Post-Mortem: Who Will Be The Colorado Avalanche's GM And Coach After Sweep?

For most of this season – and the Stanley Cup playoffs' first two rounds – the Colorado Avalanche were world-beaters.

They won the Presidents' Trophy as the NHL's best regular-season team. They swept the Los Angeles Kings in the first round. In the second round, they eliminated a very strong Minnesota Wild squad.

But in the Western Conference final, Colorado was smoked by the Vegas Golden Knights, losing in a sweep that saw them thoroughly beaten, bruised and demoralized.

The way Colorado fell apart in the Western Conference final raises questions about who the coach will be next season and whether one bad week should prompt major changes.

In the playoffs, Colorado ranked sixth in power-play percentage, 10th in penalty-kill percentage, seventh in faceoff percentage and eighth in goals-against average. When you don't win special-teams areas, and you don't defend well, it's no wonder you're eventually sent home for the summer.

Starter Scott Wedgewood wasn't on his A-game against the Knights, either. He allowed nine goals over three games and had an .877 save percentage. Mackenzie Blackwood kept Colorado in Game 4 with a .929 save percentage, but that was too little, too late.

Colorado also didn't get the offensive contributions from throughout their lineup that the Knights did.

Artturi Lehkonen was held off the scoresheet completely against Vegas, as was center Brock Nelson, who had just three playoff points this year, and center Nicolas Roy.

Left winger Valeri Nichushkin had one point in three games and missed Game 4, Nathan MacKinnon had two assists in four games, and Cale Makar had no points in two games.

The Avalanche were physically battered, and not having superstars Nathan MacKinnon and Makar at 100 percent didn't help them. Makar missed the first two games, while MacKinnon briefly left Game 3 but played Game 4.

Makar's year ended on a six-game points drought. We'll get an injury update on Makar now that Colorado's season is over, but suffice it to say, he wasn't himself this post-season.

In sum, the Avs couldn't rely on Makar, MacKinnon and star forwards Martin Necas and Gabriel Landeskog to do all the heavy lifting. Their depth contributors didn't contribute enough, and a veteran Vegas squad made short work of them in one of the most shocking NHL developments in recent memory.

If it were the cold-blooded Golden Knights that folded like a cheap tent as Colorado did in the Western final, Vegas GM Kelly McCrimmon would make extensive changes.

Whether it's firing coach Jared Bednar – who has been on the job in Denver since August 2016 – or making a major roster change, the Avs must do something of consequence to keep up with the Joneses in the highly competitive Central Division.

But Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman is speculating that Avalanche GM Chris MacFarland could be a logical target for the Nashville Predators as their president of hockey operations.

That would be different than MacFarland's current situation underneath Avs president of hockey operations Joe Sakic. So the opportunity for MacFarland – one of three finalists for the Jim Gregory GM of the Year Award – to have the final say might prove sufficiently attractive enough for him to leave the Avs for the Predators.

If that opportunity is really available to MacFarland, he must make a decision quickly, because there are plenty of other decisions to make in Colorado.

Most of Colorado's players are under contract for the 2026-27 season, as pending RFA Jack Drury and UFA defensemen Brent Burns and Brett Kulak are the Avs' only prominent pending free agents. But they are projected to have only about $2.9 million in salary cap space, so if MacFarland – or whoever is running the team – intends on making material changes, they're almost certainly going to come via trades.

The chance to play alongside MacKinnon and Makar will make the Avalanche an attractive destination for players – even those who have some form of no-trade or no-move protection. We saw that this year when Nazem Kadri was traded from the Calgary Flames to the Avs despite having a 13-team no-trade list.

So Avs brass must shake the trees to see if there are trades that make sense to change up their roster. Perhaps that leads to improving the power play that struggled for most of the season, or perhaps they move out some underperforming players to make space for upgrades. Nichushkin only recording 17 goals and 49 points in 72 games is a good enough case to consider shopping him, for example.

That said, Colorado's wheeling and dealing has left it with little in the way of trade capital. In the first three rounds of the next three drafts, the Avs have one second-round pick in 2027 and one third-rounder in 2028. The Avalanche's cupboards are now bare, and MacFarland will have to be creative if he's going to shake up his lineup.

If the Avs think the roster is fine for now, then the focus returns to the coaching staff.

At one point, Bednar looked like one of the coaches of the year for leading the Avs on red-hot stretches during the regular season. They scored the most goals this season and allowed the fewest, so naturally, the coach deserves part of the credit for that.

But since winning the Stanley Cup in 2022, the Avalanche haven't gotten back to the final and won three rounds in four seasons. For a roster as strong as the Avalanche's, that's not enough success.

The Avalanche will be a playoff team next year, and they're a very good bet to finish in one of the Central's top two spots. But the challenge for Sakic & Co. now is transforming this core into two-time Stanley Cup champions and a potential dynasty.

The Avalanche can't accept the status quo, but they've also got to be careful not to mess up the good thing they've got going in Denver. It's a delicate balance, but the Avs have to navigate the waters in their division and hope for better luck on the health front at this time next year.

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