It is an annual tradition here at Mile High Hockey to anticipate and predict which players could make their NHL debut while playing for the Colorado Avalanche in the coming season. The possibilities run the gamut from a young prospect to a minor league journeymen with a few surprises sprinkled in between. Either way, witnessing a dream come true is always fun and memorable. Now, we’ll look at how the predictions turned out from last season and look ahead to the 2026-27 candidates.
Tallying Last Year
After an unprecedented
nine NHL debuts in the 2024-25 season, things calmed down to a more manageable three introductions, all forwards, to “The Show” in 2025-26. Two names were mentioned in our forecast, with the more significant being Taylor Makar who was one of the first recalls to the Avalanche and received 12 total NHL games. Russian import Zakhar Bardakov was also highly likely after signing out of the KHL and he indeed made the team out of camp to play 60 games in Colorado. One final surprise was the 25-year-old AHL veteran Tristen Nielsen who got in four games with the Avalanche as his first taste of NHL action.
The collective at Mile High Hockey deserves a pat on the back for correctly predicting the number of 2-to-3 Avalanche NHL debuts in our poll. Will we be so lucky again this season?
Predicting This Year
As always, there’s a wide variety of NHL debut candidates to consider for the upcoming season. Even with removing most of the speculative “youth movement” forward options including Gavin Brindley, Fabian Lysell, Fedor Svechkov, Zach L’Heureux and the aforementioned Taylor Makar as they each already have NHL experience.
Last year’s possibilities who have yet to come to fruition are currently the three at the top of our list. Defenseman Sean Behrens has been mentioned in these predictions for the last four years. Will he get a game with the Avalanche in the last year of his Entry Level Contract? Goaltender Ilya Nabokov has also been inching towards the crease in Colorado since he was drafted in 2024. Now he has a NHL contract in hand and is expected play in North America this season, it has to happen soon, right? Defenseman Alex Gagne almost made his debut after getting called up during the 2026 playoff run, therefore it shouldn’t be a stretch to expect him to get the call sometime this upcoming season.
The duo of college free agent forwards signed last spring also seem the most likely to get a look. TJ Hughes, who was just recently at the NHLPA Rookie Showcase doing press photos in Avalanche gear, is a near lock. Fellow recent signee Matthew DiMarsico should also be sitting at the top of the organization’s list. Both made their debuts for the Colorado Eagles in the spring and did well enough to earn some favor heading into the 2026-27 season.
There’s always a surprise we didn’t see coming. Be it either a AHL veteran who finally gets a reward with a game of NHL experience to his name, a college free agent entering the fold in the spring or an existing prospect who turns pro after his NCAA season. I’ll go out on a limb and predict this season’s surprise NHL debut is the newly signed goaltender Nikita Novosyolov. He’s pretty low on a strong depth chart in goal but things usually get crazy once a season in net and the Avalanche called up (now departed) depth goaltender Isak Posch quite a bit as insurance last season, therefore it’s not impossible .
What are your predictions? Let us know in the comments!
