The Avs sent the 2021 first-round pick to San Jose in a trade that brought back two-way forward Danil Gushchin, the team announced on Friday afternoon.

Olausson never found his footing at the NHL level, appearing in just four games total with the Avs after being selected with the 28th overall pick of the NHL draft. That included two games last season in which he logged three shots on goal with zero points.

Gushchin skated with the Sharks on opening night last season and played a total of 12 games with the big club, logging one assist and no goals. He was much more productive with the franchise’s AHL affiliate, the San Jose Barracuda, with 51 points and a career-high 28 goals in 56 games. The 5-foot-8, 165-pound left wing had one goal in four Calder Cup games.

The Yekaterinburg, Russia, native has five points in 18 career NHL games between 2022 and ’25. He has 150 points across 182 AHL contests from 2021-25 and was an All-Star during the 2023-24 season.

The 6-foot-1, 180-pound Olausson totaled 66 points (33 goals, 33 assists) over 163 games and three seasons with the Colorado Eagles.

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What are the expectations for Zakhar Bardakov this season? Will he see any NHL time, or is he strictly playing for the Eagles?

— John B., Houston 

Avalanche general manager Chris MacFarland met with the media three times in short order — after the Charlie Coyle/Miles Wood trade, after the NHL draft ended and after the club signed Brent Burns. He mentioned Zakhar Bardakov as a player the Avs are excited to see in training camp twice.

It was certainly notable. When the GM goes out of his way to mention a player twice, he moves up the list of intriguing players at camp in a hurry. I was covering the Devils when they drafted Bardakov to very little or no fanfare in the seventh round in 2021.

He was similar to Nikita Prishchepov, a Russian overage prospect very late in the draft. The difference was Prishchepov played in the QMHJL, while Bardakov had just finished his first full season of KHL action.

Bardakov didn’t look like a future NHL player after the Devils drafted him. What’s changed? Well, he moved to a better KHL team — SKA Saint Petersburg — and 2024-25 was a breakout season for him. Bardakov nearly doubled his career high in points (35) and nearly matched his total from the previous four years combined in goals (18).

Is he actually going to win a spot on the Avs roster? We’ll see. I think a decent comp for him might be a not-as-fast Miles Wood. Similar in size and a desire to create chaos on the ice. Whether or not that will translate for Bardakov on the smaller ice and in a much faster paced game is to be determined.

Has there been conversation on how/if they will address scoring depth?

— M_Stefski, via Reddit

Who are some guys that could fill the bottom-six forward spots?

— CurrentAmbassador435, via Reddit

If everyone is healthy, the Avs have four obvious guys for the bottom six — Ross Colton, Jack Drury, Logan O’Connor and Parker Kelly. O’Connor is expected to miss the start of the season after hip surgery, but eventually he’ll slot in.

That leaves three spots in the opening-night lineup, and probably a fourth as the extra, up for grabs. The Avs will almost certainly add at least one more forward, if not multiple guys, before camp starts — even if it’s someone on a tryout deal.

It could be a wide-ranging, wide-open competition in training camp. I think Ivan Ivan should be the favorite to lock down one of the jobs, but he’s got to play more like he did at the beginning of the year than he did towards the end after his demotion.

Prishchepov was a nice story last year, but he’s got to prove the handful of solid NHL games he played were not a small-sample burst. Bardakov is clearly going to have a chance to skip the line on some Eagles guys if he looks the part.

Matthew Stienburg might not be a bad bet. Avs coach Jared Bednar took a bit of a liking to him last year before the suspension. He and Bardakov are probably the guys who play the most like typical fourth-line forwards.

If Bednar decides he’s just taking the guys who can help him win right now, Alex Barre-Boulet and Jason Polin could win spots as well. Gavin Brindley has the most upside of the bunch. If things ever click for Oskar Olausson — and this year might be his last chance to make that happen — he could move to the front of this group, but it might take a few strong preseason games before the Avs believe in the improvement.

Any update on Joel Kiviranta? He helps our bottom 6 be strong and would hate to lose him.

— PigletAmazing1422, via Reddit

Of all the guys still on the open market, Kiviranta makes the most sense for the Avs. They know him. Bednar trusts him. So why is he still out on the market?

Kiviranta scored a career-high 16 goals this year. He’s spent the past two years on league-minimum deals, so this was likely his best chance to cash in and get a nice contract. If another team had signed him to a three-year deal worth $1.5-1.75 million per on July 1, the reaction would have been, “Good for Kiviranta, that’s solid for him and his new team.”

So what gives? Teams don’t expect him to score 16 times again, which is fine. Even as a 10-goal guy, he’s worth more than the league minimum.

I think he’s also getting squeezed in the Summer of Smashmouth Hockey. Kiviranta is a good NHL player, a solid fit for anyone’s fourth line and even third on some clubs. But he’s not big and he’s not mean. And everyone in the NHL is trying to get bigger and meaner because the Panthers keeping winning.

He could still end up back with the Avs. Here’s one theory why he and his agent might be willing to wait — the Dallas Stars are probably still going to find a team to take Matt Dumba’s $3.75 million off their books, which will get them under the cap ceiling and leave about $2 million in space to play with.

The Stars are the other team that knows Kiviranta well. He might still be able to get a little more money — from the Avs, Stars or someone else — if he waits out the Dumba situation.

Are there any indications that the Avs might get another outdoor game appearance soon? Utah owner Ryan Smith indicated that Mammoth may be involved in an outdoor game, and the Avalanche would seem to be a logical, easily-marketable opponent.

— Keith L., Seattle

It certainly makes sense for Utah to host an outdoor game soon, just as Seattle did in 2024. And the Avalanche is the most logical opponent, to help the league try and build up something of a regional rivalry.

The TL;DR version: Yes, the Avs should play the Mammoth in an outdoor game in Utah and, yes, it could be awesome.

The two big questions would be where and when. The two candidates for where are Utah’s Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City or BYU’s LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo. They are two of the prettiest settings in college football. If you’re not a CFB fan, do a google image search. If the weather cooperates, either would be a titanic home for the NHL from a game presentation standpoint.

Rice-Eccles is in the same city as the Mammoth, but don’t rule out Provo. Edwards Stadium is bigger, and most importantly … Smith is a BYU guy. He’s the BYU guy right now, helping transform the Cougars into a potential recruiting powerhouse in both football and basketball.

When is probably less tricky. The days of the NHL hosting a Winter Classic in a major college stadium are likely over, thanks to the expanded college football playoff. As of right now, only the first round is on campus (Dec. 19-20 this coming season), but that could very well be expanded as the playoff itself grows in 2027 and beyond.

So, that means a Stadium Series game, likely in February or very early March. One question that needs to be answered — is either stadium winterized? That was the hold up for Ohio Stadium, but the expanded playoff and the ability to host games was the nudge Ohio State (and Penn State, which will also likely host an outdoor game) needed to get that done.

One final wrinkle — Rice-Eccles is going to host the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2034 Winter Olympics, and a big expansion/renovation is planned. When that starts could affect the NHL’s plans if it doesn’t grant the Mammoth a game in the next couple of seasons.

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Still, he wasn’t ready to just accept the fate of being an undrafted free agent.

“I’ve been confident in my abilities and just trusting the process,” Dell’Elce said. “This year was definitely the most successful of the three. I answered a lot of the questions that were around with my first two years. So yeah, I was confident this time going into it.”

After not getting selected following his final year at St. Andrews College, a prep school north of Toronto, or when he had a successful season with the Penticton Vees in the BCHL, Dell’Elce had a strong freshman season at the University of Massachusetts.

And the Colorado Avalanche acquired a third-round pick in the 2025 NHL draft during the first day of the event.

The Avs have been willing to take prospects passed over before during the draft process. Ilya Nabokov had also missed out twice when Colorado selected him in the second round of the 2024 NHL draft. Same for Nikita Prishchepov, who was the 217th player selected and the third in his draft class to play in the NHL.

So, when the Avs were set to make their first pick in the 2025 draft at No. 77 overall, the Dell’Elce family gathered at home in Ontario had something to celebrate.

“I think with Fran, (he is) an older guy that we feel he’s not far off if his game keeps progressing in the right direction,” Avs scouting director Nick Prior said. “That’s exciting for us.”

Dell’Elce, who turned 20 years old a few days before the draft, led the Minutemen defense corps with seven goals and 24 points in 40 games, earning a spot on the Hockey East All-Rookie team. He had a goal and an assist to help UMass knock off Minnesota in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Dell’Elce also had a special situation he believes helped make him successful: He was paired with another freshman, Larry Keenan, a 2023 draft pick by the Detroit Red Wings. Those two also played together the year before with the Vees in the British Columbia Hockey League.

The last three freshmen to lead the team’s defense corps in scoring have all reached the NHL — Scott Morrow, Zac Jones and a pretty well-known guy in Denver, Cale Makar. The school’s list of NHL players isn’t as long as many of its Hockey East counterparts, but the group of defensemen also includes Justin Braun, Brandon Montour and Mario Ferraro.

“My success this year doesn’t happen without (UMass coach Greg Carvel),” Dell’Elce said. “I’ve learned so much since stepping onto campus at UMass. It is Defenseman U. It’s not just Makar, but a number of defensemen.”

At 6-foot-1 and 179 pounds, Dell’Elce will spend the next year or two at UMass working on his body and continuing to strengthen the defensive side of his game. He’s going to try to be the next UMass defenseman in the school’s NHL pipeline, and the Avs hope they found a late bloomer who could help the big club much sooner than an 18-year-old drafted in that slot would.

“We’re not fast-tracking him, but he’s a little bit farther along than some of the CHL (Canadian Hockey League) players we’ve taken,” Avs director of player development Brian Willsie said. “We’re excited to work with him. He’s in a really good program there at UMass. Obviously we’ve had some players come through there, so excited to see him keep developing.

“A good first impression, for sure.”

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While the Colorado Eagles were readying for a winner-take-all Game 5 of the AHL quarterfinals against the Abbotsford Canucks in late May, Sean Behrens had his own battle to wage. This would be another night where Behrens could sit and feel sorry for himself, wishing he could be on the ice with his teammates instead.

Another long night in a lost season, at least on the ice. Another test of his mental toughness.

“We talk about personal investment. This is a guy that lost an entire season in training camp,” Schneekloth, former head coach of the Eagles, said. “He’s been around the team every single day. With his rehab, with his workouts, team meetings, being with the guys — I mean, he’s invested. He’s making sure that this season isn’t a complete wash. He’s been watching all the games, working hard to make sure that he can be an impactful player next season.

“You can’t say enough about his character. Obviously, in a difficult situation, his first year pro, first NHL contract, just continue to show up and work tells you why he was a national champion at DU, tells you why he’s been a leader, been on the world junior team. Just a special kid and a special player.”

Behrens was in the middle of crafting a storybook tale.

A second-round pick by the Colorado Avalanche in the 2021 NHL draft, Behrens followed his older brother to the University of Denver. He had a decorated amateur career.

He won two national championships with the Pioneers. He played for his country in international events at the Under-17, U-18 and U-20 levels, earning an assistant captain role for the latter two teams.

Despite a diminutive frame, he became a two-way force at DU and one of the Avalanche’s top prospects. He got a taste of life in the AHL after his junior season, but made a solid impression at his first NHL training camp and headed north up I-25 for his first season as a professional.

A few days later, his season was over.

“It was just kind of a weird, weird incident, kind of a freaky play that happened,” Behrens said. “The next thing you know, my leg didn’t really work. It was a pretty humbling experience.”

Behrens was assigned to AHL camp Oct. 1, 2024. Behrens sustained a torn ACL during an Eagles practice four days after that.

Any season for a young hockey player is a critical one for development. But losing the first one as a pro could be a different level of adversity.

“He was really primed to start his professional career, and to have that taken away in an instant is tough, I think just as much or more so mentally,” Avalanche director of player development Brian Willsie said. “You’re checking in with him all the time.

“The coaches, the staff get focused on the team, but you can’t forget about the other players that are not in the lineup every night. So Aaron and his staff did a great job with that up there, including him in everything. He’s progressed well. It’s a long year. It’s just as much mental as it is getting that knee strong.”

It’s been nearly eight months since the surgery to repair Behrens’ knee. He’s been skating for a while and was back on the ice this past week for Colorado’s summer development camp.

Behrens was in a red no-contact jersey all week, but he expects to be fully ready for training camp in September.

“There’s been a lot of ups and downs throughout the whole recovery, especially when I got back on the ice,” Behrens said. “It was tough for a little bit, but it’s been feeling a lot better these last couple of weeks. Hopefully, I’ll be ready for contact here pretty soon. I’m really excited for that.”

He’s still just 22 years old, but one additional forthcoming test for Behrens will again be about patience and trusting his process. While he can’t wait to get back into full team practices and begin his first season as a regular with the Eagles, he can’t try too hard to make up for lost time either.

Behrens is going to need to adjust to the pace of AHL hockey, learn how to defend bigger, more experienced players. His dream of reaching the NHL is still out there. There’s still more work to do.

He’s just happy to be doing it on the ice again. The end of his tale is still in his control.

“I kind of feel like missing last year kind of makes you want it more,” Behrens said. “It’s exciting to be back again. It’s exciting to kind of be around the team environment and be on the ice for practices again.

“I think going into next year, I feel good. Having the confidence in my knee and myself has me in a good spot. I still feel like I’m the same hockey player. Nothing has changed. It’s just rehabbing and getting back to not where it was before, but a little bit better than it was.”

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Well, the past couple of days removed a lot of the seasoning.

Fifteen players have signed contracts worth $5 million per season or more in the past week, while veteran players Jamie Benn, Patrick Kane, John Tavares and Jonathan Toews have all agreed to deals below that threshold as well. Several of the big deals went to pending restricted free agents, but the top of the UFA class disappeared when Mitch Marner, Sam Bennett, Aaron Ekblad, Brad Marchand and others took their names off the market.

The names might not be as big on Tuesday, but there are still plenty of teams with a lot of salary cap space as free agency opens in the NHL, so expect to see some not-elite players sign larger-than-expected contracts.

The Colorado Avalanche has a little bit of cap flexibility, but also several depth spots on the roster to fill. Don’t expect the Avs to get into a bidding war for any of the top names still available, but they could also make another trade to free up more cap space, fill one or more of those holes or both.

Colorado does have several players hitting the free agent market Tuesday, including forwards Jonathan Drouin, Joel Kiviranta and Jimmy Vesey, plus defensemen Ryan Lindgren and Erik Johnson.

NHL free agency updates

Day 1: July 1

1:05 p.m.: The Avs bolstered the blue line for the Eagles by signing Ronnie Attard to a one-year, two-way contract. Attard, 26, was a third-round pick in the 2019 NHL draft. The 6-foot-3, 208-pound defenseman split last season between the Philadelphia Flyers’ and Edmonton Oilers’ AHL affiliates. He has 29 games of NHL experience with the Flyers, spread across the previous three seasons.

12:55 p.m.: Jonathan Drouin is moving on.

Drouin signed a two-year, $8 million contract with the New York Islanders, becoming the second UFA to leave the Avs on the first day of free agency. Drouin had 30 goals and 93 points in 122 games across two seasons with the Avs.

He signed two one-year contracts with Colorado, and was one of the best bargains in the NHL both years. Drouin came to Denver to reunite with his friend Nathan MacKinnon and help rebuild his value. In doing so, the Avs got a productive forward on a cheap contract who also evolved in a much better two-way player during his tenure.

Drouin goes to the Islanders to play for Avs legend Patrick Roy. He’s also there in part because the Isles had some extra cap space they wouldn’t have if Brock Nelson had signed before the trade deadline last season and not ended up in Denver.

11:30 a.m.: The first of Colorado’s free agents has found a new home.

Ryan Lindgren has agreed to a four-year, $18 million contract with the Seattle Kraken, according to multiple reports. Lindgren just concluded a one-year deal at the same $4.5 million AAV. The Avs acquired Lindgren, along with Jimmy Vesey, from the New York Rangers before the trade deadline for Calvin de Haan, Juuso Parssinen plus second- and fourth-round picks.

Lindgren had two goals and an assist in 18 games for the Avs. He had played mostly on New York’s top pairing with Adam Fox, but settled into a No. 4/5 role with Colorado.

10:45 a.m.: Colorado retained two key players for the Eagles on one-year contracts.

T.J. Tynan, 33, and Jack Ahcan both signed one-year deals to remain with the organization. Tynan had eight goals and 49 points in 52 games for the Eagles last season. He also had one point in nine games for the Avalanche.

Ahcan, 28, had five goals and 41 points in 69 games for the Eagles. He also played in the Avs’ final two games of the regular season.

10:20 a.m.: The Avalanche signed one of its forwards with one year remaining on his current contract, but it wasn’t the one people might have been expecting.

Parker Kelly signed a four-year, $6.8 million extension Tuesday, a league source confirmed to The Denver Post. The deal will carry a $1.7 million cap hit. It doesn’t start until 2026-27 and runs through 2030.

Kelly, 26, joined the Avs a year ago on a two-year, $1.65 million deal. He had eight goals and 19 points in 80 games for the Avalanche, spending a large chunk of the season as the No. 3 center before settling in on the wing of the fourth line after the club revamped its roster.

This was the first day Kelly was eligible to sign a new contract. Martin Necas, Jack Drury, Josh Manson, Scott Wedgewood and Sam Malinski are all eligible for new deals that begin in 2026.

10:00 a.m.: Monday was the deadline to extend a qualifying offer to restricted free agents. The Avs did not qualify forwards Jean Luc-Foudy, William Dufour, defenseman John Ludvig and goaltender Kevin Mandolese, so they are all officially unrestricted free agents.

Avalanche depth chart

Here’s where the Avalanche depth chart stands the morning of July 1, before the free agent frenzy gets started:

Artturi Lehkonen – Nathan MacKinnon – Martin Necas
Gabe Landeskog – Brock Nelson – Valeri Nichushkin
Ross Colton – Jack Drury – Parker Kelly
??? – ??? – ???

Internal options: Ivan Ivan, Nikita Prischepov, Zakhar Bardakov, Matthew Stienburg, Jason Polin

Devon Toews – Cale Makar
Samuel Girard – Josh Manson
??? – Sam Malinski

Internal options: Keaton Middleton, Wyatt Aamodt, Jacob MacDonald

Mackenzie Blackwood
Scott Wedgewood
Trent Miner

Injured: Logan O’Connor (hip)

And here’s some reading material to get updated on the Avs’ offseason to date:

Avs sign RFA Sam Malinski

Avs have clarity, cap flexibility … and could be patient

Avs trade Charlie Coyle, Miles Wood to Columbus

Avs 2025 NHL draft tracker

Renck: Avs re-signing Brock Nelson puts Chris MacFarland, Jared Bednar on notice

Avs sign Brock Nelson, answer biggest offseason question

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Colorado has about $9.7 million in cap space now after trading Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood on Friday to the Columbus Blue Jackets. There are 4-6 open roster spots, but also internal candidates to fill some of those depth roles.

The Avs have more clarity on captain Gabe Landeskog’s future and don’t have an offseason filled with questions about Valeri Nichushkin. There is an opportunity for the Avs to do something very different than the previous few years, if they want.

Colorado could be patient when the free-agent frenzy starts this Tuesday at 10 a.m. Instead of grabbing the best players available right now who can fit into the cap space available, the Avalanche could wait.

By doing so, the Avs could begin the season without being at or over the salary cap for the first time in years. When teams are below the cap ceiling, set at $95.5 million for 2025-26, the unused space they have accrues more over the course of the year.

“There’s an opportunity to be a cap accrual team for sure,” Avalanche general manager Chris MacFarland said Saturday after his club made three picks in the 2025 NHL draft. “I don’t know … I think we’ll probably be nestled to (the cap ceiling). I don’t know if we’ll be millions underneath.

“I just think we’re going to see where the value is.”

Each player’s cap hit is calculated on a daily basis, so teams are only responsible for a fraction of a player’s cap hit when he arrives at or near the deadline. For example, if a team has $1 million in cap space on opening night and doesn’t dip further into it throughout the season, said club can actually take on a player with about a $4.5 million cap hit on trade deadline day. Toss in some salary retention by the selling team, and that number grows even more.

The two biggest holes in the lineup right now are a No. 3 center to replace Coyle, and a No. 4/5 defenseman if Ryan Lindgren does not return. The Avs could bring Lindgren back, or spend about half of that cap space on a different defenseman. They could trade for or sign a center and push Jack Drury back down to fourth on the depth chart.

But doing either or both right now will almost certainly mean paying full market rates. Adding players in February instead of the previous July has its pros and cons.

Getting the guy you want before the season gives him a full year to settle in with the team and get used to the system, and the coaching staff has more time to figure out the best ways to deploy him. Adding a true No. 3 center and/or No. 4/5 defenseman in July also should lead to more points in the NHL standings, given the roster is more complete for all 82 games.

But the math is pretty simple: Players cost less against the cap in February, so there’s more bang for the buck. And the Avs remain a team that is more concerned with how good the roster is on April 15 than Oct. 15.

That’s how the Avs ended up with a $100 million roster last year. Landeskog was on LTIR all year, and Colorado got the Rangers and Islanders to retain part of the cap hits for Lindgren and Brock Nelson.

Colorado couldn’t afford Lindgren and Nelson in July 2024. The Florida Panthers couldn’t afford Brad Marchand then, either.

The Avs do still need to add some players in the coming days or weeks. But the best path forward might be to wait out the shopping spree conditions on the first couple days of free agency and see what’s left in the bargain aisle.

Colorado has a strong roster right now. The improved clarity on Landeskog and Nichushkin is a big part of that. This Avs roster, plus a few more players on cheap-ish contracts and internal promotions, is plenty good enough to be a comfortable playoff team, barring some catastrophic injury luck.

“I think we feel really good about it,” MacFarland said. “Obviously, the expectations are the expectations. If it’s ‘(Stanley) Cup or bust,’ there’s only one team that wins the Cup every year. But this is a good hockey team.”

The path to maximizing the playoff roster and the chances of winning the Cup again could be to use patience now and add more impact players ahead of the trade deadline.

It’s one of the options that MacFarland and his staff haven’t had available to them in recent years.

“We’re going to look at all options,” MacFarland said. “It may not be free agency. Maybe a trade is the better way to go.

“I think we’ve got to look to add at forward and on the back end. We’ll look at every avenue possible over the next, whether it’s the next few days or weeks, or months, until we find the right fits.”

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Colorado selected Francesco Dell’Elce, a defenseman from the University of Massachusetts, with the No. 77 pick in the third round Saturday. Listed at 6-foot-1 and 179 pounds, the left-shooting Dell’Elce had seven goals and 24 points in 40 games as a freshman at UMass this past season.

Dell’Elce was named to the Hockey East All-Rookie Team. This was the third year he was eligible for the draft. He turned 20 years old on Monday.

Two of the Avs’ three selections were overage prospects who had been passed over in drafts before. Colorado took multiple overage players a year ago as well, including goalie Ilya Nabokov in the second round and forward Nikita Prischepov in the seventh round.

“I think we’re at a place now where we view older players as players that can make an impact sooner,” Nick Pryor, the club’s director of amateur scouting, said. “(Dell’Elce) is an older guy that we feel is not far off if his game keeps progressing in the right direction. That’s exciting for us.”

Dell’Elce is the third Avs draft pick to play for UMass in the past nine years. Cale Makar was the No. 4 pick in the 2017 draft, and then Taylor Makar was a seventh-round selection in 2020. The Makar brothers played for the Brooks Bandits in the AJHL ahead of the draft before joining UMass.

Colorado’s second pick of the day was Linus Funck, a 6-foot-3 Swedish defenseman, at No. 118 in the fourth round.

Funck, a right-handed shot, had five goals and 28 points in 48 games for Luleå’s U-20 junior team. He was the 39th-ranked European skater in the class by NHL central scouting. He turned 18 on May 10.

“He’s got a really good feel for the puck and puck skills for a bigger body,” Pryor said. “He moves well. Like most, I think his game needs to round out and improve on the defensive side. … He’s exciting for us because he’s big, he’s mobile and he can move the puck.”

The Avs’ final choice of the draft was center Nolan Roed at No. 214 in the seventh round. Roed is a 5-11 center who had 27 goals and 60 points in 61 games for Tri-City in the USHL this past season. He’ll be a freshman at St. Cloud State next year.

“Nolan is a player that keeps getting better and better,” Pryor said. “I think with his scoring touch and competitiveness, he’s going to give himself a chance as long as his development keeps going in the right direction.”

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It’s just not likely to be this weekend at the 2025 NHL draft, unless general manager Chris MacFarland has a trade or two up his sleeve. The Avs currently have only two picks in this draft: No. 118 in the fourth round and No. 214 in the seventh.

“The Avs’ pool might be the weakest in the NHL today,” Scott Wheeler, a staff writer who covers prospects and the draft for The Athletic, said. “They’ve either dealt their picks or their top prospects and the little that’s left will do more than nibble at the edges.”

There’s no secrecy about how the Avalanche reached this point. Colorado has been in win-now mode for years. A shallow collection of prospects is the cost of doing business as a perennial Stanley Cup contender — either by trading draft picks or using them and then dealing the prospects they produce.

The Avs have certainly emptied the cupboard over the past several seasons. Those trades helped the franchise win the Stanley Cup in 2022. It’s helped MacFarland load up at the deadline each of the past two seasons.

Just this past season alone, the Avs traded away top prospect Calum Ritchie, a 2024 pick amid a breakout season (William Zellers) and six selections in the first three rounds of future drafts.

“I think for the Avs system, the way to define it is that there are players, but there probably aren’t a ton of impact players,” Chris Peters, content manager and draft/prospects analyst at FloHockey, said. “I think there are players within the mix that will very likely play games, but there aren’t many, if any, game-breakers.

“The lack of a high-end player does make it one of the least exciting pools in the league, but this is the nature of most teams in win-now mode with legitimate Stanley Cup aspirations. Long-term, it does make things harder in terms of building up the next wave, as we’ve seen in Pittsburgh of late. Considering how long it took before the Penguins got to this stage, though, I think most teams would be comfortable with that.”

Not only are the Avs short on prospects with impact potential, they don’t currently own a pick in the first three rounds of either the 2025 or 2026 NHL draft. It could put them at a deficit when trying to make more win-now trades in the near future, so it is possible the Avs could make a move or two in the coming weeks to recoup some draft capital to give them more movable assets at the deadline.

Mikhail Gulyayev is the club’s top prospect now with Ritchie gone. The 2021 first-round pick has one more year on his KHL contract before the Avs will try to get him to come to North America.

Goaltender Ilya Nabokov, the club’s top pick in a deep 2024 class, is the No. 2 prospect. He’ll play this season on loan in the KHL and then join the Avs or Colorado Eagles after his season is over.

Beyond those two, it’s a lot of maybes and players have relatively low NHL ceilings.

“I think Nabokov could be a decent backup,” Steven Ellis, associate editor and prospects analyst for Daily Faceoff, said. “Sean Behrens might have enough to be a third-pairing defender. But beyond that, it’s a barren wasteland. I’m not sure there’s another prospect in the system who would have a realistic shot at becoming a full-time NHLer.

“Nikita Prishchepov is intriguing because nobody could have expected a seventh-rounder to play in the NHL the following season but we’ll see if he has any sustained success up there.”

Colorado’s recent history with draft picks after the first round has not helped, but there is some hope with the 2024 class. Zellers, a third-round pick, helped bring Charlie Coyle to Denver. Nabokov could be one of the club’s best second-round selections in 15 years. Prishchepov played 10 NHL games, more than everyone in his class beyond the top two guys in the draft.

Others later in the draft, like University of Denver sophomores-to-be Jake Fisher and Tory Pitner, plus Czechia native Max Curran, could help add a little bit of depth to the Avs’ prospect pool.

And there are the two picks in the 2025 NHL draft, though both will be long shots to make the league.

To be clear, this isn’t a major problem in the near future, outside of possibly missing out on a trade target or two if other teams with more young assets and picks outbid them. It is something that Colorado will need to improve, eventually.

“The only guy I think is probably an NHL player is a 5-10 Russian defenseman (Gulyayev) who isn’t even that special offensively,” Corey Pronman, senior prospects writer for The Athletic, said. “Nabokov, Behrens and Curran have a chance, but none of them are top prospects for me.

“(Nathan MacKinnon’s) contract saves their window. They can go external for the next 4-5 years before this catches up with them.”

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Colorado will be joined by the Vegas Golden Knights and Utah Mammoth for the 2025 Rookie Showcase a three-day, three-game event. Each club will play twice.

The Avs will face Utah on Sept. 12 at 6 p.m. and Vegas on Sept. 14 at a 1 p.m. The Golden Knights and Mammoth will square off on Sept. 13 at 3 p.m. It will be the first organized games for the Utah franchise as the Mammoth after spending its first year in Salt Lake City as the Utah Hockey Club.

These three teams had previously participated in a larger preseason rookie tournament with the three California teams and the Seattle Kraken, who joined for the first time last year.

Colorado’s top two prospects, defenseman Mikhail Gulyayev and goalie Ilya Nabokov, will be with their KHL clubs, and the Avalanche currently only have two selections in the upcoming 2025 NHL draft.

This tournament could be the first games back for Sean Behrens, the University of Denver alum and Avs’ second-round pick in 2021, since a major knee injury in training camp last year cost him all of his first professional season with the Colorado Eagles.

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Since winning the Stanley Cup in 2009, the Penguins had a postseason derailed by injuries (2011), multiple years where they looked like one of the favorites but didn’t get close (2012 and 2013) and one that ended with a shocking collapse (2014).

It’s not exactly apples to apples, but a lot of that sure sounds familiar for the present-day Colorado Avalanche. Just like the Penguins in 2009, when the Avs won the Stanley Cup in 2022, it appeared a burgeoning dynasty had announced its arrival. But, just like the initial core for Crosby’s club, these Avs have not been the superpower that was promised, at least in the postseason.

While the Penguins survived a career-threatening injury to their captain and had plenty of regular-season success, there was plenty of angst about the franchise’s playoff failures. What everyone didn’t know in hindsight was that the groundwork for two more championships had already been laid.

Pittsburgh drafted Bryan Rust in 2010, Matt Murray in 2011 and Jake Guentzel in 2013. All were under-the-radar picks in the third round. And all three became critical components of a Penguins championship run when Crosby and Co. sealed their legacy with titles in 2016 and ’17.

The Avs need to find players like that in the later rounds of the draft to help extend the championship window for Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Co. The issue is Colorado’s draft record beyond the first round has left a lot to be desired.

Colorado built a championship team through the first round of the draft. The 2022 Avalanche was one of the best rosters of the salary cap era, and it was fueled by homegrown stars who were selected high in the NHL draft.

They also used a recent first-round pick (Justin Barron) and the club’s best second-round pick in years (Drew Helleson) to add the final pieces through trades — Artturi Lehkonen and Josh Manson. Textbook work from the front office, both at the draft table and the deadline, helped deliver a championship.

But winning more than one is really hard, as MacKinnon has learned both from watching his famous friend struggle for years to claim a second and now through his club’s journey.

Even a franchise oozing with homegrown star power still needs to replenish the ecosystem through the draft. Those picks can become players on cheap contracts who help the pending salary cap squeeze, or they can be trade chips to further buttress the NHL roster.

Helleson could have a long NHL career and should count as a draft success for the Avalanche if he does. But Colorado hasn’t drafted a player who has played 300 games in the NHL after the first round since 2009, when Ryan O’Reilly (second round) and Tyson Barrie (third) joined Matt Duchene (first) in the franchise’s best draft class since moving to Denver.

The three guys Colorado has selected after the first round who have played at least 175 NHL games are Will Butcher (275 games), A.J. Greer (248) and Calvin Pickard (175). Butcher didn’t sign with the Avs out of college, Greer played 37 games for Colorado before getting traded for a guy who played five times for the Avalanche (Kyle Burroughs) and Pickard appeared in 86 games before going to Vegas in the expansion draft.

Players who are drafted after the first round have long odds of making the NHL. Not every team is good at finding NHL regulars in the middle rounds of the draft. A lot of the guys taken in the late rounds who make it are late bloomers and there is obviously some luck involved for the NHL club.

But the Avs’ issues after the first round go beyond just not taking guys who can play 300 NHL games. They’ve selected a bunch of guys who didn’t even become AHL regulars. Those players never even had a chance to become interesting trade chips.

In 2016, the Avs selected guys in the second and third rounds who combined to play 13 AHL games for them. In 2017, they had a pair of fourth-round picks. One never played a full season with the Eagles. One never played a game in North America.

Justus Annunen made it to the NHL as a third-round pick in 2018 and helped the Avs land Scott Wedgewood. But fellow third-rounder Sampo Ranta is back in Europe after 16 NHL games, and the 2018 fourth-round pick is playing for someone else’s ECHL club.

One or two more good selections in that group could have helped the Avs, either in games or via trade, in the past few years. Recently, one of the issues is that Colorado has traded a lot of picks away as it chases another Stanley Cup.

That’s normal, but some of the recent middle-round picks haven’t worked out, either. Matthew Stienburg (2019) and Jean-Luc Foudy (2020) were both third-round picks and might top as fourth-line depth guys at best. Alex Beaucage (2019) is out of the organization and Andrei Buyalski (2021) is back in Russia after three years at Vermont.

There is some hope. Sean Behrens has to overcome a major knee injury and his size as a defense-first guy, but the 2021 second-round pick can still be an NHL regular.

The 2024 draft class was flush with interesting prospects, and the Avs need some hits. William Zellers had a big year in the USHL, and the Avs put him in the deal for Charlie Coyle.

Colorado has made a few good picks recently, but not nearly enough. And the Avs don’t currently have any picks in the first three rounds of the 2025 or 2026 drafts. They could add some in a trade, but the Avs also desperately need to hit on a late pick or two in the coming years as well.

The current roster will keep the contention window open for the next couple of seasons, but the Avalanche must find guys like Rust and Guentzel through the draft if they are going to continue to compete for the Stanley Cup through the end of this decade.

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