DENVER – Doubt Gavin Brindley at your own peril.<\/p>\n
Some of his Michigan teammates learned their lesson late in his freshman season. Brindley was a little late getting ready for a Big Ten tournament semifinal matchup with archrival Ohio State. His coach said Brindley might have had a skate issue.<\/p>\n
A couple of his friends on the team gave him some grief about it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll he did was go out and score on the first shift on the rush on a pass from (Adam Fantilli), bar down,\u201d Michigan coach Brandon Naurato said. \u201cHe looked at the boys on the bench and said, \u2018Don\u2019t ever tell me I\u2019m not ready again.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
That was one of many highlights for Brindley during a successful two-year run with the Wolverines. The No. 34 pick in the 2023 NHL draft, Brindley joined the Columbus Blue Jackets\u2019 AHL affiliate last season.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t go as planned, and then Brindley was traded to the Avalanche in the offseason. Brindley turns 21 years old next month, but he\u2019s facing a new challenge and a new opportunity as one of Colorado\u2019s top prospects.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of opportunity here,\u201d Brindley said. \u201cI\u2019m just going to play my game and be myself. It\u2019s such a fine line and a small margin to make it to the NHL. I\u2019m just going to do everything I can to make it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pro hockey. Things are going to happen. Obviously, I didn\u2019t expect that (trade) to happen, but I\u2019ve loved it here so far. It\u2019s been a treat to be here, and I\u2019m very thankful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brindley was with Fantilli, a rising star for the Blue Jackets and one of several Wolverines who have found their way to Buckeyes country, when he found out about the trade. He had hoped to be part of the solution in Columbus, especially after a huge sophomore season in Ann Arbor that earned him Big Ten player of the year honors.<\/p>\n
His first foray into professional hockey began with an early-season injury, and he never really got untracked after that. Brindley finished with six goals and 17 points in 52 games for the Cleveland Monsters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe American Hockey League is a really tough league,\u201d said Mark Letestu, who was an assistant for the Monsters last year but is the new Colorado Eagles head coach. \u201cYou\u2019re actually encouraged by some of the adversity, that it doesn\u2019t go so well all the time. What I\u2019ve seen Gavin have to go through, where it didn\u2019t go as well as he wanted to, didn\u2019t score as many points. It wasn\u2019t like being at Michigan. You can tell he put the work in in the summer. He didn\u2019t pout. He knew exactly what he had to do to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Letestu compared the situation, with both he and Brindley joining the organization, to being each other\u2019s security blanket. Avs director of player development Brian Willsie saw the pair chatting with each other during practice Thursday and had an \u201coh yeah\u201d moment.<\/p>\n
The familiarity could help them both. This is Letestu\u2019s first head coaching gig after more than 500 NHL games as a player and four years on the Monsters\u2019 staff. It\u2019s also a chance for Brindley to get back on a path to the NHL.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s awesome. I think just having kind of that player-to-player mindset – he\u2019s played the game for a long time, and his hockey knowledge is off the charts,\u201d Brindley said of Letestu. \u201cBeing able to communicate with him on a daily basis is great for the forwards. I think just knowing the ins and outs of the game and helping the transition to pro for younger guys is huge. And I think he\u2019s going to do an unbelievable job.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brindley skipped his senior year of high school and played his freshman season at Michigan before being eligible for the NHL draft. He was one of the youngest players in the AHL last year and still will be at 21 this season.<\/p>\n
Every person in the Colorado organization who has spoken about Brindley since the trade mentions two traits immediately: skill and competitiveness. Naurato described him as someone with infectious energy, a leader who brings teammates into the battle.<\/p>\n
Listed at 5-foot-8 and 173 pounds, he\u2019s had to overcome plenty of doubts about his size.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been dealing with that his whole life,\u201d Naurato said. \u201cHe\u2019s used to it. He\u2019s been through every emotion with \u2018I\u2019m too small.\u2019 His competitiveness – pound-for-pound, he\u2019s one of the toughest kids I know. He competes, whether it\u2019s someone his size or someone who has 40 pounds and six inches on him. The skillset – I believe in him, but that\u2019s what he\u2019ll have to prove at the NHL level, that his skill translates to that league.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brindley looked fast, full of energy, and willing to compete for the Avs\u2019 prospects in a 5-3 win Friday night against Utah in the 2025 Rookie Showcase. He had an assist but also made several other standout plays.<\/p>\n
Letestu noted the improvements in his game, comparing it to his play with the Monsters last season. If Brindley does take a big step forward with the Eagles this year, Naurato certainly won\u2019t be surprised.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s also learned his lesson with this player.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had one goal his freshman year at Christmas,\u201d Naurato said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t because of lack of opportunity, but you know how it goes. Maybe a guy is squeezing his stick.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll never forget looking at him and saying, \u2018Look, you have one goal. Here\u2019s how we\u2019re going to get you more, and here\u2019s the plan.\u2019 He looked at me and said, \u2018Coach, I\u2019m good. I\u2019m fine. I believe in myself.\u2019 He ended up scoring (11) in the second half was a point-per-game guy. It was full credit to him. Just the self-belief that he has – because he is definitely also a worker – is so impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER – Doubt Gavin Brindley at your own peril. Some of his Michigan teammates learned their lesson late…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":195228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5116],"tags":[1942,193,9684,9685,192,144,5277,230,18209,5,6,33350,285,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-195227","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-colorado-avalanche","8":"tag-adam-fantilli","9":"tag-avalanche","10":"tag-big-ten-conference","11":"tag-big-ten-conference-teams","12":"tag-colorado","13":"tag-colorado-avalanche","14":"tag-coloradoavalanche","15":"tag-columbus-blue-jackets","16":"tag-gavin-brindley","17":"tag-hockey","18":"tag-ice-hockey","19":"tag-michigan-ohio-state-football-rivalry","20":"tag-national-hockey-league","21":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115213845364154334","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}