Colorado's new guys provided the firepower to take the next step

After falling short last year in seven grueling games to the San Jose Sharks, Colorado’s front office knew it had the high-end talent to make trips to the second round a regular occurrence.

It also knew it lacked the kind of depth needed to get beyond that point.

Insert an aggressive offseason plan that saw Colorado add talent up front in the form of Nazem Kadri, Andre Burakovsky, and Valeri Nichushkin.

All three of those guys are very different players with wildly different career paths but all converged in the yellow wood to create a devastating trio as the Avs enter the postseason with significantly more firepower than last year.

In Colorado’s Quest for the Asterisk, we preview “The New Guys.”

Nazem Kadri – 51 GP, 19 G, 17 A, 36 Pts

The proven veteran of the group, Kadri was brought in to be a reliable second-line center who can score goals and give the Avs a little more edge with his physical playstyle.

Kadri’s cost-efficient contract also played a role in it and for spending under $5M, the Avs got everything they were after. His production across an 82-game season is a 57-point season (with 30 goals) and arguably his most memorable moment wasn’t even something he did with the puck.

No, if you were to survey Avs fans which Kadri moment stood out the most this year, it would probably be him beating a suspension out of Ryan Lindgren following his questionable hit on Joonas Donskoi.

That felt like the day Kadri really became an Av. That physical play really separated him from last year’s 2C, Carl Soderberg, who was big not as physically engaged. Kadri, on the hand…well…

And then there was also the goal scoring…

Kadri was the big-ticket acquisition of Colorado’s offseason and it’s fair to say he lived up to expectations. The only question mark was how he would handle the postseason after having gotten himself suspended the last two years in Toronto’s matchups against Boston.

Keeping a cool head when the playoffs begin is the last box for Kadri to check. I’m not about to bet against him.

Andre Burakovsky – 58 GP, 20G, 25A, 45 Pts

Burakovsky’s arrival in Colorado came with a lot of question marks. He wasn’t proven like Kadri and he wasn’t the unknown Nichushkin was. He was firmly in the middle, as a player who disappointed in Washington but also found himself buried on their depth chart.

Burakovsky left the Caps following identical 25-point seasons (12g, 13a) and was just too expensive at $3.25M for the cap-strapped Caps.

His profile of size/speed/skill was tantalizing to the Avalanche, who wanted to put him in a bigger role in Colorado to see if their style and more minutes would allow him to flourish.

Safe to say following this season, the Avs’ bet paid off nicely. There was plenty of playmaking as he registered a 25-assist season, which set a new career-high, but it was the 20 goals he scored that really stood out.

His shot lived up to the hype and arguably the “dirtiest” goal he scored all year was the rebound against Florida shown before. More often, however, was the beautiful top-corner snipe that he seemed capable of accomplishing…over and over.

The play against Boston came early in the year and ended up being a preview of a brilliant year from Burakovsky that saw him put all of that potential together. He finished on an 82-game pace of 28 goals and 63 points.

Valeri Nichushkin – 65 GP, 13 G, 14 A, 27 Pts

Ahhh, yes. The signing nobody will ever let me forget.

Nichushkin was brought in on an August flier after a rocky tenure in Dallas saw him bought out. The defensive metrics suggested a player worth giving a look. The zero goals and ten assists in 57 games played betrayed those defensive gains because you have to score in this league to stick in the lineup.

It took a while but score Nichushkin did. Once he broke through in November, he didn’t look back in recording 13 goals and becoming the feel-good story of the Avalanche forward corps.

Nichushkin’s defensive brilliance and increased scoring touch saw him elevated to the second line during the Return to Play training camp the Avs just completed. With him next to Kadri, the duo forms a nasty combination of size, skill, and physical edge but enough scoring punch that they could be part of a lockdown combination the Avs turn to late in games when protecting leads.

Few things this season were more fun or more enjoyable than Nichushkin’s Gordie Howe Hat Trick in Vegas, where he infamously scored the goal off his face. Let’s re-live the fun:

How can you not love that?

Nichushkin’s season made him one of the steals of the summer and put a bow on a perfect offseason for the Avalanche. Now he’s hoping to help their second line elevate to a shutdown capability in their quest for the Stanley Cup.