Identify the value in Sam Malinski’s production, evaluate Gabriel Landeskog’s high-stakes return, and navigate the risks of Colorado’s star-studded roster to secure your fantasy hockey title.
The countdown to puck drop is on, training camps are underway and fantasy hockey draft season is officially here. After an offseason packed with blockbuster trades, splashy signings and significant roster changes, teams are beginning to take shape and now it’s time to figure out what those moves mean for fantasy managers.
We’re going team by team, identifying a sleeper to keep on your radar, a breakout candidate primed to make a leap and a bust whose draft-day price could be too steep. Next up: the Colorado Avalanche.
Colorado put together one of the best regular seasons in franchise history, finishing 55-16-11 for a franchise-record 121 points and capturing the Presidents' Trophy behind an MVP-caliber year from Nathan MacKinnon, who led the league with 53 goals, 74 assists and 127 points.
The dominance came to an abrupt end in the Western Conference Final, where Colorado was swept in four games by the Vegas Golden Knights, who went on to lose to the Carolina Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup Final. With MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Martin Necas still forming one of the league's most dangerous cores, Colorado enters the year with a clear goal in mind of a Stanley Cup.
Sleeper: Sam Malinski
Through his first 36 games last season, the 28-year-old Minnesota native was a standout on offense, racking up 18 points while averaging just under 16 minutes of ice time heading into the Christmas break. After the holidays, Colorado finally gave him a real opportunity, bumping his ice time past 19 minutes a night, and Malinski kept producing, adding 22 points over his final 46 games.
It was a breakout year, which raises the question of how much further he can realistically climb. Some outlets are skeptical, ranking him outside the top 240 picks and expecting a step back, with his average draft position sitting around 140th, behind names like Devon Toews and Brent Burns, both of whom finished with fewer points than Malinski did last season.
Burns is aging and Toews should bounce back, but neither fact erases what Malinski accomplished. With Toews and Makar anchoring the top pairing, Malinski should continue to shoulder heavy minutes on the second unit alongside Brett Kulak, and there's little reason to think he can't sustain last year's 0.50 points-per-game pace, which would make him a 40-plus point player again. All signs point to Malinski being a bargain compared to the defensemen going ahead of him.
Breakout: Gabriel Landeskog
The story of Landeskog's return to the ice shouldn't be lost on anyone. The longtime Avalanche captain, still just 33, is back after years of battling injuries, and with a full offseason of training behind him, he has a real chance to rebuild toward his old form.
Even in a limited return last season, he posted 35 points in 60 games, a pace that projects to just short of 50 points over a full slate. Fully healthy and likely to see heavier minutes, Landeskog could return to being a near point-per-game player, yet he's going near the back of most drafts, around 137th overall on average, with some outlets ranking him as low as 166th.
With top-six minutes and a spot on the top power-play unit alongside MacKinnon and Makar all but guaranteed, Landeskog looks poised to remind people quickly just how good he can be, and to blow past last season's total in short order.
Bust: Scott Wedgewood
At 34 and entering the final year of his contract, expectations are sky-high for Wedgewood after a spectacular season that saw him post a 31-6-6 record, a 2.02 goals-against average and a .921 save percentage, numbers worthy of Vezina consideration.
That's landed him as high as a top-seven goaltender on some boards, with an average draft position to match around 53rd overall. The concern is age as Wedgewood is heading into his mid-30s, a stretch where goaltenders typically start to decline, even if recent exceptions like Sergei Bobrovsky's late-30s Stanley Cup runs complicate that narrative.
More pressing is the crowded crease in Colorado, where Wedgewood will split time with the younger, capable MacKenzie Blackwood, who could easily take over the starting job if Wedgewood slips at all.
Between the job-security questions, his age and an inflated ranking, Wedgewood looks overpriced next to safer options like Jeremy Swayman, breakout candidate Brandon Bussi, and Jacob Markstrom, who hasn't been at his best in recent years but offers far more stability, all three of whom come off the board rounds later at a much better value.
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