Are The Avalanche Addicted To Nostalgia Instead Of Progress?

It’s a fair question to ask. Since winning the Stanley Cup in 2022, the Colorado Avalanche have been trying to recapture not just a championship formula—but the feeling that came with it.

After lifting the franchise’s third title, Joe Sakic stepped out of the general manager role and moved into President of Hockey Operations, handing day-to-day control to Chris MacFarland. It was a structured succession plan on paper, designed to sustain a contending window that was already beginning to narrow.

Now, following MacFarland’s departure to the Nashville Predators, the Avalanche are once again leaning on Sakic to steady the organization.

On the surface, Colorado didn’t want to lose MacFarland. But his tenure ends up as something of a mixed ledger. He was aggressive in trying to extend the window, moving draft capital and prospects for immediate help while reshaping the roster on the fly. Some of it worked. Some of it didn’t. And by the time the Avalanche reached the Western Conference Final, the flaws were hard to miss—especially a defense that lacked bite and a forward group that simply got overwhelmed physically in a four-game sweep.

That series didn’t just expose weaknesses. It confirmed them.

Colorado did make an effort to retain MacFarland, reportedly presenting counteroffers to keep him from leaving. Whether those offers were truly competitive or more about optics depends on who you ask. But in today’s NHL, perception matters almost as much as execution.

Still, if the Avalanche were fully committed to keeping him, they likely would have.

And so the organization turns again toward familiarity.

There’s a pattern here that’s hard to ignore. Colorado has repeatedly reached back into its past rather than fully pivoting forward. The return of Nazem Kadri is one example. At 35, he was brought back in hopes of injecting life into a power play that had long stretches of inconsistency. There were moments where it clicked—but the same issues resurfaced when the games tightened in the postseason.

The same theme showed up with Erik Johnson. Brought back late in 2025, Johnson returned to the organization where he spent more than a decade and helped anchor the 2022 Cup run. His presence carried emotional weight, but his role on the ice was limited. It raised a simple question: was this about what he still brought—or what he once meant?

Johnson’s legacy in Colorado is secure. He’s one of the most important defensemen in franchise history and a key part of that championship group. But late-career reunions rarely fix structural problems.

Now, with Sakic stepping back into a more active role, the question becomes unavoidable: is this a reset—or another swing at recapturing something that already happened?

Because the league has changed since 2022. So has the Western Conference. And so has the margin for error.

According to PuckPedia, Colorado entered that championship season with close to $20 million in cap space. Today, they’re working with just a fraction of that—under $3 million. The flexibility simply isn’t there anymore. If the Avalanche want meaningful change, it’s going to have to come through trades, not tweaks.

And the pipeline isn’t overflowing either. Mikhail Gulyayev, a first-round pick in 2023, is still developing, but he’s coming off a difficult season in the KHL with Avangard Omsk—finishing with just three points in 54 games after typically producing closer to 20 in prior years. He missed time, yes, but the drop-off still raised eyebrows.

So this isn’t the same Avalanche team that could simply patch a hole and push again. The margins are thinner now. The options are fewer.

Which is why the coaching and playoff results loom even larger.

Under Jared Bednar, Colorado’s postseason identity in tight series has become harder to ignore. When they can dictate play, they look dominant. When they can’t, the adjustments don’t always come fast enough—and the series tend to slip away.

It’s also become notable that in every playoff series under Bednar that has been tied 2-2, the Avalanche have not gone on to win. In those moments where a best-of-seven becomes a best-of-three, Colorado has consistently failed to seize control.

The pattern has shown up repeatedly—against Dallas, Seattle, and most recently Vegas, where they were swept after being neutralized through the middle of the ice and worn down physically.

Coming out of the Minnesota series, Colorado looked like it was peaking at the right time. Instead, everything changed in a matter of days. What looked like a Stanley Cup path turned into a collapse.

And yet the organization largely kept everything intact, framing it as a “bad week” rather than a structural issue. That decision, more than anything, now sits at the center of where they are.

So the question becomes less about nostalgia in a literal sense, and more about comfort. Familiar names. Familiar structure. Familiar belief that the core is still close enough.

But is it?

Or is this just the slow realization that the version of the Avalanche that won in 2022 might not exist anymore?

Because if it doesn’t, delaying that truth doesn’t make it easier when it finally arrives.