I’m sure many everyday people will agree that holidays creep up on us, and those everyday people who pour themselves into the National Hockey League have likely heard of the theory that you, more often than not, have a beat on a team and its potential successes or failures by the time Saint Nick loads up his sleigh. So what should we be looking at in the early goings-on of the Colorado Avalanche and their 2026-27 campaign? Here are five things I will be keying on!
1. A player that pops and sticks
The first thing I’ll be watching is the fit and production from newly acquired forward Jaden Schwartz. I have nothing bad to say about Schwartz as a player, but I worry about him replacing Valeri Nichushkin in the lineup.
I understand and agree that Val wasn’t clipping at an ideal pace last year, but to realize ultimate success, they need someone in the top six who operates closer to the dominant Val Nichushkin we saw in 2022 and 2023.
Now, I do believe in making up for production in the aggregate, and that opens the door for a member of the youth movement to show some scoring pop early on, alongside a defensively sound Jaden Schwartz. That combination will make January meetings a lot less stressful for management.
Jaden had this to say to media members at this year’s Avalanche Charity Golf tournament (via DNVR footage) when asked about joining the Avalanche:
“Such a good team, good organization. It was always a place that I thought would be awesome to be a part of… When they reached out obviously I was pretty excited.”
If the Avalanche prove that Jaden can stick in the top six, and have, say, a T.J. Hughes or Zachary L’Heureux really pop on the scoresheet, I’ll be very optimistic.
2. Clarity between the pipes
I think the biggest thing in the goalie situation is mitigating risk while taking advantage of value and depth in the position. If number one goes unsatisfied, I’d wager one of Colorado’s three most valuable goalies will be dealt in the process of stimulating the top-six scoring threat. This will be especially true if the power play keeps struggling.
I do think Colorado has two starters and a very viable backup option in Ilya Nabokov. The question is, how long will Nabokov accept playing in Loveland? What’s more valuable on the market: a high-ceiling, late-blooming but effective Scott Wedgewood, or MacKenzie Blackwood, who’s had availability issues but is paid and plays like a starter?
As Scott Wedgewood told us back in March after the 2025-26 deadline passed, “Management thinks the team has what it takes to win, but nothing is going to be handed to you…You gotta tip your hat to management for giving us what we need.”
I don’t think the Avs will shy away from a deal that will seemingly improve their chances at winning another cup, and I don’t think the cup-or-bust mentality is going anywhere.
So on the risk-mitigation side, the safe bet is to ride with the two proven net-minders you have that won a Jennings as a tandem last year. It feels easier and more reasonable to make Nabokov wait another year for his real crack at the backup NHL role. Moving either Blackwood or Wedgewood would be the riskier, more desperate play, in my opinion.
3. More team wins and better usage
Most Avalanche fans could watch Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar play hockey all day long, but I’m hoping they don’t have to to secure wins. Makar is the highest-paid player in the world (for now), so he should get less ice time in a desperate attempt to amass record-level wins.
It’s time to play the long game.
Look no further than the team that eliminated the Colorado Avalanche and made it to the Stanley Cup Final in the Vegas Golden Knights. The Knights were nowhere near the top of the Conference, but got hot and healthy at the right time.
Cale Makar told Ryan Clark, the one-time Avalanche beat writer back in 2023, that he was learning to pick his spots for exerting energy with an increased workload, stating, “I am not thinking about it. But when I come off tired, I think about the different areas where I could not have exerted myself as much and still been able to make the play.”
I, for one, hope he can scale this thought process back and return to a player who’s more comfortable with a full-go mentality for fewer minutes overall.
I want Cale to feel as excited and healthy come playoff time as he does when he walks into a Costco.
4. Divisional Success
I’m okay with the Avalanche losing a few more games than usual to foster growth from the young guns and give the big guns a rest; however, I still want to see focused winning efforts inside the division. Meaning, I’m less concerned about winning the division in the standings and more concerned with sustaining success against divisional opponents.
I reason that if the Avalanche take the patient approach, they will likely end up 2nd or 3rd in the division and face a divisional opponent in round one. The Central Division has won the West five of the last ten seasons, so it’s safe to say you have a good chance of catching the division winners in round two.
5. A halfway decent power play
I saved this hot-button topic for last because I think it’s the most important element to know come Christmas time. Is the power-play at least as effective as it should be given the talent level of the players that make it up? Imagine the 2025-26 Colorado Avalanche set a single-season wins record while deploying a 27th-ranked power-play unit.
It’s not a revolutionary hot take to say a team with a good power play is more dangerous than a team without one. Most importantly, the Avalanche need to make a habit of scoring timely power-play goals. Not many teams can survive a sub-20 % power-play percentage come playoff time.
