The Colorado Avalanche have long played like a team built to outrun people. Now the NHL Edge numbers put a hard edge on that reputation, and the picture is even more intimidating than the eye test suggested.
Colorado finished the 2025-26 regular season with 2,643 speed bursts of at least 20 mph, the most in the NHL by a massive margin. That was nearly 1,000 more than any other team. The Avalanche also led the league in 22-plus mph speed bursts during the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
That kind of pace is not just a style point. It is the engine behind how the Avalanche attack, and the three names driving it make the whole thing look unfair.
Nathan MacKinnon posted 455 bursts of at least 20 mph, second-most in the NHL, while Martin Necas was sixth with 348. Necas was even more frequent in the 18-to-20 mph range, where he led the league with 1,030 bursts. Together, they give Colorado the kind of downhill force that can turn a harmless-looking shift into a problem in a hurry.
MacKinnon also logged the second-fastest maximum skating speed in the NHL during the regular season at 24.78 mph, trailing only Beck Malenstyn’s 24.94 mph. But the real story with MacKinnon was not just how fast he got. It was what he kept doing after he arrived there.
He is coming off his fourth straight 100-point season, a run that places him alongside Tampa Bay Lightning star Nikita Kucherov and Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid. Kucherov has also reached 100 points in each of his last four seasons, while McDavid has done it six straight times.
MacKinnon didn’t stop at the century mark. He finished with 53 goals and 74 assists for 127 points in 80 games, third in the NHL, and won the first Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy of his career as the league’s top goal scorer. He also represented Canada at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympic Games for the first time in his career.
Necas’ season was a breakthrough in a different way. After arriving in Colorado, he delivered the best offensive year of his career, reaching 100 points for the first time with 38 goals and 62 assists in 78 games. He carried that production into the postseason too, scoring at a point-per-game pace in the playoffs for the first time in his career.
His speed is a huge reason why. Necas can hit another gear quickly, and he doesn’t need much space to do damage. That matters in a Colorado offense that loves to move through the neutral zone with purpose, and his league-leading total of 1,030 bursts between 18 and 20 mph says plenty about how often he’s operating at that pace.
Then there is Cale Makar, who had a season that would be a monster year for almost any defenseman and merely a step back for him. He finished with 79 points in 75 games, including 27 goals and 59 assists. For Makar, that sits below the level he has usually set when healthy, around the 89-point mark over a full season.
His game is built on more than offense from the back end. His skating lets him turn a routine defensive sequence into an attack in a matter of seconds, and the playoff numbers backed that up. Makar led all NHL players with a maximum skating speed of 23.92 mph during the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs and finished second among defensemen with 223 20-plus mph speed bursts during the regular season.
That blend of pace and skill is what makes him such a problem. He does not need to wait for a play to unfold. He can make it happen himself.
Colorado could also use more from him on the power play next season, where the Avalanche struggled at times.
What makes this team so dangerous is not just that MacKinnon can fly, or that Necas can explode through a gap, or that Makar can join the rush like a forward. It is that all three can do it together.
A missed assignment can become a MacKinnon breakaway. A loose puck can become a Necas rush.
Makar can arrive as a fourth attacker before the defense has time to reset. That’s the kind of speed that forces mistakes instead of waiting for them.
It also helped Colorado become the only team in the NHL with two 100-point scorers last season and one of the league’s most dangerous offenses. The Avalanche fell in the Western Conference Final, so there is work to do before they can take the final step. Speed, though, is not one of the questions.
The numbers now confirm what opponents have known for a while.
Colorado is not just one of the NHL’s fastest teams.
It may be the fastest.
In Other News...
Avalanche Need One Internal Battle To Stay Hungry For Another Cup
The Avalanche are already built around a superstar core, but the next step in keeping that group sharp may come from somewhere a little less glamorous. With Nathan MacKinnon firmly off the table in any serious conversation about change, the real challenge is finding enough competition inside the roster to keep the bottom-nine forward spots from settling into comfort and to push young players as they try to claim bigger roles.
For a team chasing more than one Stanley Cup, that kind of tension can matter as much as talent. Colorado does not need a wholesale shakeup, but it does need players who feel their jobs are never fully safe, prospects who sense a path if they earn it, and enough pressure throughout the lineup to avoid the kind of complacency that can creep in after winning. If the Avalanche can keep that edge, they give themselves a better chance to stay hungry for the next run. [Read more 🡒]
Nathan MacKinnon Trade Talk Shows What Avalanche Would Demand
Nathan MacKinnon trade chatter is the sort of thing that can take on a life of its own, even when there is no real indication Colorado is shopping its franchise center. Veteran NHL reporter Jimmy Murphy raised the idea on a podcast during a casual conversation, framing it less as a rumor than as a thought exercise about what it would even take for a team to pry MacKinnon loose from the Avalanche.
From a Colorado perspective, the discussion is still useful because it underscores just how steep the asking price would be in any hypothetical scenario. Murphy suggested Montreal could be in a good position if such a deal ever existed, pointing to the Canadiens assets and cap space considerations, but the larger point for Avalanche fans is the same: a player of MacKinnons stature only enters the conversation in the most extreme of what-ifs. [Read more 🡒]
Avalanche Face A Big Lehkonen Decision With Real Long Term Stakes
Artturi Lehkonen has become one of the more important decisions on the Avalanches summer to-do list, and not just because he is headed toward unrestricted free agency. Joe Sakic has already signaled that keeping Lehkonen in Colorado is a priority, and the expectation is that extension talks will get going over the summer as the organization weighs how to protect a player it clearly values.
The timing, though, is less rigid than it is for some of Colorados other core business. Unlike Cale Makars situation, which comes with a hard NHL deadline, Lehkonens negotiations can breathe a little depending on how the sides view the length of the next deal. That flexibility gives the Avalanche room, but it also leaves open an important question about how far the team is willing to go to lock in one of its most reliable pieces for the long haul. [Read more 🡒]