Despite a first-round exit from the playoffs, things are looking up for the Avalanche.
The Avalanche’s 22nd season ended with a thud — a 5-0 firstround playoff loss to Nashville at home. Make no mistake, that’s not what these Avs — the NHL’S youngest team — will be remembered for in Year 1 of the club’s socalled rebuild.
Too many unsuspecting but welcome events took place for that to be the case — making Colorado’s past season a resounding success, no matter the sour ending.
Of note:
• The Avs made the playoffs for the first time in four years, and for just the third time in the past 10 years.
• The Avs were the NHL’S only team to produce a 10-game winning streak, as well as take 10 straight at home.
• The Avs finished the regular season with 95 points, a 47-point jump from the previous season — tied for the fourth-best year-toyear improvement in league history.
• The Avs were highly entertaining and dominant at the Pepsi Center, finishing with 28 wins — tying the 2000-01 Stanley Cupwinning team for the most home victories in team history.
• The Avs nearly took the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Nashville Predators the distance in their first-round playoff series.
After that 5-0 loss, in Game 6 at the Pepsi Center last Sunday, Avalanche players mixed their disappointment with excitement about next season in virtually every sentence.
“I thought we did a really good job in this series to push them to the limit,” said forward J.T. Compher, one of the Avs’ six rookies who played in Game 6 and among nine first-year players on the roster. “That’s a good hockey team, and they played really well. But I think everyone is pretty proud of this group and how we came together to get to this point.”
Individually, center Nathan Mackinnon, right wing Mikko Rantanen and rookie defenseman Sam Girard laid a strong foundation for longtime stardom. Mackinnon, in particular, showed what Hockey Hall of Fame forwards Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg used to look like in an Avs sweater. Mackinnon — who, at age 22, was named last week a finalist for both the Hart Trophy, for league MVP, and the Ted Lindsay Award, for best player in the regular season as voted on by the players association — finished with 97 points in just 74 regular-season games, the most since Sakic recorded 100 points in 82 games in 2006-07.
Sakic and Forsberg are Colorado’s only Hart Trophy winners.
Rantanen, 21, is the Avs’ most exciting right winger since Milan Hejduk, and Girard is simply a freak of nature at 5-foot-10, 162 pounds. At 19, Girard could serve a valuable role as a puck-moving defenseman for 15 years. Despite his lack of size, he’s lauded for his speed and spin move.
The expected growth of Compher and fellow rookie forwards Tyson Jost, Alex Kerfoot, Dominic Toninato and Vladislav Kamenev also gives coach Jared Bednar — a Jack Adams Trophy finalist as coach of the year — plenty of young talent to work with.
“A lot of positives, for sure,” Mackinnon said of the season. “Definitely a lot of people didn’t see us in this position coming into the season. Everybody thought we weren’t going to make it, thought we’d be the oddteam out in the west. Obviously, it’s nice to prove people wrong and have a good, young team going forward. I thought we showed a lot of fight this season, a lot of adversity that we overcame. Hopefully, we can use some of that next season.”
Girard has become the gem of the Nov. 5 three-team trade involving center Matt Duchene — a move that eliminated a disgruntled player from the Avs’ locker room and added a wealth of young talent and draft picks. Kamenev came over with Girard from Nashville, and in addition to obtaining three high draft picks in the trade, Colorado acquired 2017 first-round draft pick Shane Bowers from Ottawa, and the Senators threw in veteran goalie Andrew Hammond as part of the deal. Bowers, an 18-yearold forward, recently finished his freshman year at Boston University.
In hindsight, Colorado would have been pleased simply to get Girard straight up for Duchene.
“When I got traded here I was happy to be here, with this young group,” Girard said. “They gave me a lot of ice time, a lot of confidence, and I’m pretty happy with how they used me and very excited to come back next year. I think we’re proud, and I know we’re going to work hard this summer and really get off to a good start.”
With the return of so many good young players, several other key players might have played their final games with the Avs.
Forwards Blake Comeau and Gabriel Bourque, defensemen Mark Barberio and Mark Alt, and goalies Jonathan Bernier and Hammond are unrestricted free agents.
Forwards Carl Soderberg ($4.75 million salary) and Colin Wilson ($3.93 million) are possible buyout options to free up cap space to try and lure a prized free agent such as center John Tavares.
Suddenly, Colorado is again an attractive place to play.
Mike Chambers: mchambers@denverpost.com or @mikechambers