\u201cYou go from definitely not making the playoffs to obviously the first team in the league and a team that\u2019s pulling out every stop to win the Cup this year, so I\u2019m really happy with how it turned out,\u201d Roy said. \u201cAs a hockey player, that\u2019s exactly what you want \u2026 Since I\u2019ve gotten here, my goal has been to contribute in different ways, and I was able to do that in the first round (of the playoffs). Hopefully, I can do that again in the second round.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the Avs\u2019 sweep of the Kings in the opening round, head coach Jared Bednar called Roy\u2019s play \u201camazing.\u201d Roy tallied points in three of the four games, including the OT winner in Game 2,<\/a> an assist in Game 3 and another goal in Game 4. Roy\u2019s plus\/minus for the series was plus-five in an average of 12.87 minutes of ice time per game.\n<\/p>\n Those contributions came as a winger on the third line, a position that Roy played some previously when he was with Vegas from 2019 to 2025. A natural center, Roy\u2019s versatility is part of what made the 29-year-old attractive to Colorado in the trade market. The deal to bring back Kadri, who was a key piece of the Avs\u2019 2022 title run<\/a>, affirmed the fact that Roy would play winger while Kadri would be the center on Colorado\u2019s new-look third line.\n<\/p>\n For most of the season, that third line was winger Victor Olofsson, center Jack Drury and winger Parker Kelly. Olofsson was dealt to the Flames as part of the Kadri trade, while Drury and Kelly are now part of Colorado\u2019s fourth line along with Logan O\u2019Connor, who missed most of the regular season due to injury.<\/a><\/p>\n Bednar said the experience of Landeskog, Kadri and Roy was a key factor in Colorado\u2019s sweep of Los Angeles, but the coach left the door open for a possible line shuffle heading into the second round against either Dallas or Minnesota.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll see who we are playing, and we\u2019ll pick our lines based on (matchup),\u201d Bednar said. \u201c(Roy) is a responsible, defensive player, and that type of offense and the way he created it (against the Kings) can be repeated against any opponent. That was a favorable matchup for us \u2014 we had three veteran guys, all that have won a Stanley Cup, playing against a younger third line. They won that matchup, and that\u2019s a big reason why we won that series.\u201d<\/p>\n Roy was part of the Golden Knights\u2019 Stanley Cup team in 2023, when he registered 11 points (three goals, eight assists) in 22 playoff games. He said he\u2019s leaning on that experience in these playoffs as he continues to develop chemistry with Kadri. Both of those players aren\u2019t just rentals for this season\u2019s Stanley Cup run \u2014 Roy is under contract through next season,<\/a> while Kadri is under contract through 2028-29.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI love the versatility of (Roy) taking faceoffs on the right side, and we can mix in a few extra plays in that regard,\u201d Kadri said. \u201cHe protects the puck really well down low, he\u2019s a great forechecker, he\u2019s got some good vision too. And obviously he\u2019s a big body around the net and he creates some havoc and chaos down there. It\u2019s been fun to play with him and I think there\u2019s already some chemistry there.\u201d<\/p>\n Defenseman Cale Makar says Roy\u2019s play since making his Colorado debut on March 6 has helped the third line bring \u201ca consistent presence\u201d on both ends of the ice. In 15 regular-season games with the Avs, Roy \u2014 a fourth-round pick by Carolina in 2015 who is of no relation to former Avs goalie Patrick Roy \u2014 had five points (three goals, two assists).\n<\/p>\n \u201c(Roy and Kadri) find areas to get the puck to the net, which is great, and they read off each other really well,\u201d Makar said. \u201cIt seems like they think about the game similarly.\u201d<\/p>\n The Roy and Kadri trades were aimed at increasing Colorado\u2019s depth and firepower on its latter lines, and thus taking some production pressure off the top line of Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Necas and Artturi Lehkonen.\n<\/p>\n Necas, who played with Roy in 2019 on the AHL\u2019s Charlotte Checkers team that won the Calder Cup, said that goal has already been achieved.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s still really good with the puck, just like he was (when we played together in Charlotte), and he\u2019s a really good two-way player,\u201d Necas said of Roy. \u201cWe\u2019ve got more depth now, and you need that in the playoffs \u2026 When the top line isn\u2019t clicking, we need other lines like the third one to contribute, and that\u2019s what we did in the first round. We have to keep that going and (Roy) is a huge part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In one day, Nicolas Roy went from cellar-dweller to Stanley Cup or bust. The Avalanche acquired the veteran…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":562889,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5126],"tags":[2320,193,1466,1116,12843,192,144,7145,7,5,515,1117,186,1760,240,5303,1180,1038,793,145,5304,5302,513,161,1262,517,2054,4,6295,2905,43,14,104,41935,3699],"class_list":["post-562888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-kings","tag-artturi-lehkonen","tag-avalanche","tag-ball-arena","tag-cale-makar","tag-charlotte","tag-colorado","tag-colorado-avalanche","tag-front-range","tag-gabriel-landeskog","tag-hockey","tag-jack-drury","tag-jared-bednar","tag-kings","tag-la","tag-la-kings","tag-lakings","tag-latest-headlines","tag-logan-oconnor","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-kings","tag-losangeles","tag-losangeleskings","tag-martin-necas","tag-minnesota","tag-more-avalanche-news","tag-nathan-mackinnon","tag-nazem-kadri","tag-nhl","tag-parker-kelly","tag-patrick-roy","tag-sports","tag-stanley-cup","tag-stanley-cup-playoffs","tag-the-denver-post","tag-victor-olofsson"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562888","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=562888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Center](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/TDP-L-AvsvsKings-20260421-TH-49.jpg\")
Center Nicolas Roy (10) of the Colorado Avalanche watches for the puck to drop while facing off with center Scott Laughton (21) of the Los Angeles Kings during the third period of game two of the first round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs on Tuesday, April 21, 2026, at Ball Arena in Denver. (Photo by Timothy Hurst\/The Denver Post)
\nAdding firepower for a Stanley Cup run<\/p>\n![\"Center](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/TDP-L-AvsVsKings-20260426-TH-52.jpg\")
Center Anze Kopitar (11) of the Los Angeles Kings falls down on center Nicolas Roy (10) of the Colorado Avalanche in a face-off during Game 4 of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs on Sunday, April 26, 2026, at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, Calif. (Photo by Timothy Hurst\/The Denver Post)<\/p>\n