Sam Malinski didn’t just survive his first real step forward with the Colorado Avalanche - he turned it into a full-on breakout.
Colorado made its belief in the defenseman official in January, handing him a four-year extension worth a $4.75 million average annual value. That deal came not long after The Hockey News called him one of the most underrated assets in the entire Avalanche system, and Malinski spent the rest of the season making that label look pretty sharp.
He played all 82 regular-season games and finished with eight goals and 32 assists for 40 points. Those are strong numbers on their own, but they become more impressive when you look at how he got them.
Malinski wasn’t living on the top pair or soaking up the kind of minutes reserved for established stars. At different points, he was used as a third-pair defenseman, yet still managed a 40-point season while averaging just 17:37 of ice time per game.
That’s the kind of production that stands out even more when stacked against Colorado’s heavy hitters. Devon Toews averaged roughly 22 minutes a night, while Cale Makar was closer to 25. Malinski wasn’t being asked to carry that kind of load, but he kept producing anyway.
A big part of that growth came from how he handled his body and his routine.
“I feel way more comfortable on the ice and my body feels good, too," Malinski stated in October. "Part of (my improvement) is knowing what to expect and knowing what to do on my off days, how to recover properly."
When asked which teammate helped him most with recovery habits, Malinski pointed to the kind of veteran influence that can quietly shape a young player’s career.
“I looked around the room and seen what other guys do and talked to them," Malinski said. "The big thing is being consistent with your hot tub/cold tub, saunas, Normatec, all the basic stuff that works. It’s just being consistent with them.
“It’s hard to pick one guy because I’ve talked to basically every guy on the team at this point about what they do and watching the way Burnsy (Brent Burns) treats his body. I mean the guy’s been playing forever, so he’s clearly doing something right.”
Burns is about as good a model as there is for staying available. The 41-year-old hasn’t missed a game since November 21, 2013, when he was with the San Jose Sharks.
That streak sits at 1,007 consecutive games, second only to Phil Kessel’s 1,064 in NHL history. Burns also helped lead San Jose to the 2016 Stanley Cup Final against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
For Malinski, that kind of example matters. He’s a Cornell product who has long looked like a player who picks things up quickly, and that showed throughout his first full season of real responsibility. The details, the processing, the way he reads the game - all of it has helped him get here.
There’s still room for him to grow, too, and the next step appears to be adding strength. That became especially relevant during Colorado’s playoff run, which ended with a four-game sweep at the hands of the eventual Stanley Cup runner-up Vegas Golden Knights. The deeper the postseason goes, the more the physical grind piles up, and Malinski now has a firsthand sense of what that demands.
He doesn’t need to reinvent himself. The challenge is finding the right balance between getting stronger and keeping the mobility, conditioning, and explosiveness that make him effective.
The offensive side gives him another lane to keep climbing. Last season, he showed flashes of borrowing from Cale Makar’s game, including a shimmy move at the top of the offensive zone before firing a dangerous wrist shot.
That kind of touch doesn’t come from a playbook alone. It comes from feel, confidence, and a player who’s starting to trust what he sees.
Malinski has already shown he belongs. Now the question is how much more there is left to unlock.
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Avalanche Face One Opening Night Choice That Could Define Their Depth
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Jaden Schwartz is already back at Family Sports Center and even has a new jersey number waiting for him, another small sign that camp is moving toward the real thing. What remains unsettled is how Bednar will deploy all that center depth in the opener, and whether he chooses to spread it around or stack it in a way that gives Colorado an immediate edge. [Read more 🡒]