By the time the holiday season rolls around, teams usually tell on themselves. That’s the idea behind the Christmas check-in, and for the Colorado Avalanche, there are five early signs worth watching in the 2026-27 campaign.
The first is whether a new face can settle in and actually matter. Jaden Schwartz is the name here, and the concern isn’t about his game so much as what he’s being asked to replace.
The Avalanche need somebody in the top six who can get closer to the kind of impact Valeri Nichushkin delivered in 2022 and 2023, even if Nichushkin’s pace last season wasn’t ideal. There’s room for production to come from different places, and that’s where one of the younger forwards could change the outlook if he brings some scoring punch early.
Schwartz himself said at this year’s Avalanche Charity Golf tournament, via DNVR footage: “Such a good team, good organization. It was always a place that I thought would be awesome to be a part of… When they reached out obviously I was pretty excited.”
If Schwartz can hold down a top-six spot and a T.J. Hughes or Zachary L’Heureux can really pop on the scoresheet, that’s the kind of mix that makes things easier on management.
Then there’s the crease, where the Avs have more moving parts than most teams would like. The goal is to reduce risk while still using the value in the position.
Colorado has two starters and a backup option in Ilya Nabokov, but the question is whether Nabokov will be willing to keep waiting in Loveland. Scott Wedgewood and MacKenzie Blackwood both bring different appeal: Wedgewood as the high-ceiling late bloomer who has been effective, Blackwood as the goalie who has starter-level pay and starter-level play but comes with availability questions.
Wedgewood’s own words after the 2025-26 deadline passed still fit the mood: “Management thinks the team has what it takes to win, but nothing is going to be handed to you…You gotta tip your hat to management for giving us what we need.” If Colorado feels a move can make the club better in a cup-chasing sense, it won’t be shy about it.
Still, the safer path looks like sticking with the two proven netminders who won a Jennings as a tandem last year and letting Nabokov wait a bit longer for his real NHL backup shot.
Ice time is another thing to watch, especially when Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar are so easy to overuse. The temptation is always to lean on your best players, but the better play may be preserving them for the moments that matter most.
Makar, the highest-paid player in the world for now, doesn’t need to be on the ice for everything if the goal is to win more in the long run. The example floating in the background is Vegas, which got hot and healthy at the right time on its way to the Stanley Cup Final after eliminating Colorado.
Makar told Ryan Clark in 2023, “I am not thinking about it. But when I come off tired, I think about the different areas where I could not have exerted myself as much and still been able to make the play.”
The hope here is that he doesn’t have to live in that mode all season and can stay fresher without losing that edge. As the piece puts it, the ideal is for him to be as excited and healthy at playoff time as he is when he walks into a Costco.
There’s also the matter of how the Avalanche handle the division. A few more losses than usual might be acceptable if they help the younger players grow and give the top guys a breather, but that doesn’t mean the team can coast against Central opponents.
The emphasis is on winning those games and keeping things tight inside the division, even if the standings don’t show Colorado running away with it. The thinking is that a patient approach could still leave the Avalanche second or third in the division, which would likely send them into a first-round matchup against a divisional opponent.
And with the Central having won the West five of the last ten seasons, there’s a good chance that division champion could show up again down the road.
Finally, the power play looms over everything. It’s the last item on the list, but maybe the biggest one.
The question isn’t whether Colorado has enough talent for the man advantage to work; it’s whether it actually performs at the level that talent should demand. The warning sign is obvious: a team can’t just assume its way through the postseason with a power play that sputters.
The source points to the idea of the 2025-26 Avalanche setting a single-season wins record while ranking 27th on the power play, and the lesson is plain enough. A good power play makes a team more dangerous, and the Avalanche need to start cashing in on timely chances.
A sub-20 % power-play percentage is a tough place to live once the playoffs arrive.
In Other News...
Avalanche Suddenly Face A Bigger Problem Than The Score Against Winnipeg
The Avalanche spent most of the night in a familiar kind of trouble, chasing the puck in their own end and giving Winnipeg too many looks off defensive-zone mistakes. Even with a strong penalty kill keeping the damage from getting worse, Colorados five-on-five structure was the bigger issue, and the Jets made the Avs pay for the turnovers that kept extending shifts and tilting the ice the wrong way.
By the time Colorado headed into the third period down 2-0, the score was only part of the concern. The game had already turned choppy and physical, with penalties interrupting the rhythm, and the Avalanche needed a cleaner, calmer final frame just to give themselves a chance at a comeback. For a team that usually wants to dictate pace, the problem was less about chasing goals than finding a way to stop creating new ones against itself. [Read more 🡒]
Avalanche Face A Tough Final Roster Battle Before Opening Night
With opening night approaching, the Avalanche are facing the kind of roster trim every contender would rather avoid. Colorado has 32 players in camp and has to get down to 23 before the season begins, which means some useful depth pieces are going to be pushed into a difficult waiting game. Around the league, the first guesses often drift toward familiar names, and in this case Parker Kelly and Logan OConnor have come up in that conversation, along with Brent Burns, even if that last possibility feels far less likely given the role hes expected to play.
The harder part for the Avalanche is that the decision tree does not stop at the obvious veterans. Fabian Lysell and Domenick Fensore are among the players forcing the club to weigh present-day depth against longer-term value, and those calls can get messy fast once waivers enter the picture. Colorado still has time to sort it out, but the final round of camp is usually where a teams depth chart reveals more than anyone planned, and this one looks like it could be especially tight. [Read more 🡒]
Avalanche Preseason Loss Put A Few Early Roster Battles In Focus
The Avalanches preseason meeting with the Jets at Canada Life Center offered an early look at a roster that is still taking shape, even in a 3-1 loss. Colorado dressed only a limited number of players who are likely to be in the opening-night mix, which meant the game was as much about sorting out depth and roles as it was about the final score.
Winnipeg got goals from Gabriel Vilardi, Cole Perfetti and Dylan DeMelo, while Colorados offense came from Georgii Merkulov, with Brett Kulak and Fabian Lysell setting him up. For a team still weighing a few early roster battles, nights like this tend to matter less for the result than for the way individual players handle bigger minutes and a less settled lineup. [Read more 🡒]