The Colorado Avalanche have two draft picks this year. That’s it. One fourth-rounder and a seventh-rounder.
Then, crickets.
The Avalanche traded away their picks in rounds 1,2,3,5, and 6 as they looked to bolster their roster for another Stanley Cup win.
Fair enough. Draft picks are overrated. Many fans and observers will argue that the NHL Draft is a crapshoot. Plenty of highly-touted first-round picks wash out, while several successful players have emerged from the later rounds.
But the fact of the matter is that draft picks are valuable for a reason. They’re like lottery tickets. You can buy hundreds of them in hopes of hitting the jackpot. If a team does, they can radically alter their team’s fortunes.
Think about how the Avalanche struck gold with Nathan MacKinnon in 2013. They hit the jackpot and it led to a franchise player.
“Yea, but that was the first overall pick. The Avalanche don’t have the first-overall pick so it doesn’t matter.”
That’s a shortsighted argument. We could get into all of the number-one overall picks that have flamed out and we could get into other first-rounders that have been impactful later in the round.
But the fact of the matter is that the Avalanche have a concerning lack of draft picks this year and next. As it stands, the Avalanche have two total picks this year, then two fourth-rounders, three fifth-rounders, and three seventh-rounders next season.
The Avalanche’s scouting staff will need to channel its crystal ball in order to find value in the two picks the team has in this year’s draft.
Looking at the value for gotten for traded draft picks
Draft picks don’t have legs. So, they have to be traded away in order for a team to lose them. If the value received for those picks justifies the cost, then no one will complain about trading them away. But if the value doesn’t compare, there will be plenty of questions to answer.
The Avalanche’s first-round pick this year was dealt last season in the Sean Walker trade. The deal was essentially Walker for something, but the Avalanche managed to get the Philadelphia Flyers to take Ryan Johansen’s contract. That was why the deal cost the Avalanche a first-rounder.
In short, the Flyers fleeced the Avs in the deal just because they took Johansen off their hands. As of now, that pick stands as the 25th overall selection, according to Tankathon. We can revisit this deal in a couple of years and determine how much of a blunder it was.
The Avalanche’s second-rounder in the 2025 NHL Draft went to the Washington Capitals in the Lars Eller deal from 2023. No comments there. Ellers didn’t have a major impact and did not stick around. That was a wasted pick.
This year’s third-round was thrown into a largely inconsequential minor-league deal at last year’s trade deadline in which the Avs acquired Yakov Trenin and Grahan Sward from the Nashville Predators. Sward has no current contract and Yenin is playing for the Minnesota Wild. The verdict on this deal is meh.
The fifth-round pick could be considered as well spent as it was sent to the San Jose Sharks in the MacKenzie Blackwood deal. So, let’s give that a thumbs-up based on the early returns.
Lastly, this year’s sixth-rounder went to the Preds in the Scott Wedgewood deal this year. So, that’s another thumbs up.
Ultimately, the Avalanche can look at the value received for their picks and conclude that it’s been mostly a wash. I would say the Avalanche have broken even as the first and second-round picks did not yield significant value. But the fifth and sixth-rounders have yielded much more value while being part of big deals that have yielded significant value.