Team Outlook: Colorado Avalanche

Heading into the 2022-23 NHL season, I’m going to look at every team to see how they are looking going into the season.

(Christian Petersen/Getty Images) From: cbc.ca

2021-22:

The Avalanche went 56-19-7, good for 119 points and 1st in the Central Division. The Avs ended up beating the back-to-back cup champs, the Tampa Bay Lightning, in 6 games to win the Stanley Cup.

Draft:

The Colorado Avalanche had 2 draft picks for the 2022 NHL Draft that happened over the summer. For their 2 picks, they used it on a defenseman and a goalie. The forward is Chris Romaine, an 18U AAA player that played for the South Shore Kings last season. He got 8 points in 23 games, and he also got 22 points in 18 games for Milton Academy in a league in Boston. Currently, he is committed to play for Providence College for 2023-24. For their 7th round pick, they selected Belarusian Ivan Zhigalov. The goalie has a .892 SV% in 42 games for the Sherbrooke Phoenix of the OHL last season. He also had a .826 SV% in 2 games during the playoffs. He is currently going to play for the Kingston Frontenacs of the OHL this upcoming season.

Additions:

The Colorado Avalanche didn’t bring any many new players for the next season. They traded for goaltender Alexandar Georgiev from the New York Rangers. Georgiev served as the backup to Igor Shesterkin last season. He still played 33 games and had a .898 SV% and a .935 SV% in 2 games in the playoffs. They also signed Evan Rodrigues to a one-year contract. Rodrigues has been on the Penguins for the past 2 and a half seasons, and he put up career highs in everything last season. He had 19 goals and 24 assists for 43 points while playing all 82 games.

Losses:

However, due to the Avs’ cap situation, they did end up losing a lot of key players that helped them win the cup last season. The man who scored the OT game winner in Game 4 on the road, Nazem Kadri, signed with the Calgary Flames. Kadri had a career high 87 points in 71 games and had 15 points in 16 games during the playoffs. Goaltender, Darcy Kuemper also signed with the Washington Capitals. Kuemper put up a .921 SV% during 57 games in the regular season and a .902 SV% in 16 playoff games. Andre Burakovsky signed with the Seattle Kraken even after scoring 61 points in 80 games last season, a new career high. Burakovsky scored the OT game winner in Game 1 of the Finals to set the tone for the Avs for the rest of the series.

Who to look for:

Ben Myers was signed by the Avs last season while he was with the University of Minnesota. Meyers had 41 points in 34 games during his Junior season with the Golden Gophers, and once he finished, he came over to the Avs and got 1 goal during 5 games.

Alex Newhook played 71 games for the Avs last season and got 33 points. Going into his second full season in the NHL, I could see him doing great things.

Prediction:

Even though I think the Avs might have gotten a little worse, I still think they will win the Central Division once again and make it deep into the playoffs.

Stats from: eliteprospects.com, capfriendly.com