F*ck Your Team: Why I Hate the 2025-2026 Colorado Avalanche | NHL Season Preview

F*ck Your Team: Why I Hate the 2025-2026 Colorado Avalanche | NHL Season Preview

The Colorado Avalanche made some massive moves last year, some of which did not exactly pan out. Outside of their big three, the ABS are hoping that this will be the year that the tinkering to the roster puts them back among the elite teams in the West. Forget me for you should forget it. You’re living in the past, man. The Colorado Avalanch’s 2024 25 season was largely defined by one choice. The decision not to extend Miko Ratin and ultimately trade him for what they believed to be a Kings Hall to the Carolina Hurricanes. The package that they got back in return was nice. Marty Nes was having a career year at the time the ABS acquired him. Jack Drury and a second round pick. Although, but even though Nature’s’s production ended up falling off a little bit and Miko Randin was still well, Miko Ratin, especially after he was traded from Carolina to rival Dallas, the AB still had a ton of firepower in their arsenal with guys like Kale Mar, Ignate McKinnon, and the captain Gabe Landiskog finally returning from an injury that kept him out for most of two years. With some savvy acquisitions at the deadline, including Brock Nelson and Charlie Coyle, it looked like the ABS were completely loaded up for a deep playoff run. Unfortunately for the ABS, fate has a funny sense of humor. You remember that Miko Randon guy? Well, they ended up getting traded from the Carolina Hurricanes to the Dallas Stars. Guess who the Colorado Avalanche ended up playing in the first round? Those very same Dallas Stars. And guess who came back to absolutely torture the Avalanche in that first round? One Miko Rantin. He was one of the key difference makers for Dallas as they took down Colorado in a tightly fought series. Don’t turn your back on me. Let’s get one thing straight. This is shooters tour. I’ve worked hard my whole life, paid my dues, and now it’s shooters turn. Now, the ABS forwards are absolutely loaded, even without Miko Ranton. And on the top line, the centerpiece is of course Nathan Mckenon, one of the five best forwards in the NHL without question in my opinion. Always a threat to win the heart trophy and the Art Ross trophy. And he is set up for success this year. On one side, he has Bound Nichushkin, who is back fully from the Demons that landed him in the player assistance program, and the affforementioned Naturius, who is returning after a very solid performance with the ABS last year. Though, he is in the final year of his contract and will probably demand a big raise, which he and his agent are already making some noise about. Well, good thing that you traded away a franchise cornerstone play area for him and now basically have to pay him or else you’re going to look like complete idiots. ABS. The second line is angered by last year’s big trade deadline acquisition and Civil War general who’s been bought out after being frozen in ice, Brock Nelson. The ABS brought him back on a three-year deal, which I didn’t really mind. It’s good value for a second line center, which I think Nelson still is. And on his left side, the captain gave Landis Cog again, finally healthy. I’m not sure if he’ll ever return to being the caliber of player that he once was, but if he can be even 75 or 80% of that player, he’s still going to be a massive contributor for the ABS. And on the right side of Nelson Zarturi Lechinan, who had a really strong start to his season last year before hitting a massive slump that included him doing basically nothing in the playoffs. The third line center is Jack Drury, the other forgotten piece of that rant in trade. And he’ll be sandwiched between Victor Olifson just brought in this off season, and Ross Colton, one of those glue guys in the middle six that AS fans probably think is a little bit more valuable than he actually is. On the fourth line, you’ll have guys like Joel Kir, Parker Kelly, and if there’s a Justin loving God, the man with the best name in the entire NHL, Ivan Ivan. The ABS are kind of thin when it comes to prospects, but they got guys like Gavin Brinley and Nikita Preskapov, who I guess could be options for this season. All we hear is about their defense. They can’t stop a nose bleed. And as much as I love the forward depth that the Colorado Avalanche has, when it comes to their defense, boy howdy are they just absolutely loaded with top- end talent. Headlined of course by Kale Mar who is the best defenseman on the planet right now. I will not hear any other opinions. Quinn Hughes, Zach Worinsky, guys like that great players. They’re not on the same level as Kale Mar. He is an alien out there on the ice. But his defensive partner Devon Taves no slouch either. A legit number two out there making them the top defensive pairing in the NHL by a wide margin. The second pairing made up of Sam Gerard and the Manimal himself, Josh Manson, is again an ideal second pairing for any team. Both of these guys perfectly suited for the 34 role. And I like how they complement each other. Manson is more of the enforcer. Sam Gerard more of the transition guy. Neither are necessarily elite, but they can both hold their own. The bottom pairing, you have Sam Molinsky, who just got resigned to a one-year bridge deal. He’s going to be UFA after this year. And Absand are still swearing by his untapped potential at age 27. Yeah, he might just be inconsistent. And his defensive partner is going to be Brent Burns brought in on a one-year deal for a million dollars. I love that. Even at age 40, Brent Burns is still incredibly effective. And if he’s not having to play a lot of minutes, I think this is a steal of a signing for the ABS. And the ABS actually have a lot of help waiting in the wings as far as defensive prospects. Mail Gulivv is one of their best prospects in the entire system, although he’s going to be probably playing in the KHL this year. And Shawn Barren, who’s a more likely option for this year, although he is still recovering from an injury. Wait, it’s not Goldberg. It’s here. take the last year the Avalanche were absolutely terrible in goal which was shocking to me as somebody who thought that Justice Anin and My Gorgiev were absolutely stellar picks to beat a team on a deep playoff run. The ABS just haven’t figured out goalender ever since they let Darcy Keer walk correctly, I might add, and have been trying to piece together some goalenders Voltron style to form one goalender who’s actually passable. This year they’re banking on the two Wood brothers, Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgwood. Both of those guys are fine spot starters and good number two options. Neither are a starter in my opinion, or at least not a long-term 50 55 game starter. And maybe you’ll catch Lightning a Bottle and one of them will get hot, but I would really be looking still to upgrade that position, especially going into the playoffs. It was not a good look for them last year trying out Blackwood against Jakeer. You ain’t going to be able to hit them. They’re too good and you suck something off. Yes, sir. I sure do. Jared Bednar is still the coach of the Colorado Avalanche and the latest coach who got them to win their Stanley Cup. However, outside of that Stanley Cup win, his playoff record is kind of sus to say the least. He hasn’t made it out of the second round in any year other than the year he won the cup. So, I could potentially see the Avalanche looking at maybe not wanting to waste the remaining primes of McKinnon and Macar maybe shaking things up if they don’t make a deep playoff run this year. Personally, I wouldn’t. I think Benar is still a very good coach, but I can’t rule it out as a possibility. Since you’re new here, uh, I’m gonna cut you a break. No surprise with them being a little bit cash trapped. The Avalanche weren’t playing in the deep end when it came to offseason transactions. They made some very shrewd moves towards the bottom end of their roster, though. Like I said, Brent Burns for a million dollars, even at age 40, is an absolute steal of a signing. I think he could still be an incredibly effective defenseman potentially playing top four minutes in a pinch. Victor Olifson on the third line again is great value for that spot. I think he’s definitely a guy on the ABS who can give you 40 points. And I think it was also quite smart of them to flip Charlie Coyle to the Columbus Blue Jackets. He was kind of excess goods with the players that they had in their bottom six. Pretty good. Pretty damn good. Again, as I mentioned, Kale Mar gets all the attention, but Devont Taves is a legitimately good number two defenseman for the ABS. And on other teams, he could potentially be a number one guy, a low-end number one guy, but he’s a very good number two for the ABS and would be for any other team. He’s positionally incredibly sound, has an active stick, and he’s just one of those guys who’s unremarkable out there on the ice. Doesn’t make a lot of big plays, but also doesn’t make many big mistakes. And when you look at the analytics, you see that man, he’s one of the 25 to 30 best defenseman in the NHL. I’ll give you a winter prediction. It’s going to be cold. It’s going to be gray. And it’s going to last you for the rest of your life. I think the ABS are making the playoffs almost unquestionably. The question is going to be what can they do in the playoffs? They’re in a division that’s still going to be very tough. The Jets are the defending President’s Trophy champions and even though they might take a step back, they’re going to be very good. The Dallas Stars are always going to be a tough team to play against as the ABS found out last season. The Blues and Wild will be feisty, and I think the Utah Mammoth are a team that might take a step forward this year. I can very confidently say I think Colorado is still one of the three best teams in that division. The problem is that they’re probably still going to end up playing one of the other two best teams in the first round. And as we saw last year, I don’t know that they have the coaching or the goalending to overcome the talent level that’s going to be across from them in the first round. And it’s going to be interesting to see what exactly happens if the Avalanche flame out early once again. [Applause] [Music] Hey, [Music]

The Colorado Avalanche made one of the most controversial decisions last year in trading Rantanen. What will that mean for them this year?

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