first 33 games, and only losing two games in regulation efforts. They are Stanley Ciup favourites, and for good reason. Though we don’t know how the rest of the season is going to play out, it looks very promising for the top leaders in the NHL.
The Avs won the Stanley Cup after the 2021-22 season, going 56-19-7 and accumulating 119 points. Right now, the Avs have accumulated 55 points from their 24 wins. They’re led by 2024-25 Hart Trophy winner Nathan MacKinnon, and two-time Norris Trophy winner Cale Makar.
Additionally, their goaltending has been superb, with Scott Wedgewood starting 21 games and going 14-1-4 while holding opponents to a 2.11 goals against average. Mackenzie Blackwood has also played very well despite missing the beginning of the season with an injury that required surgery. He has won 10 of his 11 starts this year, allowing 2.26 goals per game. Just for reference, any goals-against average under 3.00 is considered elite.
Recently, Avalanche great Joe Sakic, the team’s President of Hockey Operations, said something encouraging for Avs fans. He is a true believer of this team, and it is evident based on what he told The Athletic recently…
"“We’re in that window where you want to win every year. Salary cap-wise, we weren’t able to keep that ’22 team together, so we did lose some guys. But now we feel we’re as deep as that team. Having our captain back. The depth of our team. It’s a cohesive unit right now.”"Joe Sakic on the current Avalanche team
The Avalanche have had some good games from several line combinations. The combination of Artturi Lehkonen, Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas has played the most minutes on the team in terms of forwards at 368.4 minutes (roughly 11.2 minutes per game). They have an xGoals (expected goals) of 24.8. MacKinnon is the leader in the clubhouse at 28 goals in 33 games, while Necas is second on the team at 14 and Lehkonen with 13. It really goes to show how dominant MacKinnon has been.
Despite the Avs’ league-lead in the standings, some players have hardly shown up on the stat sheet. Gabriel Landeskog, who made his way back from a knee injury that kept him out of the game for three seasons, has amazingly played in every game thus far. He has just six goals and 10 assists on the year even though he has spent time on the top three lines this year. As Avs fans know, that’s caleld the “Bednar Blender”.
There are positives to the players who have not scored a ton this year. You don’t always have to appear on the stat sheet. Sometimes, it’s the advanced analytics that make some of the biggest difference. In the case of Landeskog, the team captain has had several goals taken off the board for various reasons (offsides, etc). He is also fourth on the team with 45 hits.
The three players who have more hits than him are Josh Manson (86), Ross Colton (81), and Parker Kelly (66). Kelly led the team in hits last season with 161 through 80 games.
The Colorado Avalanche have some promising contributors, while also some inexperience in the AHL
In terms of the Avs’ AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles, there isn’t a ton of depth there. However, guys such as Nikita Prishchepov (last season), Tristen Nielsen, and Trent Miner, have appeared in games recently. The same goes for Ivan Ivan, who showed up in five games this year and 40 last year. In 2024-25, Ivan had five goals and three assists.
There are different reasons for every call-up the Avalanche, or any other team for that matter, makes. Sometimes, it’s because of a player’s physicality. Sometimes, the Avs just want to see what they’ve got and have a spot open due to an injury at the position. It’s a good spot to be in, even though there’s nobody that is very flashy.
I really liked Prishchepov last season, but he hasn’t been called up yet this year because he was dealing with an injury and has only played in seven games this season. Unfortunately, he does not have a goal, though he has three assists.
At the end of the day, there are still 49 games left in the 2025-26 season. They’ve got a ways to go and a lot can happen. However, if they stay healthy, they have what it takes to continue to dominate the league heading into the postseason and should continue to be heavy Stanley Cup favourites.
I just want to see some more scoring from players who aren’t necessarily there to do that work. If that starts to happen, there should be absolutely zero doubters of the Avalanche this season.
Joe Sakic is right. The team is definitely strong overall, and we’ll get to see some other players show up throughout the season.