The Colorado Avalanche have been powered for years by two elite cornerstones in Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar, but a new prospect ranking delivered a hard truth about what comes next.
In Scott Wheeler’s list of the NHL’s top 150 prospects published in The Athletic, Colorado did not place a single player. That does not mean the Avalanche have no promising young talent in the system. It means none of those prospects are viewed as true high-end difference-makers on the level of MacKinnon or Makar.
That gap matters because the franchise’s pipeline has been thinned out over time. MacKinnon went first overall in the 2013 NHL Draft, while Makar was taken fourth overall in 2017.
Colorado’s last top-10 own pick came with Makar. The club’s last time selecting that high was in 2019, and that pick came from the Ottawa Senators as part of the Matt Duchene deal.
The bigger picture is pretty clear: the Avalanche have spent plenty of draft capital to chase talent now, and that has left them light on elite prospects for the future. If they want to keep restocking the system, they’ll need more than just solid players. They’ll need another wave of top-end talent.
That is where the long-term concern starts to show up. MacKinnon and Makar are not going to anchor this team forever. Gabe Landeskog is getting a bit long in the tooth, and the rest of the supporting cast could start aging out in the next few seasons.
At some point, the Avalanche will have to rebuild. It may not look exactly like the version Colorado went through in the 2010s, but the possibility is there. The real question is when that kind of reset would arrive.
As long as MacKinnon and Makar are still elite, Colorado can stay in the mix. Even in a less-than-ideal scenario, two stars of that caliber can keep a team from falling apart completely. That’s part of why a full teardown may not come until the mid-2030s, with 2034 standing out as a realistic marker.
MacKinnon’s contract runs through 2031, when he’ll be 35. If he remains Sidney Crosby-good at that point and signs on for another four or five seasons, the Avalanche could push that window back. Martin Necas is set to be up in 2034, and Makar becomes a UFA in 2035.
That is the point where a rebuild could finally become unavoidable, and it could mean four or five seasons, or more, of lost time while the organization tries to gather talent again.
There is, though, a recent example that shows how much the right picks can matter. The Detroit Red Wings once owned one of the NHL’s great playoff streaks, lasting roughly three decades. If Colorado can keep finding value where other teams are not looking, that kind of staying power is not out of the question.
And maybe another trade like the Matt Duchene deal could eventually land the Avalanche another player in the mold of Bowen Byram in 2019.
In Other News...
Avalanche Under-25 Rankings Just Sparked A New Future Core Debate
A fresh under-25 ranking around the Avalanche has turned into a useful snapshot of where the organization sees its next wave of talent. Mile High Hockey staff members teamed up to sort the clubs top 25 players under the age of 25 as of Sept. 1, 2026, with goaltender Ilya Nabokov landing at No. 1 and a couple of young names drawing extra attention for climbing the board. Christian Humphreys and Francesco DellElce stood out as the biggest risers, which is exactly the kind of movement that tends to get a fan base talking about who might matter most a year or two down the road.
The conversation did not stop with the list itself. A social-media fan poll added another layer by gauging how supporters felt about the rankings, and the biggest reactions clustered around Tory Pitner and Axel Eloffson. For a team trying to map out its future core, those responses are part of the point: the Avalanches next group of contributors is still taking shape, and the debate over who belongs where is already lively enough to spill beyond the staff room. [Read more 🡒]
Avalanche Face A Tough Lehkonen Decision Before His Price Climbs
Artturi Lehkonen is heading into a season that already carries more than the usual contract-year noise. The Avalanche winger is set to play on a $4.5 million cap hit, and with unrestricted free agency looming next summer, Colorado is staring at a familiar front-office balancing act: reward a reliable player now, or wait and risk the market pushing his price beyond what the club can comfortably manage.
Joe Sakic has not sounded eager to rush the issue, and that makes sense with the Avalanche trying to keep an eye on projected salary cap space. Lehkonen is also at a point in his career where the next contract could be the one big payday, especially as he approaches 32. For Colorado, the challenge is clear enough - if they believe in his value, the cost may only get steeper the longer they let it sit. [Read more 🡒]
Avalanche Still Have One Blue Line Question To Solve
With training camp and the new season drawing closer, one of Colorados quieter offseason questions is whether Nick Blankenburg fits back into the picture on the blue line. The defenseman joined the Avalanche last season and, for a team that is always trying to balance depth, flexibility and cap space, he represents the kind of low-cost option that can matter more than it first appears.
The catch is that the Avalanche are working with limited salary cap room, so even a modest move has to be fit in carefully. A Professional Tryout deal or a league-minimum contract would be the simplest path if Colorado wants to keep Blankenburg around, but the roster math still has to work out first, which leaves one more item on the offseason checklist before the back end feels settled. [Read more 🡒]