You can’t mention the Colorado Avalanche’s Presidents’ trophy 2025-26 season without bringing up some of the team’s key players. Two of those players earned some extra recognition on Friday, as the NHL’s 2025-26 All-Star teams were announced.
On the first team, Cale Makar is the Avs’ representative. Nathan MacKinnon was named on the team’s second-team All-Star list. While MacKinnon had another tremendous season, Connor McDavid of the Edmonton Oilers was chosen for the first-team instead.
Some of the statistical comparisons between the two forwards are:
∙ Games Played: MacKinnon (80), McDavid (82)
∙ Goals: MacKinnon (53), McDavid (48)
∙ Assists: MacKinnon (74), McDavid (90)
∙ Game-winning goals: MacKinnon (7), McDavid (4).
∙ Power Play Goals: McDavid (13), MacKinnon (11).
∙ Plus-Minus (+/-): MacKinnon (+57), McDavid (+17)
As you can tell, most of those categories favour MacKinnon. So, it’s a little bit mind-boggling that McDavid would be named on the First-Team over MacKinnon.
Don’t get me wrong. Both players can take control of games for their respective team. But, apparently the stats I provided, as well as both teams’ overall record for the 2025-26 season hold very little weight.
At this stage, it feels like the NHL is getting bored with some of their votes. Whoever has a say in the voting is just bored. How can you argue that McDavid earned it more than MacKinnon? Not only did MacKinnon have more goals, but Colorado finished first in the Western Conference while the Oilers finished fifth.
This isn’t the first time Avalanche players or coaches have been snubbed. Jared Bednar? Snubbed of the Jack Adams. Scott Wedgewood? Fifth in Vezina trophy voting (not even a top-3 finalist is absurd). Cale Makar lost out on another Norris trophy to Zach Werenski of the Columbus Blue Jackets.
At the end of the day, these snubs are going to fuel the players involved. It’s great that Makar is a first-team all-star. There shouldn’t be any question about that one. Avalanche fans know the value of MacKinnon on the Avalanche. Regardless of his placement in any award/all-star team rankings, he’s No. 1 in Avs Faithful’s eyes.
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