The Avs are fun again but the Eagles are just beginning to soar

 

Everyone knows the deal with the Colorado Avalanche. They’re good, they’re young, they’re exciting, and the rest of the NHL is starting to get worried about them.

What the rest of the league should really be on the lookout for is what’s happening below the NHL level. Colorado came to the Anaheim Rookie Faceoff with a roster that could be stacked up with top prospects if it wanted.

In its first game against Vegas, that’s exactly what head coach Greg Cronin decided to do. A roster featuring top picks Bowen Byram (4th overall), Conor Timmins (32nd), Martin Kaut (16th), and Shane Bowers (28th) thoroughly dismantled the Golden Knights in a 5-2 win. Of those four, only Timmins did not record a point and he was still arguably Colorado’s second-best player in the game.

Add in Nick Henry, a fourth round selection who fell only because of a shoulder injury in his draft year, and you could be looking at the top line of the Colorado Eagles and one of their top defensemen.

It has taken years of building but the Avalanche are finally in the position where the top draft picks aren’t immediately ticketed for the NHL roster.

Given the expectations of the Avalanche this year, it’s telling that only Byram is considered a player with a real NHL shot right now and even he has a steady uphill climb ahead of him thanks to a loaded depth chart.

When Colorado joined this prospect showcase four years ago, they were on the outside of the playoff picture in the NHL and their farm system was mediocre at best. In just the last two years, Colorado has gone from building around Erik Johnson and Tyson Barrie to adding Sam Girard, Cale Makar, Timmins, and Byram.

It has been Extreme Makeover: Hockey Edition for the Avalanche farm system. While the defense certainly carries the torch of hope on its back right now, Colorado already sports one of the best top lines in the NHL to go along with this great young D group.

As the Avalanche aggressively added quality forward depth this summer, it became obvious players like Kaut and Bowers were no longer on the fast track to free roster spots. The motto “learn to earn” is something ascending young player’s careers will live or die by.

When looking even beyond the top picks, the depth of this group really becomes impressive.

Logan O’Connor, who led the AHL in shorthanded goals last season, is out here wearing the ‘C’ on his chest for this group. A mature role player for three years at the University of Denver, O’Connor signed with the Avalanche last summer and was a revelation for the Eagles and even appeared in five NHL games.

Igor Shvyrev spent most of last season learning the ropes of North American hockey as the fourth line center but his skill level has always suggested he’s capable of so much more. Given his commitment to physical play and heady two-way play in the first two games, it’s safe to say the Eagles are getting back a much more mature player ready to contribute in a bigger role.

Players like Josh Dickinson, Ty Lewis, and Travis Barron continue to fight for jobs and are using their experiences at the Rookie Faceoff to show Cronin exactly what they can do. If things break perfectly, the Avalanche could get a fourth line player out of one of them someday, especially if Lewis masters the nuances of being a good defensive forward.

Brandon Saigeon has been a handful in the OHL for the last two seasons and is finally getting his shot to play in the AHL this year after an overage season in juniors last year.

Not even out here are established AHL players such as A.J. Greer, Anton Lindholm, Nicolas Meloche, and Ryan Graves. All could be significant contributors for the Eagles this year if they don’t crack the NHL ceiling.

After all that, you can’t help but take a look at the players not able to be here because of either NCAA rules or European seasons getting underway. Alex Newhook, Drew Helleson, Matthew Stienburg, Nikolai Kovalenko, Danila Zhuravylov, and Justus Annunen are all elsewhere with other hockey commitments.

All this really says is that Colorado’s poor development track record has always leaned on the premise that the drafting was the problem. Now that Colorado has drafted a group that is universally well-liked around the hockey world, it’s time for assistant general manager and longtime AHL leader Craig Billington to begin to show results.

Not only should the Eagles be competitive enough to make the postseason, but they have to begin to churn out NHL replacements.

Colorado’s NHL roster is set to get significantly more expensive in the next three years and their ability to let role players go and replace them with younger players on cheaper contracts will become the lifeblood of their competitive window.

If the Eagles aren’t soaring to the playoffs for the next several years, it will be time for the Avalanche to ground some of their decision-makers.

Permanently.