Steve Dangle, Adam Wylde, and Jesse Blake preview the upcoming season for the Colorado Avalanche and predict where they will finish in the Central Division.
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4 Comments
As long as the Nichushkin situation hasn’t been dealt with, i have no faith in that otherwise amazing group. Trade him, buy him out, cure him, exorcize his demons, whatever, but deal with that situation.
He pretty much already cost two playoffs appearances for his team with his shenanigans that will never be officially confirmed.
To push back on steve on the left wing side. Landy val and lecky will solidified that left side tremendously. My biggest concerns with the avs are the defense behind towes and makar and the bottem six. The defense besides towes and makar is not great. Manson is muscle thats it. Girard is supposed to be an offensive defensemen and he is not doing anything offensively. These guys they brought in i have no idea how they will fill the bottem 2 pairs. They got destroyed by dallas cause of the lack of size and lack of defensive defenseman who can shut down teams. Goaltending will be a question but itll be fine if they get those things fixed. They are a playoff team but i dont see them being higher than 3rd. And im a diehard avs fan. On the level of producer drew. But dallas and Nashville are there. I say 3rd at best in the division this year. Most likely probably a wild card team cause of the jets too but i say 3rd in the central
Here's what I think will be the interesting decisions that Bednar will face this season. If we assume everyone is healthy and Nichushkin comes back (he'll be healthy but can he stay clean?) and Landy comes back at say 80% of what he was in the 2022 season they now have 5 top 6 wingers. so, one of Landy, Nichushkin, Raantanan, Drouin, or Lehkonen will have to play a bottom 6 role on a team that already has one of the best third lines in the league with O'Connor, Colton, and Wood. If they keep that line together, you could have a fourth line of Landeskog, Bellemare, and Kovalenko. Also, don't sleep on Malniski for a spot on that bottom D pair. conventional wisdom here says that the roster battle is between Branstrom and Kyllington with DeHaan and Malinsky likely safe roster spots (unless they completely bomb in the preseason.
Nichushkin too busy trafficking Ukrainian women to play hockey.