Top 3 penalty kings of the Colorado Avalanche 2023-24 season

One of the biggest parts of an NHL game is the penalty box. It’s where a player has to go when they are called for a penalty in hockey. Whether intentional or unintentional, penalties are going to happen in every single hockey game. It is just a sport that requires a lot of physicality and aggressiveness. Some teams have players who are good at fighting.

The Colorado Avalanche had that when they had Kurtis MacDermid, but they ended up trading him away to the New Jersey Devils.

Had MacDermid not been traded, I’m sure he would be right up there in terms of Colorado Avalanche players who lead in the PIM category. He left the Avalanche with 23 penalty minutes and finished the season with 73. PIM basically is the amount of minutes a player has spent in the penalty box. The Avalanche have had their fair share of penalty minutes. Let’s take a look at the top three players who led in that category.

Colorado was in the bottom half of the league in terms of shorthanded goals allowed against them, with six, tied with five other teams. That’s really good.

Here are the top 3 Colorado Avalanche players who led the team in penalty minutes last season.

1. Josh Manson - 87
2. Miles Wood - 75
3. Ross Colton - 61

(Source: Pro Hockey Reference)

Josh Manson finished the season leading the team in penalty minutes with 87 For committing 32 total penalties.

Monthly penalty breakdown:

October: 2 PIM
November: 26 PIM
December: 18 PIM
January: 8 PIM
February: 4 PIM
March: 21 PIM
April: 8 PIM
POSTSEASON: 8 PIM

Five of Manson’s penalties were called as major penalties, which means he had to sit in the penalty box for five minutes, rather than the minor penalty duration of two minutes.

Miles Wood, known partially for the gap in his teeth left by what I can imagine was a hockey incident, finished the season with 75 penalty minutes. According to StatMuse, he has 182 penalty minutes in his entire career. Last year, Wood only had one major penalty. The other 27 were only two minutes each.

Monthly penalty breakdown:

October: 4
November: 16
December: 37
January: 2
February: 6
March: 10
April: 0

Well, at least he ended the season on a positive note.

Lastly, Ross Colton was third on the team in penalty minutes with 61.

Monthly penalty breakdown:

October: 2
November: 29
December: 0
January: 12
February: 10
March: 4
April: 2

Honestly, the Colorado Avalanche aren’t necessarily known for their fighting. You’ll rarely see players like Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, or any of their huge star players get into any fights. That’s not what they’re there for. They will let some of the other guys fight instead.

I think that head coach Jared Bednar kind of sent a message to the team, however, when they traded MacDermid: Fighting is not their main objective. Scoring goals is. They usually do a really good job of making sure that happens.