Colorado Avalanche projected lineup following trade deadline

The 2024-25 NHL trade deadline is now officially in the past, and the Colorado Avalanche made plenty of moves to hopefully improve their roster before continuing their run into the 2024-25 postseason. It was quite an entertaining and eventful day on Friday, as well as the past couple of days, as many moves were made by the team.

The excitement started on March 1st, when the Avalanche acquired defenseman Ryan Lindgren, left wing Jimmy Vesey, and goaltender Hank Kempf in exchange for center Juuso Parssinen, defenseman Calvin de Haan, and two draft picks. Shortly after, rumours started to circulate that the Avalanche weren’t done.

Oh, those reports were correct. Oh boy, were they correct.

In a minor transaction, the Avs signed goaltender Adam Scheel to a one-year contract. He’ll be in the minors.

During their destruction of the San Jose Sharks, it was revealed that the team acquired Brock Nelson and William Dufour from the New York Islanders for Calum Ritchie, Oliver Kylington, a conditional 2026 first-round pick, and a conditional 2028 third-round pick. That ultimately was the biggest trade of them all.

Then came March 7, literally deadline day. The feeling in Avs nation was that we should expect some moves to be made, and yes, they happened alright.

Colorado made a huge trade by sending center Casey Mittelstadt and rookie center William Zellers and a 2025 second-round pick to the Bruins for center Charlie Coyle and 2026 fifth-round pick. They also brought back a familiar face in defenseman Erik Johnson, while sending Givanni Smith to the Flyers.

Colorado Avalanche lines following 2024-25 trade deadline

Here’s how I’m expecting the lines to shake out following the 2024-25 trade deadline…

Lehkonen - MacKinnon - Necas
Nichushkin - Nelson - Drouin
O’Connor - Coyle - Colton
Kiviranta - Drury - Vesey

Toews - Makar
Lindgren - Manson
Girard - Middleton/Johnson

Blackwood
Wedgewood

It’s definitely weird not typing “Mittelstadt” in the lineup, but his name was mentioned many times when it came to players who were likely to be moved. Hopefully Nelson can be a big improvement on the second line, but the thing I’m not a fan of is that he is nearing his mid-30’s, so he won’t be around very long. I assume Kempf will head to the Eagles.

This is a very exciting time for the Colorado Avalanche. There’s still 19 games left in the regular season and we’re looking for more consistency from the team. They’ve played quite well lately, but the season is not over yet. Hopefully, they will be able to gains some momentum heading into the postseason. But for now, we have to get through these next couple of weeks without losing many games.

I feel very confident in the team right now, but I don’t want to count my chickens before they’re hatched. They’ve got stuff to prove before we even discuss the postseason, but they solved their goaltending issues very early on in the season, and so far, that has proven to be their greatest decision of the year.

Now, onto the Toronto Maple Leafs.