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Authored By: Adrian Rosati

The Presidents’ Trophy winners from last season are saddling up for another season of Central Division domination.

With one of the best forwards in the game right now in Nathan MacKinnon and the best defenseman in the world in Cale Makar, what else does Colorado need to win? You have the elevation advantage, the championship pedigree, and a group that has already shown it can dominate during the regular season.

With MacKinnon, Martin Necas, Devon Toews and Cale Makar locked up through 2031, the window is now before the team gets older and misses its mark.

Major Moves for Colorado This Offseason

Additions:

• F Jaden Schwartz — Signed as a UFA
• D Brent Burns — Signed as a UFA
• G Magnus Chrona — Acquired via trade from Nashville

Subtractions:

• F Valeri Nichushkin — Traded to Columbus
• F Ross Colton — Traded to Nashville
• F Jack Drury — Traded to Nashville
• F Ivan Ivan — Traded to Boston

Evaluation of the Offseason

Since the goaltending and defense have remained relatively unchanged, there isn’t much to say on that front. Burns slots in as the final right-shot defenseman, according to PuckPedia.

With his contract being contingent on bonuses, this feels more like one final hurrah. He’ll likely play a handful of games before eventually retiring as an Avalanche.

The defense core is stacked coming off a 50-plus-win season. Give me more of this back end.

Moving up front, that’s where the major moves have been made.

A full season of Nazem Kadri is primed to make a team that started out on a roll — where they basically never lost — even better.

Jaden Schwartz is the wildcard for Colorado. He’s coming off an injury-riddled season in which he put up 26 points in 50 games. His career high was 63 points in 2014-15 with St. Louis.

Schwartz has been up and down throughout his career, primarily because of injuries. His most recent near-full season, two years ago, resulted in 49 points. He’s also put up 50-plus points in a handful of seasons throughout his career.

Can he produce on the second line? GM Joe Sakic is betting on it.

The biggest loss is Nichushkin. He’s coming off 49 points in 72 games and, from a production standpoint, Schwartz could potentially replace him.

Nichushkin was also part of the Avalanche’s 2022 championship team, but his biggest issue has been staying available. So, to replace one wildcard with another, this feels like a relatively fair deal.

Ross Colton put up 24 points last year, so this is more of a depth-scoring loss on the fourth line than anything else. Jack Drury is a similar type of player to Colton in the sense that he provides depth scoring.

Overall, there were no major moves required for the Presidents’ Trophy holders, and Colorado largely accomplished exactly what it needed to do: maintain the core.

The First 10 Games

The Avalanche open their season Wednesday, September 30, 2026, at home against the Los Angeles Kings at 10:00 p.m. ET.

As Darryl Sutter once said while coaching the Flames a few years back, “Whoever plays Colorado, it’s a waste of eight days,” when discussing Colorado as a potential first-round opponent.

That’s this home opener for the Kings in a nutshell. It’s a scheduled loss as the hardcore fans would say.

Ironically enough, Sutter also previously coached the Kings!

Their first five games are a breeze, with all due respect to the respective teams: Kings, Blues, Jets, Flames and Leafs.

That’s five straight wins to start the year in my estimation.

Then they have a home-and-home against Dallas, which could be where they falter. The Stars are certainly no joke, so I’d imagine Colorado probably splits those two games.

Then they close out against the Penguins, Flyers and Devils.

The Penguins are aging and likely present a good opportunity for another win. Same with the Flyers, who I expect to regress this season.

The Devils are the wildcard. If they’re good, this could easily be a loss.

I’d imagine Colorado probably loses that game for an 8-2 start.

It’s hard to say one team is so good that they can simply cruise through a schedule like this, but we’re literally talking about a team that was 30-10 at one point last season. They can go on massive runs, and I expect that to continue this upcoming season.

My Prediction?

No surprise here: the Avalanche are winning the Central Division, and no one is knocking them off the Presidents’ Trophy pedestal.

As we just went over, they lost some third- and fourth-line depth scoring. However, with the addition of Kadri, the return of key pieces and the defense remaining intact, Colorado is still the class of the Central. With Makar’s contract solved this offseason that’s a huge thing off the table instead of being a season long distraction.

Until someone proves otherwise, this is Colorado’s division to lose.