The Choo Choo Train, thank goodness, is no longer off the rails.

But Valeri Nichushkin has been losing playoff steam for years now, and that engine needs to be the next one Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic pawns off to somebody else.

Since April 2025, Big Val has appeared in 19 postseason games for the Burgundy and Blue. He’s scored in only four of them and picked up a point in just six.

Context: In the previous 19 Stanley Cup Playoff appearances, Val had scored in 12 of them, a run that dates back to the ’22 Western Conference Final sweep of the Oilers.

More context: The Avs since April 2023 are 8-4 in the playoffs when Nichushkin finds the back of the net. They’re 12-14 when he doesn’t. They’re 9-5 when he registers at least a point. They’re 11-13 when he doesn’t. They’re 17-12 when he suits up. They went 3-6 when he doesn’t.

Look, nobody’s happier to see the Big Nuke get his life squared away than the puck heads on the Grading The Week crew. He’s been available for two straight postseasons, now, something that we couldn’t say about 2023 and 2024. That’s progress, by any standard.

But by the same token, the clock’s ticking. And not in a good way. Val turns 32 next March; he’s in line to eat up $6.125 million in cap space through the ’29-30 season; and Cale Makar’s not likely to give the Avs a major hometown discount on his extension, is he?

Ross Colton trade setting up Nichushkin swap? — B

More to the point, Big Val is presenting to the Avs some of the same issues that the Nuggets have with Jamal Murray right now: 1.) Both the Choo Choo Train and the Blue Arrow have looked older, and played older, than their actual ages (31 and 29, respectively) as of late, and 2.) Both have lost the playoff mojo, the postseason chutzpah, that proved the “X” factor that lifted their franchises to titles earlier this decade.

Val has overcome several personal and professional demons, and again, that’s not to be discounted. Yet the returns during the window that counts, the hunt for Lord Stanley, have been visibly diminishing.

A 6-foot-4 winger with a body to bang and speed to burn, Nichushkin was invisible against the Golden Knights, who more or less shoved the Avs out of the postseason as the West’s top seed. He scored two goals in 12 playoff games in 2026. He’s averaged 0.42 points in 19 postseason appearances since the spring of ’25. He’d averaged 0.86 points per playoff tilt in the 30 Cup appearances prior to that — a production drop of 51%. With the Avalanche’s title window closing, Sakic can’t afford for Val to be half the man he used to be.

Jonathon Cooper’s mini-camp absence  — D

Cooper’s not the fave topic right now at Dove Valley, but it’s a topic, nonetheless. The courts will have their say soon. Although the admittedly unqualified legal eagles on the GTW crew aren’t too sure this was the best week for the Broncos’ in-limbo edge rusher. (While unquestionably better than, say, last week at this time, for obvious reasons.)

On the litigation front, a judge notably dropped charges against Cooper’s female companion during the time of their joint arrest on June 4. A single charge of criminal mischief was removed from her record this past Tuesday.

Cooper, meanwhile, was facing five active charges as of Friday afternoon, including felony second-degree assault by strangulation.

On the football side of things, the Broncos formally excused Cooper from mandatory training camp — but “excused” could be interpreted any number of ways, given the heat of the moment. The innocent remain so until proven guilty. But NFL precedent is not the same as the law, and it’s highly likely that the league will levy a multi-game suspension against Cooper, given the charges — whether he’s a member of the Broncos this fall or not.

Either way, Sean Payton and his staff have to plan for life without Cooper for a medium-term or a long-term window in 2026. If this past week was any indication, that process has already started.

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