Notebook: Is This Avalanche Season Worth Saving?

Coming out of the 4 Nations Face-Off break, the hope was that a two-week reset would be beneficial for several players who have been struggling. Specifically, the eight forwards not named Nathan MacKinnon, Artturi Lehkonen, Martin Necas, and Jonathan Drouin.

That hasn’t been the case. And once again, the game plan to beat the Avs is simple: Shut down the top line and you’ll probably only need two goals to win — if not one.

The Avalanche came out of the break looking to build off of a 4-1-0 record in their last five games. The competition facing them was the 30th-place Nashville Predators and a mediocre St. Louis Blues team also on the outside of the playoff picture. They had an opportunity to win two easy games and head home feeling pretty well ahead of a six-game homestand and the upcoming trade deadline.

Instead, They lost 2-1 in Nashville and 3-1 in St. Louis. In both games, Colorado scored first. But each time, the opposition got back in it, scored once, then added another, and held onto the lead the rest of the way.

As for those aforementioned forwards, the eight of them combined for one assist in two games — a secondary helper from Juuso Parssinen on the Sam Malinski goal against the Preds.

“I think every single guy on this team, we gotta prove to management that this should be a group that they invest in,” Cale Makar told reporters following Sunday’s loss. “If we keep having games like this, it’s going to be hard for them to justify it.”

It’s already been 20 games since the Avs’ season high six-game winning streak came to an end on Jan. 4 against the Montreal Canadiens. This was two nights after Colorado made its second miraculous comeback of the season against Buffalo.

The vibes were immaculate back then. But not so much anymore.

The Avalanche are 9-9-2 since that Sabres game — all of which were played without Valeri Nichushkin. And that in itself is a problem. It’s well-documented that Colorado’s record with Nichushkin is miles ahead of how they look without him. But both his physical and personal issues have made it hard to rely on him.

Having him back in the lineup, perhaps as early as Tuesday, would be a massive boost. There’s no denying that.

But is it enough?

Casey Mittelstadt has a goal and six assists in this 20-game stretch. He leads all depth forwards with seven points. Parssinen is next, scoring two goals and adding 4 assists. The rest of the group has four or fewer points.

Logan O’Connor and Parker Kelly have two goals and two assists in 20 games.

Ross Colton and Joel Kiviranta have a goal and two assists in 20 games.

Miles Wood has zero points in nine games — missing the other 11 because of an injury.

Jack Drury has two goals in 10 games since the trade.

Seven AHL call-ups played a combined 21 games and didn’t produce a single point

This isn't the same offense fans have been used to seeing.

"I think it's something we have to understand – we're not this high-flying, high powered offense anymore, that we have to do other things better than we had to do in the past," Bednar said. https://t.co/6YKEOCNIBI

— Evan Rawal (@evanrawal) February 24, 2025

Missing Nichushkin or not, having that many forwards produce so little offense isn’t going to win you a lot of games.

MacKinnon has done all he can to carry this team. He still leads the league in points, but 23 points in 20 games is low for his standard. He’s being asked to do too much — more than in years past.

Drouin has 15 points in 19 games and Lehkonen has 14 points (nine goals) in 20 games. Necas has nine in 10 games, replacing Mikko Rantanen, who had eight in his last 10 games. Even Rantanen had a bit of burnout before he was dealt. He, too, was being asked to carry a bigger load than usual.

Can all of this be solved before the trade deadline? Maybe. But it would require multiple trades and a lot of gutsy moves to find the right mix of forwards to get consistent depth scoring.

It’s not that every one of them needs to be shipped out of town. It’s that whoever comes in needs to fit into the mix and find instant chemistry. There are only four games left before the trade deadline and just 19 remaining after that before the playoffs begin.

Basically, there isn’t a lot of time to figure it all out.

At some point, the front office needs to come to terms with the fact that perhaps this isn’t the year to sell off assets to go for the Stanley Cup.

Before general manager Chris MacFarland quickly remade his goaltending tandem, he didn’t quite have a strong track record when maneuvering in desperation.

Maybe the goalie trades can be replicated to fix this issue. If not, the 2024-25 Avs are doomed.

Especially when you consider that the defense needs help, too.

So I ask: Is this Avalanche season worth saving?