The Colorado Avalanche’s 2023 first round already has a ripple effect attached to it, and a recent redraft only makes the what-ifs louder.
Colorado held picks No. 27 and No. 31 in that NHL Entry Draft and used them on Mikhail Gulyayev and Calum Ritchie. Gulyayev remains in the organization, while Ritchie was later moved to the New York Islanders in the deal that brought Brock Nelson to Colorado.
That’s where the alternate timeline starts to get interesting. If the Avalanche had gone in a different direction with that second first-rounder, Ritchie would not have been part of the package for Nelson. The Islanders wanted a young prospect in that trade, so the whole sequence may have played out differently.
The Athletic’s recent first-round redraft of the 2023 class offered one answer. It slotted left wing Daniil But to Colorado with the first pick and winger Denver Barkey with the second.
Barkey’s actual NHL path has already given that idea some weight. The Flyers took him in the third round, and in 2025-26 he put together a strong first year at the NHL level, finishing with five goals and 12 assists in 43 regular season games. He also added a goal and an assist in 10 postseason games.
He spent time in the AHL as well, posting seven goals and nine assists in 26 games with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. At the NHL level, he went 7/18 at the faceoff circle for Philadelphia, which would have been a drawback if Colorado had tried to use him in a center role.
There’s also the bigger frustration hanging over the whole thing: the moves that brought in Nelson and other players still haven’t gotten the Avalanche back to the Stanley Cup Final. Barkey might not have changed that, but the feeling remains that all the work MacFarland put in hasn’t pushed the Avs far enough.
Still, the Flyers clearly found value in Barkey, and it’s easy to see why his rise from a third-round pick to a first-round redraft selection stands out. For Colorado, it’s another reminder that the 2023 draft could have looked a little different - and maybe a little better - with a different name at No. 31.
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