Fedor Svechkov arrives in Colorado with the kind of résumé that makes him hard to miss in a young-player ranking. At 23, the center sits at No. 4 on the Avalanche’s Top 25 Under 25 list, and among the recent additions to the organization, he looks like the one most ready to matter right away.
The Avalanche picked him up in June as part of the Jack Drury trade from the Nashville Predators, with Zach L’Heureux also coming back in the deal. Svechkov brings 122 games of NHL experience over two seasons, which is more than anyone else on the list, and that track record helped push him into the top five. He is listed at 6-foot-0 and 187 pounds, and his likely 2026-27 team is the Colorado Avalanche.
There’s real pedigree here, too. Svechkov was taken 19th overall in the 2021 draft after spending two seasons in Russia across multiple teams and levels.
Once he got to North America, he started in the AHL with the Milwaukee Admirals in 2023-24 and produced 39 points in 57 games. From there, he kept climbing.
He played 52 NHL games with Nashville and scored 17 points, then followed that with 70 games last season and another 17 points. When the Olympic break sent him back to Milwaukee in early 2026, he added eight points in 10 games.
That blend of experience and projection is why he stands out in this group. Of the players ranked here, Svechkov is the one who looks most clearly ticketed for the Avalanche roster.
The fit is obvious enough that he can be viewed as a direct replacement for Jack Drury at fourth-line center, and GM Joe Sakic even said so after the trade. He has some penalty-kill experience and was drafted with a reputation as a well-rounded two-way forward.
There are still areas to clean up. His career faceoff win rate sits at 40%, and that’s going to need work.
But that’s part of the package with a young center. The Avalanche also have a practical reason to give him every chance to stick: he is no longer waiver exempt, and the team is on the hook for the $1.25 million annual contract he signed earlier in the year with Nashville over the next two seasons.
That gives both sides plenty of motivation to make this work. If Svechkov hits, Colorado may have its next top under-25 name on its hands.
In Other News...
Avalanches New Look Is Already Starting To Show Before Camp
Late August skates at the Avalanches practice facility offered an early look at a roster that already feels a little different, even before training camp opens. Captain Gabe Landeskog was out there with veterans like Devon Toews and Brock Nelson, and the informal sessions gave the club a chance to start building some chemistry while the bigger decisions of the season still sit ahead.
The on-ice work also came with a small but telling offseason wrinkle, as potential jersey number assignments began to surface for new faces. Fedor Svechkov is expected to wear No. 9, Jaden Schwartz is likely headed for No. 71, and T.J. Hughes and Ilya Nabokov already have their numbers confirmed, small details that matter more than they seem when a team is trying to make its new look feel official. [Read more 🡒]
Avalanche Fans Have A New Reason To Watch Stan Kroenke Closely
Stan Kroenke is adding another major franchise to his portfolio, and Avalanche fans now have fresh reason to keep an eye on how his sports empire keeps growing. Kroenke Sports & Entertainment has acquired a controlling interest in the Los Angeles Angels from Arte Moreno, extending a ownership footprint that already reaches the Colorado Avalanche, Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Rams and Arsenal FC.
For Colorado supporters, the move is less about baseball than about what it says about the broader direction of a group that has long had a hand in the teams fortunes. The Angels have spent years searching for sustained success and have not reached the playoffs since 2009, despite featuring stars such as Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, and the new ownership setup adds another high-profile test to a company already spread across several leagues. [Read more 🡒]
Cale Makars New Deal Changes The Avalanche Debate Ahead
Cale Makars new deal didnt just lock in the Avalanches cornerstone defenseman, it also sharpened the front offices next set of choices. Colorado is projected to have about $11.6 million in salary cap space for the 2027-28 season, a figure that gives the club some breathing room but not enough to ignore the ripple effects of every move it makes between now and then.
The bigger question is how that space gets allocated as the Avalanche sort through a group of unrestricted free agents that includes Artturi Lehkonen, Nic Roy, Brent Burns and Scott Wedgewood. Looking further ahead, the projected cap room for 2028-29 jumps to roughly $36.7 million, which should give Colorado plenty of flexibility to reshape parts of the roster while continuing to build around Nathan MacKinnon and Makar. [Read more 🡒]