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The Colorado Avalanche Quarter-Century Team: Forgotten Avalanche Players Edition

With teams announcing their Quarter-Century team, who are players from the Colorado Avalanche that have been mostly forgotten?
ByAndrew Smiglowski|
Paul Kariya, Joe Sakic, Rob Blake, Teemu Selanne, and Martin Škoula skate toward the bench after scoring a goal against the Columbus Blue Jackets
Paul Kariya, Joe Sakic, Rob Blake, Teemu Selanne, and Martin Škoula skate toward the bench after scoring a goal against the Columbus Blue Jackets | Brian Bahr/GettyImages
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Goaltenders

Goaltenders

Brian Elliott

Devan Dubnyk

Tommy Salo

Goalie Trio: Brian Elliott, Devan Dubnyk, Tommy Salo

Tommy Salo of the Colorado Avalanche, guards the net with, Rob Blake covering, in a game against the Chicago Blackhawks
Tommy Salo | Brian Bahr/GettyImages

Brian Elliott
Avalanche: 2010-11 | 12GP, 3.83GAA, 0.891S%
NHL Career: 2007-08 - 2022-23 | 542GP, 2.57GAA, 0.909SV%

While Elliott's time in Denver was short, he would go on to make two All-Star Game appearances (2012 and 2015 as a member of the St. Louis Blues), and he backed-up Andrei Vasilevskiy as in the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs, where the Tampa Bay Lightning lost in six games to the Avs.

Devan Dubnyk
Avalanche: 2020-21 | 5GP, 3.26GAA, 0.886SV%
NHL Career: 1999-00 - 2015-16 | 542GP, 2.61GAA, 0.914SV%

Dubnyk, a stalwart netminder for the division-rival Minnesota Wild for many years, was a perennial thorn in the side of the Avalanche. At the tail end of his career, he was dealt to Colorado, who was hoping to make a deep playoff run in 2021.

Tommy Salo
Avalanche: 2003-04 | 5GP, 2.37GAA, 0.912SV%
NHL Career: 1994-95 - 2003-04 | 526GP, 2.55GAA, 0.905SV%

After finding relative success with the New York Islanders and Edmonton Oilers, Salo was traded to the Avs at the 2004 NHL Trade Deadline. Once the NHL went into lockout, he returned to his native Sweden, where he first began playing professionally; his career was bookended with a pair of three-year stints in the Swedish Elite League.

Since the year 2000, there have been so many forgotten individuals whose short tenures in Colorado often overshadow this simple fact: every single player to ever don the burgundy and blue has left their mark on the legacy of this storied, much-beloved franchise.

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