Jared Bednar has been answering questions about the positives and negatives of playing his superstar forwards, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen, together versus apart, for several seasons.
The start to this season offers the same potential storyline, but with a twist: The Colorado Avalanche will start the 2024-25 campaign without Valeri Nichushkin and Gabe Landeskog and is likely to be short Artturi Lehkonen as well.
To this point in training camp, MacKinnon, Rantanen and Jonathan Drouin have skated together every day.
“It’s a good question. Which one gives you more value?” Bednar asked. “You break up your top line if it’s not as effective and you gain some on the second line. Does that help you or hurt you? Especially with three top-six wingers out of the lineup.”
Bednar’s recent history suggests he wants to be a “load up the top line” coach in these types of situations. MacKinnon played 83.9% of his 5-on-5 minutes with Rantanen last season. He spent more time on the ice at evens with Rantanen than No. 1 goalie Alexandar Georgiev.
Both players were healthy for much of the season and thrived despite a changing lineup around them. MacKinnon collected a pair of league MVP trophies, and Rantanen topped 100 points for a second straight year.
MacKinnon and Rantanen played more together last year than in 2022-23, but Drouin’s breakout campaign made this a formidable trio. Retaining Drouin was the club’s biggest move in the offseason, and he should be a big part of how the Avs try to stay afloat until the other top guns return.
“He didn’t have the start he wanted (last year), but for the last three quarters of the year he was an animal,” Avs forward Logan O’Connor said. “I think he became a security blanket for us. He’s a nice complement for Nate and Mikko because of his poise with the puck and playmaking ability. Then he finds his 200-foot game and (Bednar’s) trust in him now is massive, considering the guys we are missing to start the year.”
If the Avs begin the season with MacKinnon between Drouin and Rantanen, opposing teams will obviously do all that they can to load up their top defensive players to slow them down. Even if the top trio excels, Colorado is going to need contributions from the second line.
Who plays on that line to start the season, outside of center Casey Mittelstadt, and how it goes, could be the biggest storyline of the first few months of the season. For now, Bednar has opted against Mittelstadt’s help from above or below the depth chart.
The Avs’ go-to third line — Ross Colton between Miles Wood and O’Connor — has also been a staple of camp practices.
“(Mittelstadt) has been playing with different guys because that’s a question mark,” Bednar said. “If we can’t find someone to fit into his line after six exhibition games and umpteen practices, then it could be (O’Connor), etc., and we’ll have to fill in below with other guys that fit the mold of what we’re looking for in the bottom six.
“With a long training camp, I’d like to give some guys who played in a top-six role in the American League or wherever they came from an opportunity to play a top-six role. If they can’t get anything done, then we’ll have to adjust and change our strategy.”
To that end, it’s been an eclectic mix of players skating next to Mittlestadt in practices. Jere Innala was a free-agent signing who was Frolunda’s co-leading goal scorer in the Swedish Hockey League last season before exploding with 11 more in 14 playoff games. Calum Ritchie is the club’s top prospect, a first-round pick in 2023 who must either stick with the Avs or return to his OHL team.
Joel Kiviranta and Nikolai Kovalenko, both guys who are probably better suited to play in a bottom-six NHL role, have gotten looks as well. Kovalenko was an offensive driver for his team in the KHL and could provide Mittelstadt’s line with a mix of skill and jam.
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None of the Avs’ top offensive guys have played in a preseason game yet, and there’s still time for plans to change. Once Lehkonen returns, he can slot in next to Mittelstadt. And then it could be a race between Nichushkin and Landeskog to see who is ready to play first.
But for now, it seems clear: Bednar would like two guys to play well enough to earn a spot next to Mittelstadt and keep his battle-tested top offensive trio together.
“In an ideal world, we’d like someone to step in there and be able to play with (Mittelstadt),” Bednar said. “It’s a second-line role. It’s where a lot of kids play when they come into the league. We’ll see if somebody can do that. If not, we have the option to break them up if we need to.
“It’s a good line, though. Sometimes you’ve got to rely on your top guys and this might be one of those years where you’ve got to do it right out of the gate.”
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