The Colorado Avalanche and Nashville Predators already have the kind of built-in tension that comes with being Central Division opponents. They meet four times every regular season, and those games usually carry real weight in the standings. But next season, that matchup could feel a little sharper for a different reason: Chris MacFarland.
MacFarland’s move from Colorado to Nashville gives this rivalry a fresh wrinkle. There’s no suggestion of bad blood, but there is always something extra when a former executive lands with a division foe. That kind of switch naturally invites the urge to prove something, and it’s easy to see how MacFarland would want to walk back into Colorado and show why he belongs among the NHL’s most successful front-office figures.
He’s not the only familiar name in the mix, either. Ross Colton and Jack Drury also add another layer to the matchup, and while there’s no animosity attached there, it would not be a surprise if those players wanted to make a statement against their former club.
From Colorado’s side, the motivation runs just as deep. The Avalanche will have every reason to show MacFarland that he chose the wrong side.
That’s not about anything off the ice. It’s about beating Nashville where it matters, on the scoreboard, and collecting the kind of division win that sticks with a team.
That matters even more because the Avalanche have bigger goals hanging over the season. They’ll need to prove last year’s Presidents’ Trophy run was no fluke, and they’ll also need to show that their Western Conference Final exit was just an outlier. The message they want to send is simple: this is a team built to contend with the NHL’s best.
And that challenge starts with the 84-game grind of the regular season. The schedule is demanding enough on its own, but games like these make it even tougher.
For Colorado, there’s real value in taking those points and the bragging rights that come with them. Against a division rival like Nashville, that kind of win carries a little extra weight.
In Other News...
Mikko Rantanens Post-Avs Saga Sounds Even Messier In Hindsight
Mikko Rantanens stop in Carolina already looked like one of the stranger detours of the NHL season, and the fallout has only made the whole sequence feel more jarring in hindsight. After leaving Colorado in a trade to the Hurricanes, the winger never seemed to settle in, then was moved again at the deadline to Dallas as Carolina kept reshaping its roster around a situation that never really clicked.
Jordan Staal later called the stretch awkward and unusual, a fair description for a player of Rantanens stature changing teams twice in such short order. The Hurricanes did land Logan Stankoven and a pile of draft capital in the second deal, and the organization wound up lifting the Stanley Cup the next season, which only adds another layer to a saga that still stands out as one of the oddest in recent memory. [Read more 🡒]
Avalanche Just Made A Quiet Forward Move Fans Need To Decode
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What makes this one worth watching is the timing and the fit. The contract is set to begin in the 2026-27 season, so this is less about an immediate depth fix and more about adding a forward whose North American resume already includes a handful of NHL appearances and a track record of producing in the AHL. For a team that is always balancing present contention with future flexibility, these are the kinds of moves that can quietly matter later. [Read more 🡒]
Avalanche Still Have A Real Reason To Watch Zakhar Bardakov
Zakhar Bardakovs path back to North America is still one the Avalanche have reason to monitor. After spending his rookie NHL season in Colorado, the forward returned to the KHL and signed a one-year deal with SKA, but he has made it clear he views this as a temporary stop while he adds more experience overseas.
Colorado also still holds Bardakovs NHL rights through a qualifying offer, which keeps the door open if he decides he is ready to come back. For the Avalanche, that means this is not just a lost prospect story, but a situation worth tracking closely as Bardakov works through his year in Russia and looks ahead to another shot in the NHL. [Read more 🡒]