Avalanche Roundtable: Heart and soul players

As we worked our way through Colorado’s two Stanley Cup runs during the ongoing DNVRWatches series, there was something that kept nagging at me as we watched two very different Avalanche teams win the Stanley Cup.

The stars are always obvious but you can’t win championships without role players, the glue guys who really bring a roster together and make you so difficult to beat in a best-of-seven series.

This all brings me to today’s topic: Does the current Avalanche team have the kind of role players you believe can help carry them to the Stanley Cup?

AJ: The guy who really stands out to me when thinking about this is Matt Calvert. He’s a textbook heart-and-soul player who you have no reservations going to war with every night. He has enough skill to hang and his engine is always revved to the red line. I worry about his health as his entire career has been marred by a betrayal of his body but his playstyle kind of dictates that. If he’s healthy, that’s one guy I’m comfortable with. J.T. Compher would be another even though it’s clear now he won’t quite live up to those lofty Chris Drury comparisons. He does have the same knack for clutch goals like Drury but on a smaller scale.

Beyond those two, I’m still not entirely sold. Nichushkin has been a revelation but what will he look like after the long layoff? This is basically a summer break and with a player whose career has been a roller coaster, I’m not automatically assuming he picks up at the same level. The rest of them all have major warts that give me pause. I lack faith this is the group to ascend the throne, though I think Namestnikov’s presence has the chance to really elevate this group when entirely healthy.

Evan: This, to me, is such a wild card and hard to predict. A lot of times, the third and fourth line dudes in the playoffs come out of nowhere when you least expect it, and that’s what truly elevates those teams above the rest. Heck, look at Matt Nieto last year. He scored four goals in the entire regular season, and then you get to the playoffs, and he pops four in 12 games. You just never know. Devante Smith-Pelly was on his fourth team when he got to Washington, and out of nowhere gets hot in the playoffs to lift them up. Almost a year later, he’s in the KHL. There’s a long history of depth players who come out of nowhere to lift their teams in the postseason. Whose to say the Avs don’t already have one of them?

I have faith in Calvert, Nichushkin, and Compher, but even after that, I think the Avs can be just fine. This may be the area where guys like Kaut and Bowers help them down the line and supplement those top-end guys to really make the big difference to push them over the top.

Rudo: As compared to the Avs two successful cup runs, talented offensive depth is much more important to cup contention than it was back then. With that said I do think this team does have that depth. At the stoppage of the season, they had nine forwards with at least 10 goals and likely would have had two or three more if the season had gone a full 82 games. The huge caveat here is “when healthy” which is something the Avs forward core struggled with all season but they will be just that at least at the start of the return to play.

Namestnikov is the linchpin here, he brings that extra bit of consistency to arguably even the middle six that the Avs have been missing. Combine that with the consistent play of Calvert, Bellemare Nieto, and even Nichushkin with his stalwart defense. All of a sudden you now have a solid core to the bottom six with leeway for guys like Compher and Jost to be a bit more inconsistent but still provide offensive impact. I think Nieto is the perfect measuring stick, he’s been here before with a Cup Finals Sharks team that he ultimately got pushed out of the lineup on. The Avs are realistically looking at scratching either him or Jost during the playoffs.