Keeler: Avs wasted Nathan MacKinnon’s MVP season last winter. Will they waste another waiting out Val Nichushkin, Gabe Landeskog?
Denver Post
The MVP deserves better than MIA.
Valeri Nichushkin, wherever he is, turns 30 in March. The Avs have learned how to live, and even thrive, without him. The Postseason Avs have not.
Gabe Landeskog turns 32 next month. The replacement cartilage in his knee turns 2 in May. He might play. He might not.
All we know for certain is that Colorado has yet to win a Stanley Cup without the services of a captain who can comfortably skate. And probably won’t win another until there’s a captain who actually can.
Don’t misunderstand — Landy’s comeback tale, a warrior’s grind, is inspiring. It’s just that the uncertainty and the stasis that is tattooed on one of the proudest franchises in the NHL is absolutely maddening.
Jonathan Drouin turns 30 in March. Devon Toews turns 31 in February. Josh Manson just turned 32.
Nathan MacKinnon turns 30 next September.
Each winter, as the darkness falls and the snow rolls in to wrestle with the sunshine, the frame of Nate Dogg’s championship window creeps ever closer to the sill.
The MVP deserves better than SMH.
Those Hart Trophy years aren’t just glorious. They’re precious.
Too precious to throw away.
Too precious to waste on hope (Val) and health (Gabe).
Colorado’s 2024-25 season is the ultimate trust fall. Which would be fine, if not for the fact that Nichushkin let his teammates — and legions of loyal fans — crash backward to the Earth each of the last two springs.
“Without those two guys, I just don’t view them as a Cup contender regardless of having MacKinnon and (Makar) in the lineup,” WBD/TNT analyst Paul Bissonnette said earlier this week when asked about Landeskog and Nichushkin.
“I just think that those guys are so valuable, (given) what they bring. Obviously, the hope is that they come back.”
Oh, the Avs are a contender. Any team with MacKinnon is a contender, even if he has to drag a good chunk of this roster into relevance by the force of his will or the thrust of his comet trail.
No. 29 hoisted one of the best games on the planet to another level last season, finishing with career highs in goals (51), assists (89) and points (140) while winning his first Hart despite superb years from peers such as Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews and Nikita Kucherov.
Given all the uncertainty around him, MacKinnon might well have to put up a third straight 100-point season to keep the burgundy and blue ship from sinking into the messy Western Conference mire. Not even Joe Sakic pulled that off in an Avs sweater, and Super Joe hit the century mark at the age of 37 (100 points in ’06-07).
“I think that Nate is still at the beginning of his prime,” longtime hockey analyst Darren Pang, also with WBD/TNT, told me by phone recently. “I honestly believe that we’re going to see five more years of this same (level of) play from Nathan MacKinnon.”
The MVP deserves better than TBD.
Imagine if he had more help. Reliable help.
I mean, yes, Sakic won his second Stanley Cup at 31. But as a player, he never made it to another Final after that.
In the spring of 2001, Avs legend Adam Foote was 29. He won just four more postseason series over seven more seasons in burgundy and blue, despite playing to age 40.
Peter Forsberg was 27 for his second Cup lift 23 years ago. He never won more than two playoff series with the Avs once he’d reached 28.
Time flies. And know this: The rest of the West isn’t waiting around for Gabe and Val. Or for Colorado GM Chris MacFarland to get his ducks in a row.
Edmonton brought in Jeff Skinner. Dallas lost Joe Pavelski to retirement, and huzzah, but added Brendan Smith, Matt Dumba and Ilya Lyubushkin to the defensive mix. Nashville snapped up Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault. St. Louis snatched Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway from Edmonton’s core. Vancouver welcomed Daniel Sprong and Jake DeBrusk. The Utah Not-Yotes traded for Mikhail Sergachev and John Marino.
“I just think that (the Avs are) a little bit too thin and watered down throughout the lineup,” Bissonnette continued. “And competing in the West, it’s just so hard …
“You have Edmonton, which I think is better than Dallas. I still view Vegas as better than (the Avs). And then, you know, there could be an argument about maybe even one or two other teams …
“So if those two ain’t back, I just kind of see (the Avs) as a middle-of-the-pack team. And probably, in my opinion, a first-round or maybe second-round exit, at best, if they can’t get that figured out.”
The MVP deserves a heck of a lot better than that.
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