Everybody Hates Chris: The Avalanche 2026 Offseason Thread

[Pokecheque]

Avs get one Makar out of the way before focusing on the more expensive one. Taylor Makar signs for two years, one-way the second year, so I'm guessing the hope is that he'll finally be on the roster by then.

[Pokecheque]

Avs actually USED all their picks (well, almost all, they traded up on day two) in the draft, taking nine players.

https://www.nhl.com/avalanche/news/aval ... -nhl-draft

All of these players of course were on the second day, they had no first rounder, and won't have one next year, or the year after that. I would be pretty surprised if they dealt away their 2029 1st.

I don't have a ton of faith any of these guys turn out to be impact players, let alone NHL players at all, the Avs draft record speaks for itself. One can only hope they made some good picks. Their first is a Russian kid currently playing in the QMJHL who is committed to Penn State after this year. Highly-skilled but has a rep for indifferent play at times. It's fine, that's the kind of player you take a chance on when you're in the 2nd round or lower.

Prospect camp coming up, and their top-rated goalie prospect, Ilya Nabokov, won't be there. Apparently he's hurt.

[Pokecheque]

Five year extension for Kulak, one year for Burnsie.

So Burns gets to break the record in Colorado which I absolutely did not anticipate. I'm rather ambivalent about him returning, he was stellar in 2025, but borderline awful in 2026.

Kulak was a good fit, though it's a contract that's certain not to age well. But it's not like the Avs have a plethora of NHL-ready defensive prospects, or a plethora of ANY prospects.

Burnsie's deal is once again bonus-laden so there will likely be an overage like there is this year. Whatever.

Avs did make one notable deal over the weekend, sending forward Ivan Ivan to Boston for forward Fabian Lysell. On the surface, not that big a deal, but I was pretty surprised given that Ivan had not looked out of place in the NHL, and was coming off a rather impressive run in the AHL playoffs. Lysell gets to join his fellow 2021 first round draftees Svechkov and L'Heureux in Colorado. From what I understand he's been a major disappointment so far but there's something in his game that might fit well with the Avs. We'll see I guess.

[Pokecheque]

Avs stay relatively quiet on free agency day, signing Noah Juulsen for two years and Jaden Schwartz for three.

Juulsen will slot in as the #6 guy, why they went out and got YET ANOTHER RIGHT HANDER I don't know. But whatever, likely a decent upgrade on Blankenburg, whom the Avs clearly didn't like.

Schwartz is old, but still a decent skater and doesn't shy away from the dirty areas of the ice. Unfortunately that lack of shyness has also led to numerous injuries. My theory is that Schwartz has spent most of his career with teams that like to dump and chase and emphasize puck retrieval, which overall is not a strong suit of the Avs. This is a guy who can dig out pucks and make plays, which makes me think he's custom-made to play alongside Brock Nelson. Nelson has had very little chemistry with a bunch of Avs wingers, and IMO he's not a good fit for their roster and scheme despite putting up over 30 goals and garnering a Selke nomination this season. But if this is what finally gets him to be a somewhat productive center in the postseason (20 games, 2 empty-netters) then so be it.

Sakic said the team was going to be pretty quiet after this, so this more or less is what we will see opening night.

Lehkonen/Landeskog - MacKinnon - Necas
Schwartz - Nelson - Brindley
Landeskog/Lehkonen - Kadri - Roy
Kelly - Svechkov - O'Connor

Toews - Makar
Kulak - Malinski
Manson - Burns
Juulsen

Lumberyard

On paper, it's a weaker team but still a legit contender. Most potential off-ice distractions (disgruntled Colton, perennial headcase Nichushkin, potentially ugly arbitration situation Drury) have been taken care of. Now all that remains is the exact number and term of the eventual Makar extension, and whether or not Lehkonen can be re-signed.

[Pokecheque]

Oh, forgot to mention they also signed Vinnie Hinostroza, another guy who's got decent wheels but also not a young man. I seem to remember him being a halfway decent depth guy back in the day, sounds like he's depth insurance in case one of the youngsters like Svechkov or Brindley don't impress in camp.

[Pokecheque]

Aw, fuck you, Chris...MacFarland takes a key member of the Avs' analytics team, hiring away Dawson Sprigings. Not the head honcho of their fancy stats department, Arik Parnass, but still a pretty big deal. Sprigings was brought aboard to help incorporate analytics across the board for KSE-controlled teams, which includes the Nuggets, Mammoth (Lacrosse and still should be the sole owners of that team name), and Rapids. Not sure if his work also included Arsenal across the pond.

Avs did make an interesting minor league signing with Domenick Fensore (the "e" is not silent in that last name, Italians know what's up). Smallish speedy puckmoving defenseman who was part of that insane USNTDP team in the USHL with Jack Hughes, Cole Caufield, Spencer Knight, Trevor Zegras, and Cam York. He's been muddling around in the Carolina system but so far has only played 3 NHL games. In any event he should help the Colorado Eagles.

Speaking of the Eagles, it's a one-and-done for head coach Mark Letestu, as he leaves to be an assistant in Vegas under new HC Ryan Craig. I don't think the Eagles will replace him with John Tortorella but one can hope.

[Chris18]

Aw, fuck you, Chris...

For a second I wondered what I'd done.

[Bosc]

Aw, fuck you, Chris...

For a second I wondered what I'd done.

[Pokecheque]

He wasn't a member of the organization at present per se but popped up regularly during Avs broadcasts...but possibly not anymore. John Mitchell named the head coach of the Charlottetown Islanders of the QMJHL.

I'm bummed about that because he was just about the only guy left on the broadcast who was willing to take the Avs to task on the air. Mark Rycroft made a name for himself doing this but ever since he stepped into Peter McNab's old job has become the ultimate company line guy.

[Pokecheque]

Avs start the 2026-27 season on September 30th (!!!) home in Denver against the Lavi Angeles Kings.

https://www.nhl.com/avalanche/news/avs-season-opener-26

[Pokecheque]

Slow season continues for the Avs and the rest of the NHL, but in other news, I just read that Artturi Lehkonen just got married, to former figure skater and the daughter of retired NHLer Ville Peltonen, Emmi Peltonen. She's Finnish but was born in Nashville.

[Logical Progression]

$163.2M for Makar over eight years. We officially have our first $20M-a-year NHL player.

Good move by the Avs, but Jesus fucking christ, the money professional athletes are making to play what are, ultimately, meaningless games really boggles the mind.

And hockey isn’t even that bad compared to some other pro sports.

[Chris18]

$163.2M for Makar over eight years. We officially have our first $20M-a-year NHL player.

Good move by the Avs, but Jesus fucking christ, the money professional athletes are making to play what are, ultimately, meaningless games really boggles the mind.

And hockey isn’t even that bad compared to some other pro sports.

A-Rod got $25M/year in 2000, so yeah, the NHL is way behind MLB in that respect. Thankfully.

[Pokecheque]

I gots no problem with this, eight more years and very likely he ends his career in Denver.

I gotta be honest, I really don't give a fuck how much athletes are making because every penny they're getting is one more that a bunch of old men in suits aren't. Obviously there are concerns like cap space and what not but bottom line, he's either the best or 2nd-best player on the team. They gotta pay up for that. I don't know if he's the best blueliner in the game but he's up there for sure. Glad he's sticking around.

[Logical Progression]

Yeah, I get that. I am not arguing that the owners should keep the money instead. If the revenues are there, the players are perfectly entitled to negotiate their share.

My point is broader than hockey. We live in a society characterized by increasingly extreme concentrations of wealth nand yet we’ve become remarkably comfortable treating those concentrations as both normal and somehow intrinsically deserved, whether the beneficiary is an athlete, an owner, a CEO or anyone else for that matter.

A society in which earning $20-$40-$100 million a year to play a fucking game barely raises an eyebrow, while millions of people struggle to afford housing, food and basic financial security, reflects something pretty distorted about how we distribute wealth and what we have collectively decided to value.

Maybe the disparity is just more visible than it once was. Maybe it isn’t. Either way, it makes me wonder what this degree of inequality says about our collective values and why we’ve become so comfortable with it.

[Chris18]

Maybe the disparity is just more visible than it once was. Maybe it isn’t. Either way, it makes me wonder what this degree of inequality says about our collective values and why we’ve become so comfortable with it.

The disparity is larger than it was, not just more visible. Guys like Gordie Howe and Mickey Mantle needed off-season jobs. I don't think too many current NHL or MLB players "need" additional income to survive. If they do, they've got a drug or gambling problem. We value athletes and entertainers more than we do just about anyone else, so the pay scale will continue to skyrocket until people just stop being able to afford games, buying team merch, etc.

[Pokecheque]

Avs announce that Joe Sakic will be the GM going forward. The plan was to start an extensive search once things settled down but Sakic reportedly feels "reinvigorated." Speculation abounds that they are training one of the AGMs, probably Andrew Cogliano, to take over eventually, but he's not quite ready yet.

[Pokecheque]

Death, taxes, and Cale Makar injured.

https://coloradohockeynow.com/cale-maka ... ning-camp/