Young and speedy Avs eye bright future

DENVER — Fair warning to the rest of the league: As fast and young as the Colorado Avalanche were this season, general manager Joe Sakic vows to make them even faster and younger.

That blend of quickness, youth and skill boosted the Avalanche from the bottom of the league a year ago to a playoff contender this season. Having an MVP candidate like Nathan MacKinnon leading the charge certainly didn’t hurt, either.

MacKinnon led the league in home scoring this season with 67 points (27 goals, 40 assists). That’s tied with Sakic (2000-01) for most in Avalanche history.

MacKinnon’s 284 shots were also the most by an Avalanche player since Sakic (332, 2000-01).

He was frequently paired with captain Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen, giving them one of the league’s most potent lines.

“We love the way we play the game,” Sakic said a day after the Avs were eliminated from the first round of the post-season by top-seeded Nashville in six games. “It’s fast. It’s entertaining. It’s exciting.”

Few expected this kind of run from a Colorado team that had just 48 points in 2016-17. But youthful energy kept the Avalanche in the playoff chase until the end, where they earned the final post-season spot on the last day of the regular season. Their 47-point turnaround from a season ago matches the fourth-highest year-to-year improvement over a full season in NHL history, according to the team.

That bodes well. That is, once the sting of losing to the Predators fades.

“We’re going to stay the course and let this team grow because they deserve it,” said Sakic, whose squad was one of the league’s youngest with an average age of 25.8. “We’re going to stay young and in the next couple of years may even get younger.”

The Avalanche fully bought into the message of even-keeled coach Jared Bednar, who will be around two more seasons after Sakic announced Monday he recently agreed to a one-year extension with Bednar.

“It’s a cool story that we went from last to the playoffs, but we’re trying to win a Cup,” said MacKinnon, who had 39 goals and 58 assists in the regular season. “We showed a lot of fight this season. Hopefully we can use some of that next season.”