Analyzing the Avalanche at the quarter mark of the season

A quarter of a season sure does fly by when it's as chaotic as Colorado's has been.

With their win over the Washington Capitals on Thursday giving them an 11-9 record, the Avalanche hit the 20-game mark, which is essentially the quarter mark of the year. There's still a lot of hockey left to be played, but the start of the season sure has flown by.

I guess that's what happens when the lineup seems to be in a constant state of flux.

Luckily for Jared Bednar, things seem to have stabilized with the return of three key forwards last week, but this season has been far from normal, to say the least. The Avalanche have already dressed 5 different netminders and have been forced to use 18 different forwards. That doesn't even include the game where they dressed defenseman Oliver Kylington up front, so if you want to say 19, go right ahead.

That makes it a little more difficult to analyze the team but getting an idea on what kind of depth you have is never really a bad thing. Colorado has kept their heads above water through the chaos, so let's look at the first 20 games, going position-by-position.

Forwards

Newsflash: Nathan MacKinnon might be the best player in the world.

The reigning MVP hasn't slowed down at all after a career year. In fact, he seems to be getting even better at the age of 29. Since January 1, 2023, no one in the league has more points than the 251 he's registered. His running mate Mikko Rantanen is also still elite, as he's sitting top 10 in the league in scoring as well.

How the top six plays out is still in question. With Jonathan Drouin and Valeri Nichushkin back from injury, there are no questions about talent. In fact, it might be difficult to find a more talented top six group in the NHL. It's just about finding the right mix when it comes to the lines.

A healthy Ross Colton would make the bottom six just as intriguing. He had a fantastic start to the season but did most of his damage on the wing. Would it make sense for the Avalanche to target a third line center to keep Colton on the wing?

Either way, the Avalanche feels better about their depth than two months ago. Although their roles continue to shrink as players return, Nikolai Kovalenko and Ivan Ivan have shown to be capable NHL players. The biggest boost to the bottom six would probably come in the form of Logan O'Connor hitting his stride. He's struggled a bit coming off major hip surgery, but he's also been asked to play a bit more than they would have hoped. It would be fair to expect him to continue to find his game as the season goes on.

When Colton returns, the staff will have some difficult lineup decisions to make, and that's not a bad thing at all. This team, when healthy, looks deep up front. There's also the possibility of the captain returning later in the year but making room for him under the salary cap could prove to be difficult.

Defense

Cale Makar racked up points last year, but never really looked like his dominant self offensively. That's changed this season. He looks back to being who he was a few years ago. His partner, Devon Toews, has battled through an injury all year long and it's looked like that most nights. Colorado has chosen to play him through the injury and let him take practices off, but that might change if the team can go on a roll.

The second pair has been up and down. They've been on the ice for more goals against than the top pair, and both have struggled at times around the net. They're firmly entrenched as that second pair, though.

The surprise on the defense has been Sam Malinski, although maybe it shouldn't be that much of a surprise. He was good in the NHL last year when given the opportunity and seems to have locked down the fifth spot on the blueline this year.

Calvin de Haan has been steady as the sixth defenseman, but it's been interesting to see how willing the team has been to rotate him out of the lineup in favor of John Ludvig or Oliver Kylington. That was never the case with Jack Johnson. Good teams usually add a defenseman before the trade deadline, so it wouldn't be a surprise if Colorado looked to add someone else down the line.

Goaltending

Your daily report on everything sports in Colorado - covering the Denver Broncos, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, and columns from Woody Paige and Paul Klee.
 
Where to begin?

Simply put, both haven't been good enough. Justus Annunen has been more consistent, but it still doesn't feel like the team is fully confident he can be the guy. On the flip side, they clearly want Alexandar Georgiev to take the job and run with it, but he hasn't done that. His start to the season was ugly and while he has improved, he's still got a way to go.

Moving forward, this is easily the biggest question mark facing this team. There just wouldn't be many clear-cut upgrades out on the trade market either, if the team decided to go down that road.

What I'm hearing

-- It can't be a good thing when one of your most important players needs to take practices off in between games because he's playing through injury. That's the case with Toews, who likely won't practice much for the foreseeable future.

"He'll be taking some maintenance days," Jared Bednar said before the team left for their road trip.

Toews has said he's figured out how to manage whatever's ailing him, but this doesn't seem like something you want to be dealing with when there's so much of the season left to be played.

-- Nichushkin looked and sounded significantly more comfortable talking to the media after his first game back, at least when you compare it to when he met with the media for the first time after the Seattle incident in 2023. Hopefully that's a sign he's in a better place.

"I think I had huge progress with my mental health, so hope this never happens again," Nichushkin said.

What I'm seeing

-- Parker Kelly isn't a third-line center at the NHL level. But a fourth-line center? He might be pretty good at that. Since being pushed down the lineup, he's looked more comfortable and is starting to hit his stride. For someone who hadn't played center at the NHL level prior to this year, he's adjusting nicely and has done well on the penalty kill.

-- It will be interesting to see how Malinski's role evolves as the year goes on. He's done everything asked of him and looks solid, but he's purely an even-strength player now. He doesn't get used on the power play and doesn't get used on the penalty kill. Can he be more than that? The underlying numbers would indicate there aren't a whole lot of dangerous scoring chances against taking place when he's on the ice.

What I'm thinking

-- Alex Ovechkin's leg injury is a real shame. His start to the season sure made it seem like it was a lock he was going to break Wayne Gretzky's goal scoring record in the next few months. A broken fibula means he'll miss 4-6 weeks, which could push the record-breaking goal to next season.

Of course, he would already have the record if not for multiple league stoppages during his career.

-- An NHL Insider recently floated the idea of the Avalanche acquiring Jordan Binnington to shore up their goaltending. Something tells me fans would not really be down with that.

Binnington was statistically one of the better goalies in the NHL last year, but that hasn't been the case this season. He's down near the bottom of the league in almost every goaltending statistic.