The Colorado Avalanche have spent the past decade as one of the league’s most dangerous teams under Jared Bednar, and that kind of success comes with a side effect: other fanbases build up a long memory. Around the NHL, there are always players who get under opponents’ skin simply because they’re so good, so physical, or so hard to deal with.
For Colorado, the list starts with Nathan MacKinnon. His reputation has nothing to do with dirty play or cheap shots.
It’s the opposite. He draws the kind of frustration that comes from being one of the league’s elite talents year after year.
Last season, he led the NHL with 53 goals, and the race stayed alive deep into the year before Cole Caufield and Connor McDavid finished second and third, respectively. MacKinnon also carries no suspension history, which matters here.
He was “almost” suspended after a game against the Edmonton Oilers for goaltender interference against Connor Ingram, but the suspension was rescinded a day or two later.
Josh Manson earns his share of dislike in a much more straightforward way: he makes life miserable in the trenches. He isn’t there to pile up points.
He’s there to finish checks, work the boards, and make opponents feel every shift. Manson finished second on the team in hits with 174, behind only Parker Kelly’s 177, and his career total sits at 1,700 hits.
He has also crossed the 200-hit mark in a season twice. Add in the fact that he’ll jump in when teammates are challenged, and it’s easy to see why opposing players don’t enjoy seeing him across the ice.
Gabriel Landeskog belongs on the same list for similar reasons, only with the added weight of his leadership. His absence for three seasons because of a severe knee injury, which required multiple surgeries and a knee cartilage transplant, is part of his story, but not the whole thing.
When he returned, the physical edge was still there, maybe even more than expected. He’s not just a captain in name; he was named captain at 19, and he still plays like someone who sets the tone every time he steps on the ice.
Landeskog sticks up for teammates, gets in opponents’ faces, and brings the kind of presence that keeps the Avalanche composed when games get tense. That’s exactly the sort of player other teams love to hate.
In Other News...
Former Avalanche Goalie Is Becoming Colorados Biggest What If
Justus Annunens path since leaving Colorado has started to look like the kind of goaltending arc that makes a front office wince a little harder in hindsight. Traded to Nashville during the 2024-25 season, the former Avalanche netminder had to fight through early struggles before settling in and showing the form that made him such an intriguing young piece in the first place.
By the time the 2025-26 season rolled around, Annunen had put together the best stretch of his NHL career, and the momentum carried onto the international stage when he took over as Finlands starter at the 2026 IIHF Mens World Championship. For Avalanche fans, it is the sort of development that keeps the old question alive: what if the organization had been able to hold onto him long enough to see where this was headed? [Read more 🡒]
Avalanche Just Made A Quiet Forward Move Fans Need To Decode
The Avalanche added another forward to the organization with a quiet move that points further down the road, signing Georgii Merkulov to a one-year contract that begins in the 2026-27 season. It is the kind of transaction that does not change the roster picture today, but it does give Colorado another name to track as it keeps layering in options for the future.
Merkulov arrives with a resume built mostly in Bostons system, where he spent his North American pro hockey with the Bruins and the Providence Bruins after earlier stops in the NCAA, USHL and Eurasian leagues. He has 11 NHL games on his ledger, and for an Avalanche team always looking to balance present contention with long-term depth, the appeal is in what he might still become once he gets into the pipeline. [Read more 🡒]