Heh heh heh. No threepeat this year, Tampa Bay. I get to write about a new championship team this time. The Colorado Avalanche have just won the Stanley Cup as the NHL's top team and as per tradition I'm going to assemble the all-time best that this franchise has to offer. But before we get to that here's a brief rundown of Avalanche history.
That history began at the start of the 1995-96 season when the Quebec Nordiques moved to Denver and continued operations there as the Avalanche – so really, just go back and read up my all-time team article on the Nordiques (from May 2017). To put things bluntly, a Cup-contending team was delivered right on the front doorstep of those lucky Colorado hockey fans and with the midseason blockbuster trade for goaltender Patrick Roy the final piece of the championship puzzle had been assembled. With multiple Hall of Famers on their roster (Roy, Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg), it's little wonder why the team captured the Stanley Cup in their very first year.
As one of the dominant NHL teams of the late 1990's to early 2000's, the Avs were doing pretty fabulously. They were division champions in each of their first eight seasons and in the playoffs they made it to the semi-finals or better six times between 1996 and 2002. The franchise captured its second Stanley Cup in 2001. Around this time, the Avalanche developed a titanic rivalry with the Detroit Red Wings, the other dominant Western Conference team of the age. The two teams faced off in the playoffs five times from 1996 to 2002, with Colorado winning three of those matchups.
But by the 2005-06 season things had changed. The core of the championship lineups had gone – whether by trade or retirement – and the newly implemented NHL salary cap had forced Colorado to let go of a lot of its top talent. That season saw the Avalanche get swept in the second round of the playoffs by the Anaheim Mighty Ducks. In 2007 the Avs failed to qualify for postseason play for the first time ever (while at the same time becoming the first ever team to miss the playoffs despite amassing 95 points). Some free agent acquisitions helped boost the team back to postseason play for 2007-08, but the bottom fell out for Colorado the following season as they finished third-last in the league's regular season standings.
The next few years were a rebuilding phase for this franchise. This usually means a bunch of sub-par showings and the Avalanche's record during this time was no exception. Between 2009 and 2017 the team only qualified for the playoffs twice, despite a division championship resurgence in 2013-14 under their new head coach Patrick Roy. He resigned two years later. And yet during this time Colorado was slowly assembling a team of talented young guns, taking full advantage of its favourable draft picks: Gabriel Landeskog in 2011, Nathan MacKinnon in 2013, Mikko Rantanen in 2015, and Cale Makar in 2017. Add to that some wise trades deals – Nazem Kadri in 2019 and Darcy Kuemper in 2021 – and you've got a high-scoring, competitive team that had no problem returning to playoff glory. This team, which hasn't missed the postseason since 2017, finished with the NHL's best regular season record in 2020-21 and won its third Stanley Cup championship the following year.
In its twenty-six seasons the Colorado Avalanche have eleven division championships, eighteen playoff appearances, and three Stanley Cup finals appearances, all of which ended in victory.
Today this article will pay tribute to the best players that this franchise has to offer throughout its history since 1995. Only players' achievements during their time with Colorado will be considered for this roster and they must have played a minimum of 240 games with this team to have qualified (sorry, Cale Makar). Let's begin.
Forwards
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| L-R: Forsberg, Sakic, MacKinnon |
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Left Wing |
Centre |
Right Wing |
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Alex Tanguay (1999-2006, 2013-16) |
Joe Sakic (1995-2009) |
Mikko Rantanen (2015-present) |
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Gabriel Landeskog (2011-present) |
Peter Forsberg (1995-2004, 2008-11) |
Milan Hejduk (1998-2013) |
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Valeri Kamensky (1995-99) |
Nathan MacKinnon (2013-present) |
Claude Lemieux (1995-99) |
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Cody McLeod (2007-17) |
Ryan O'Reilly (2009-15) |
Dan Hinote (1999-2006) |
First line: top scorers only. First we've got Alex Tanguay the 5-time 20 goal scorer (and 4x60 points). Next to him is all-time franchise points leader Joe Sakic with 1015 total points, two 50-goal seasons, and three 100-point seasons. (Joe Sakic was previously chosen for my all-time Quebec Nordiques team.) Rounding out the first line is the point-per-game playmaker Miko Rantanen who so far has thrice managed 55+ assists. On the second scoring line is the sniper Milan Hejduk with three 30-goal seasons (including one season with 50 tallies). His linemates are the gritty, two-way player Gabriel Landeskog (8x50 points) and unstoppable set-up man Peter Forsberg (0.92 assist per game, 1.30 points per game) who was one of the greatest forwards of his time. As for the third line we have the Avs current career points leader Nathan MacKinnon fresh off his fourth 80+ point season (1.31 points per game in the past five seasons). On his left is Valeri Kamensky, a vital component of the 1996 championship team (3x65 points), and on his right is everyone's (least) favourite pest Claude Lemieux. On the final line there's enforcer Cody McLeod, two-way expert Ryan O'Reilly (3x50 points), and penalty killer Dan Hinote.
Honourable mentions: Matt Duchene, Ian Laperriere, Paul Stastny, Stephane Yelle
Defencemen
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| L-R: Ozolinsh, Foote |
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Rob Blake (2001-06) |
Adam Foote (1995-2004, 2008-11) |
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Tyson Barrie (2012-19) |
Sandis Ozolinsh (1995-2000) |
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Greg de Vries (1998-2003) |
Erik Johnson (2011-present) |
This all-time team's defensive corps is headlined by the tough and dependable Adam Foote (only three full seasons with a negative +/-) and Rob Blake, playmaker (averaged 37 assists per season) and world-class checker. (Adam Foote was previously selected for my all-time Nordiques team as well.) On the next pair is a couple more d-men who were capable of chipping in offensively: Tyson Barrie (averaged 39 assists per season) and Sandis Ozolinsh (4x50 point seasons, only one negative +/- season). The third pairing provides some stay-at-home toughness on the blueline from the likes of de Vries and Johnson.
Honourable mentions: Alexei Gusarov, Jon Klemm, Nikita Zadorov
Goaltenders
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| Roy |
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Patrick Roy (1995-2003) |
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Semyon Varlamov (2011-18) |
No contest here. St. Patrick was my pick as best Canadiens' goalie of all-time (September 2021) and he's easily the best Avalanche goalie of all-time too. In his seven full seasons in Colorado Roy never played less than 60 games, never won less than 31 games, never had a save percentage of less than 0.913, and recorded 34 shutouts. He was selected to play in five all-star games and was named playoff MVP in 2001. As far as Colorado hockey history goes, no one else comes close.
