3 players the Colorado Avalanche can’t afford to lose in 2024-25
Who are the top three players the Colorado Avalanche cannot afford to lose in 2024-25?
As the Colorado Avalanche try to get back to the Stanley Cup Final, what would be their first appearance since winning it all in 2021-22, they have had to deal with several unfortunate losses.
Gabriel Landeskog has not played since that playoff series against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Their Stanley cup-winning goaltenders, Darcy Kuemper (free agency) and Pavel Francouz (retirement due to an injury), are gone.
Despite key departures at the goaltender position, Alexandar Georgiev had the most wins of any goaltender last year. It definitely helps that he has some key players in front of him. Let’s take a look at three of those players who the team cannot afford to lose for many games in the 2024-25 season.
3. Mikko Rantanen
The Moose, as they call him, was a key contributor on the Colorado Avalanche over the past three seasons in particular. He surpassed 100 points in each of the past two seasons, and came very close to reaching that mark three years ago, during the team’s Stanley Cup run (92 points).
Rantanen is a maniac on the ice, and a lot of that has to do with his size, as he stands at 6-foot-3, 215 pounds. He’s a great skater and as evident by his rate of scoring, is a huge piece to the Avalanche puzzle.
Rantanen would be a huge loss to this offense. He might not score the most goals on the team, but his ability to be a threat to score makes teams have to focus on him quite a bit. Having him on the same line as Nathan MacKinnon is a deadly combination.
Rantanen is set to receive a contract extension sometime in the near future. There was word several weeks ago that the two sides were close to a deal, but it is possible that recent extensions across the league have chanced that perspective. Either way, I don’t expect it to take much longer. Hopefully it is complete by the beginning of the season.
2. Cale Makar
Cale Makar is widely regarded as the greatest defenseman in the NHL today.
With his defensive abilities as well as being a threat on offense, the Colorado Avalanche have him playing more hockey than anybody on the team. He averaged 24:46 of ice time per game last season while playing in just 66 games. The next closest was Devon Toews at 23:26, followed by Mikko Rantanen at 22:54.
Makar sees the ice incredibly well. If his teammates are in the right spots, he can make the passes to them easily. Even off script, Makar has special abilities to make plays out of nothing. Of course, that’s not how you want things to play out very often, but like in all sports, stuff like that will happen occasionally.
Makar played in 77 games last season, recording 21 goals and 69 assists. It is a little bit surprising that he only had 21 goals, as he could have had quite a few more. However, he finished the season with 90 points.
There is no doubt in my mind that Makar can reach 100 points sometime in the near future. His 90 points were a career-high, and being the best defenseman in the game as just 25-years old, there are no signs of the superstar slowing down.
The Colorado Avalanche are extremely fortunate to have this master of a defenseman.
1. Nathan MacKinnon
The man, the myth, the legend, Nathan MacKinnon is the number one player that the Colorado Avalanche cannot afford to lose for very many games in 2024-25.
Things just usually go extremely right when MacKinnon is in the lineup.
MacKinnon led the Avalanche in goals (51) and assists (89) for an incredible total of 140 points. He would have come out on top of the entire NHL in terms of points had it not been for Nikita Kucherov, who had 144.
Despite falling short of being the point leader in 2023-24, MacKinnon still earned the Hart Trophy, given to the best player in the league in a given year (MVP). There was a time or two in which MacKinnon should have already won the Hart Trophy, but it was given to someone else. Some people think that he was snubbed, and that is certainly possible.
But now, he’s known as one of, if not the best players in the NHL.
MacKinnon is also a leader for this team. Although Gabriel Landeskog has the “C” on his sweater, MacKinnon is looked upon by his teammates. In a recent interview, teammate Nikolai Kovalenko said that MacKinnon is “the team’s boss.” Despite not having the “C” on his sweater, MacKinnon’s teammates still look up to him a great deal. It is very evident why.
As for his scoring potential, he is going to be among the top point-getters in the entire NHL for the next while. I’m very confident that MacKinnon will win another Hart Trophy at some point, whether it be next year or five years from now. It will happen and the focus right now will be on the 2024-25 season, where the next part of his career begins.
manual