The Colorado Avalanche can tick off just about every item on the Stanley Cup contender checklist.
World-class skill, led by the reigning league MVP? Elite team speed? One of the deepest defense corps, fronted by arguably the best of his generation? Cup-winning experience?
It’s all there, although with every discussion about the 2024-25 Avalanche, this comes with a $13 million caveat about the two big names whose eventual impact is a mystery.
Speaking of size — are the Avs too small? It’s a simple question with a complex answer.
“I don’t know. I mean, size isn’t everything,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “I think it kind of depends on how guys play. We’ve got some smaller guys on our team that play really hard and play bigger than their size. We want everyone to sort of play that way, with a certain amount of ability to play in traffic and play through tough situations, which is what you’re going to see come playoff time.”
Marcus Antonelli (@Marcussi_MA on X, formerly known as Twitter) compiled a ranking of every NHL’s average weight earlier this month, and the Avalanche ranked last at 192 pounds. There are some caveats here: the precise weights of NHL players fluctuates a lot more frequently than gets updated on the league’s website, the rosters were not set in early September, etc.
But the Avalanche are definitely going to grade out on the lower end of any ranking like this. A projected Avs roster, including Artturi Lehkonen but not Gabe Landeskog and Valeri Nichushkin, has an average weight of 190.38 pounds. Adding Landeskog and Nichushkin makes it 192.47 pounds.
“I definitely think there is a place in the game for some size, and I think you need some heavy bodies out there,” said Josh Manson, the Avs’ heaviest defenseman at 215 pounds. “The way our team is built is for speed, and I think when our game is playing at that fast level, it can make it really hard to keep up.
“We have weight in our top six. I don’t know if other teams have bigger ‘D’ and that kind of inflates it a little bit maybe.”
Colorado is likely to be a bit smaller than the Avalanche were at the end of last season, especially without Nichushkin. The Avs had a Cup-contending roster in February, but felt they could use a size boost, particularly among their depth forwards. So they traded for Yakov Trenin and Brandon Duhaime, not just for some extra beef but also for the tenacious, physical brand of hockey both guys are known for.
Trenin, Duhaime and Jack Johnson are gone. Calvin de Haan is going to play a similar style of game to Johnson, but weighs 35 pounds less. None of Erik Brannstrom, Oliver Kylington or Sam Malinski are going to make the Avs heavier on defense.
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“You see in the playoffs that a lot of teams bulk up and stuff like that,” de Haan said. “But I mean, playing defense is all about getting the puck out of the zone and getting it to your forwards. I don’t think it’s only about size.”
Size inevitably becomes a talking point for every highly-skilled team in the NHL. Two things can be true at the same time: 1) the league has changed, and it has allowed smaller, skilled players to thrive with more regularity, and 2) every team still craves bigger, skilled players.
There is room for a 5-foot-10, 170-pound forward to excel, but a guy who is 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds with a similar skill level is still going to be the more coveted, and likely more valuable, player.
Bednar is also correct about having guys who play bigger than their listed weight might indicate. Logan O’Connor, listed at 175 pounds, and Artturi Lehkonen, at 179, are two of the lightest guys on the roster. Every team in the league wants more players who play like Lehkonen and O’Connor, not fewer.
“You would probably have to look at the past champions and where they rank,” Mikko Rantanen said. “I don’t how (heavy) we were when we won (in 2022) and how that compares to now. I don’t think it affects things in the regular season, but playoffs might be a little different. I feel like they’re always heavier teams, but I’m not sure. I felt like Florida was a pretty heavy team.”
The 2022 Avalanche playoff roster averaged 198.67 pounds. Players like Erik Johnson, Jack Johnson, Andre Burakovsky and Nico Sturm, all at 209 pounds or more, are no longer around.
Florida, the defending champs, was tied for 27th on Antonelli’s list at 194 pounds, but the Panthers are also smaller now than they were for Game 7 of the Cup Final. Their playoff roster checked in at 199.35, with several guys at 200-plus off to new clubs.
So why might this matter? As Rantanen noted, it won’t in the regular season. But the Avs aren’t striving for regular-season success.
There were points during the Dallas series in May when the Stars were able to grind out long offensive possessions against the Avalanche. Everyone thought the Jets would try to slow down the Avs, but the Stars actually were able to.
“They had some obviously big guys, but they’re big guys that know how to hold on to the puck,” Manson said. “It’s not just, ‘Oh, they’re just big guys.’ They know how to lean on pucks and they had big ‘D.’ They were kind of built for that game.
“It definitely makes it harder on us to transition our game into the offensive zone when they’re holding onto pucks down low. It kind of tires you out, right? We kind of lose that flow of the game. But that’s not to say that just because they’re big guys, I think they were a skilled group, too.”
Not having Jonathan Drouin at the start and losing Nichushkin the day of Game 4 obviously had a huge impact on the series, but the Avs would have also needed to knock off the Edmonton Oilers and the Panthers to win the Cup.
Take a look at the landscape as this season begins, and many of the same teams could be in Colorado’s path. Just like the Avs, Florida and Dallas are both a little smaller on Sept. 22 than they were in May, but no one expects any of those teams to alter the way that they play.
So are the Avs “too small?” They might be, right now. As with everything this season, check back in January or February, once the club has a better handle on what Nichushkin and Landeskog are going to contribute.
But also don’t be surprised if the Avs are in the market for a bigger body or two before the trade deadline, either.
“It’s all about how you work,” defenseman Samuel Girard said. “I think we’re a team that is going to work hard. I think that’s going to be the identity of our team – a team that works hard, a fast team and we play smart. We work hard. I don’t think size will really matter that much.”
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