The Colorado Avalanche are still operating inside a championship window, and that window should stay open as long as Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Gabriel Landeskog are wearing the bergundy and blue sweater.
But the hard part comes later. Once those stars get older and start moving toward the back end of their careers, Colorado can’t keep running the same play forever. Something has to change, and it has to change in a hurry.
That pressure now sits on Sakic after the Avalanche were unable to keep general manager Chris MacFarland from heading to the Nashville Predators. Colorado had a backup plan ready, and Sakic is a familiar one.
He’s been in the GM chair before, and he’s likely to hold the job for as long as he wants it. Still, his reputation could take a hit if the next couple of NHL Drafts don’t start producing more value.
The numbers tell the story. Over the last three NHL Drafts, Colorado has selected 21 players.
Nine of those came in this year’s draft alone. At this stage, the Avalanche should be starting to see some of those picks either push for NHL time or at least take noticeable steps with the Colorado Eagles.
That hasn’t happened enough.
Sean Behrens, a second-round pick from the 2021 Draft, is one of the names people are still watching. He’s among the older players in the system now, but he has not appeared in an NHL game.
Injuries have played a part, and so has the fact that he simply hasn’t stood out enough when healthy. For a player taken 61st overall, that’s a tough result.
Nikita Prishchepov has been one of the more interesting recent picks. He played 10 games for the Avalanche as a rookie in 2024 and didn’t record a point, but he looked active and around the puck often enough to suggest there was something to work with.
The follow-up season, though, was less encouraging. Prishchepov played only 22 games for the Eagles in 2025-26, putting up three goals and nine assists.
That stat line isn’t disastrous, but the bigger concern is availability. He missed 50 games last season, and he also sat out 21 games in 2024-25 with the Eagles.
Calum Ritchie is the most recent Avalanche draft pick to get a meaningful look at the NHL level. He appeared in seven games as a rookie and scored one goal before being included in the trade that brought Brock Nelson to Colorado. It’s easy to understand why the Avalanche made that move, but if the goal is to win a Stanley Cup with Nelson in the fold, it also makes the Ritchie trade look risky in the long run.
Maybe Ritchie never becomes a star. Maybe he does.
Colorado won’t know for sure unless he eventually makes his way back to the organization years from now. At the time, moving him for a proven player made sense.
Down the road, it could be a deal that comes back around on the Avalanche.
Draft capital only adds to the concern. Colorado traded its 2027 first-round pick to the Toronto Maple Leafs for center Nicolas Roy this past season.
If the Avalanche finish in the top 10 of the 2027 NHL Draft, that pick stays with them. If not, it goes to Toronto, and Colorado would owe its first-round picks in 2028 instead.
For 2027, the Avalanche still have two third-round picks, two fourth-round picks, two fifth-round picks, a sixth and a seventh. That’s a decent haul, but in the NHL the higher you pick, the better your odds of landing real difference-makers.
Prospects can take years to develop, and their paths are never clean or predictable. For a team trying to contend right now, that makes the current setup less than ideal.
Sakic and the Avalanche don’t just need to draft better. They need those picks to stick in Colorado.
In Other News...
Avalanche Camp Could Put These Newcomers On Thin Ice
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Fedor Svechkov, Zachary LHeureux and Noah Juulsen are among the newcomers who could find themselves on the bubble once the battles start in earnest. For a team trying to round out its bench without disturbing the top end of the lineup, those final roster decisions may come down to who can separate from the pack when camp pressure arrives. [Read more 🡒]
Martin Necas Just Sent A Strong Message About Nathan MacKinnon
After a full season together in Colorado, Martin Necas had a chance to reflect on what it has meant to share the ice with Nathan MacKinnon, and the evaluation came with plenty of admiration. Necas spoke about MacKinnons competitiveness and his impact as a player, pointing to the ways their approach to the game lines up and making clear he has enjoyed being part of that relationship on and off the ice.
It is a notable endorsement at a time when Necas has plenty of momentum of his own, coming off a career-high 100 points and heading into the first year of his eight-year extension with the Avalanche. For Colorado, the real intrigue is how that comfort level with MacKinnon translates as the two continue to build chemistry around the teams top-end talent. [Read more 🡒]
Peter Forsberg Nearly Lost Everything And Still Wanted Back On Ice
Peter Forsbergs 2001 Stanley Cup playoff run for the Avalanche became as much a test of endurance as a showcase of skill, because the injury that knocked him out was far more serious than a typical postseason setback. A ruptured spleen sent him into emergency surgery and put his life at risk, turning what should have been a hockey injury update into a fight to keep him safe.
Even after doctors told him he was done for the playoffs, Forsberg was still intent on getting back on the ice and started skating before he had been medically cleared. The medical team, understandably, put survival ahead of competition, and the gap between what Forsberg wanted and what his body could handle gave the story its tense edge. [Read more 🡒]