The Colorado Avalanche have spent the years since their 2021-22 Stanley Cup title chasing another shot at the Final, and that pursuit has come with a familiar cost: draft capital. Chris MacFarland, the team’s former general manager, made aggressive moves to add starpower and keep the window open, and the Avalanche have traded away their first-round pick in four of the last five drafts.
The one first-rounder they did make in that stretch was Calum Ritchie, and he was later moved for Brock Nelson. That kind of swing is hard to argue with when a team is built to contend, even if Nelson hasn’t had much playoff success lately. The Avalanche are in a championship window, and they’ve acted like it.
Still, it’s fair to wonder what the organization passed on in the 2024 NHL Draft. With the 24th overall pick, Utah “Hockey Club” - the name the franchise used before becoming the Mammoth - selected Cole Beaudoin. Beaudoin has since been traded to the New York Rangers, but at the time he was exactly the sort of late-first-round center that can catch a team’s eye.
He checked a lot of boxes. At 6’2” and 209 pounds, he brought real size to the middle of the ice, and he played with a physical edge.
He also showed plenty of offense with the Barrie Colts of the AHL, piling up 91 goals and 131 assists in 236 games over the last four seasons. That’s a lot of production, no matter how you slice it.
For an Avalanche system that has been described as one of the worst in the NHL, Beaudoin would have been a name worth watching. He could have been a prospect fans circled for a couple of years down the line, and maybe even a future answer for center depth.
None of that changes the bigger picture: Colorado should keep swinging big when the right opportunity comes along. But when the club hasn’t been back to the Stanley Cup Final since 2021-22, it’s hard not to look at a player like Beaudoin and think about what might have been.
In Other News...
Former Avalanche Goalie Is Becoming Colorados Biggest What If
Justus Annunens departure from Colorado looked like a routine goalie shuffle when the Avalanche sent him to Nashville during the 2024-25 season, but the story has taken on a different shape since then. After a rough start with the Predators, the former Avalanche netminder found his footing and put together the kind of season that reminded people why he was once viewed as a promising piece in Denvers pipeline, then carried that momentum onto the international stage as Finlands starter at the 2026 IIHF Mens World Championship.
For Avalanche fans, that makes Annunen a particularly interesting what-if. His rise in Nashville included career-best production and a shutout, the sort of rebound that invites second-guessing about timing, fit and patience. And with his game settling in as the calendar turned, there is at least one stretch that seems to have marked the real turning point, the moment when a former Colorado backup stopped looking like a project and started looking like a goaltender who had finally arrived. [Read more 🡒]
MacFarland Just Made Another Familiar Move Avs Fans Will Debate
Connor Bedards new five-year extension with Chicago landed with the kind of ripple effect that reaches far beyond the Blackhawks. At $15 million a year, the young star is now the third-highest paid player in the league, and for Avalanche fans the immediate conversation is less about Bedard than about what his deal says for the next wave of superstar contracts across the NHL.
Cale Makar is the obvious name in that discussion, and the gap between Bedards number and what comes next is already fueling debate around Colorado. Chris MacFarlands latest familiar move only adds to the sense that the Avalanche are operating in the same ecosystem of high-end talent, value judgments and long-term planning, where one contract can quickly become the template for another. [Read more 🡒]
Avalanche Fans Should Be Watching Egor Shilov Very Closely
The Avalanche added another intriguing name to their pipeline when they took Egor Shilov 43rd overall in the 2026 NHL Draft, using a pick acquired in the Valeri Nichushkin trade. Shilov brings the kind of offensive skill Colorado tends to value, with creativity and patience that make him a natural fit for a team always looking for more playmaking depth on the wing.
What makes him worth tracking closely is the balance between upside and refinement. Scouts are comfortable with the talent, but his consistency, defensive play and work away from the puck are still part of the conversation, which is why his path is expected to run through another season with the Victoriaville Tigres before he moves on to Penn State and, eventually, the NHL. If that development goes right, Colorado may have found more than just a useful prospect. [Read more 🡒]