Mrs. Baird’s Bakery: Colorado Avalanche Hot Takes

Here at Mrs. Baird’s bakery we’re in the business of cooking up delicious breads and serving the slices up hot with a side of sports hot takes. Today, we’ll begin our look at the Central Division opponents Dallas will find themselves competing with for playoff positions.

We’ll start with the Colorado Avalanche, the last in the Division last season, and look at where they were, what moves they made, and how they will look this year.

Last season stats:

Points earned: 48
Central division finish: 7th (out of 7)
Final league finish: 30th (out of 30)
Best stat: ....struggling to find one, to be honest....
Worst stat: -112, the goal differential recorded by the Avs, nearly double the next-lowest goal differential (-61)

Key offseason player changes:

- D Francois Beauchemin (buyout)
- G Calvin Pickard (expansion draft)
+ G Jonathan Bernier
+ G Joe Cannata
+ D David Wasorfsky
+ RW Nail Yakupov
+ C Felix Gerard
+ D Jesse Graham
+ C Alexander Kerfoot

2017-2018 Freshness Rating:
(1 loaf of bread = lottery pick, 5 loaves of bread = deadly contender)

Offseason overview:

The biggest acquisition the Avalanche made was in signing NCAA unrestricted free agent Alexander Kerfoot. He’s

What is the real story of Colorado’s offseason, however, isn’t what they did so much as what they didn’t do. Matt Duchene’s name has been associated with the trade market for going on two years. He’s got a scoring touch that would be a good addition to many rosters in the league and provide the Avalanche with the young assets they need to move their rebuild along.

But....they still have yet to move him.

This is the storyline that will be written about ad naseum whenever Colorado goes to a new town. How much of a distraction will it be for the player, or for the team, to constantly be talking about trading away a guy that was supposed to be one of their core players?

Add that to a team that is, largely, unchanged from last year in terms of overall talent, and it’s hard to see the team making mass improvements over last season’s performance. I think that’s why they’re going to be back in the discussions of draft lottery teams.

Maybe they’ll turn their luck around on that front this season. After all, a team like the Philadelphia Flyers jumping over 8+ other teams to win the 1st overall pick couldn’t possibly happen to them two years in a row, right?

Central Division Prediction:

7th place - they won’t have the scoring and defensive upgrades to compete against the rest of a stacked Central Division