Remaining Stanley Cup playoffs teams all consist of former Avalanche players

If you are one of those people who keeps tabs on former Colorado Avalanche players, this Stanley Cup postseason is for you. Each remaining team in the final four have at least one former Avalanche player. Therefore, those who root for the guys who once wore an Avs sweater should be relatively happy with whichever team ends up hoisting the Stanley Cup when it’s all said and done.

I’ve never been one to be afraid of facing former Avalanche players. You play whoever is on your schedule. The only difference is that your competition level increases against teams in your own division. You play those teams more often and each one of those teams is trying to fend each other off in their quest to surpass each other in the standings. They may still be buddies off the ice, but on the ice, it’s all business.

It probably still stings for a lot of Avalanche fans that the Dallas Stars eliminated them early. There is no doubt that it stings a lot more due to Mikko Rantanen going off on his former team during that series. He had five goals and seven assists in their first-round playoff series that happened to end up going to a Game 7. What makes it worse is that Chris MacFarland and Co never realized that their trade of Rantanen to the Eastern conference would be flipped around with Carolina trading him back to the Central Division.

We’ll see how the Avalanche try and counter this, but as I previously wrote, not just because Rantanen ended up back in the division, but the fact that Chris MacFarland shipped him off instead of giving him an extension might come back to haunt the Avs’ general manager.

The other former Avalanche players in the 2024-25 playoffs

The Edmonton Oilers have a grand total of one former Avalanche player. That just so happens to be one of their many goaltenders over the years: Calvin Pickard.

Pickard was a second-round pick of the Avalanche in the 2010 NHL Draft. He first saw NHL action in the 2014-15 season, playing in 16 games, starting 13, with a 6-7 record. The two years following his inaugural season, Pickard played in 70 games, and had a 22-37 record. He was a plus-.900 goaltender for Colorado throughout his three-year tenure.

I already mentioned Rantanen becoming a Dallas Star, aka a rival of the Avalanche. However, the Stars don’t just have one former Avalanche on their team. Dallas signed former Avalanche Matt Duchene to a one-year contract in July of 2023. He had 65 points (25 goals and 40 assists—65) in 80 regular-season games in 2023-24, and followed it up with 30 goals and 52 assists in 82 games. His shooting percentage of 19.7 percent was the second-best of his career to date.

The Carolina Hurricanes have a couple of former Avalanche players fighting to hoist the Stanley Cup. The first one is goaltender Spencer Martin. Martin was a third-round pick by the Avalanche in 2013. He played just three games for the team (in 2016-17), allowing 13 goals. Martin was traded to the Tampa Bay Lightning, but didn’t see any time on ice again until 2021-22 with the Vancouver Canucks.

Martin played in 35 games over the next two seasons with Vancouver before moving on to Carolina, Columbus, and then back to Carolina.

Tyson Jost, currently with the Hurricanes, was drafted 10th overall by the Avalanche in 2016. He spent a respectable six seasons in Colorado, playing in 321 games, and recording 45 goals and 58 assists. He was a plus-10 player for the Avalanche in his time there, but has failed to finish a season in the plus-category ever since his departure, besides in 39 games for the Hurricanes this past year, where he was a plus-2.

Lastly is Sean Walker. I was a fan of Walker as I thought that he was a solid reliable defenseman. He also added four goals and three assists during the year, but only played in 18 games with the team after playing in 63 with Philadelphia before the trade that year. The team got the Walker acquisition right, but unfortunately he didn’t stick around past the one seasons.

I would have liked to have seen the Avalanche re-sign Walker, but he left in free agency, signing a five-year, $18 million deal in Carolina.

Lastly, the Florida Panthers have a couple of former Avalanche players, too. The first one I won’t spend a lot of time on is A.J. Greer. Greer was drafted 39th overall in the 2015 draft by Colorado, where he spent three seasons. He played in 37 games for the team, recording one goal and six assists in that time.

Evan Rodrigues rounds out the entire list. Rodrigues was heavily rumoured to be of interest to the Avalanche ahead of the 2022-23 season. The team signed him to a one-year, $2 million deal. He put up 16 goals and 23 assists in 69 games. He had one goal and four assists in the postseason with Colorado (seven games) and was a plus-four player in that time.

He signed a four-year, $12 million deal with the Panthers in free agency and won his first Stanley Cup with the team last season.

When it’s all said and done, there will be at least one former Avalanche player that gets to lift the Stanley Cup. Who will that/they be? We’ll have to wait longer to find out, but either way, I’m happy for them.