Where do the Avalanche go from here after another early playoff exit?

The Colorado Avalanche saw their playoff run come to a premature end when the Dallas Stars made a late comeback in Game 7 to eliminate them. That made the Avalanche the first team in North American pro sports history to lose seven consecutive Game 7s, and now, despite winning a Stanley Cup in 2022, the Avalanche have been eliminated in the first or second round of the playoffs in seven of their eight consecutive playoff appearances.

So where do the Avalanche go from here? Frank Seravalli talked about their Game 7 loss and what it means for the team on Daily Faceoff Live.

Frank Seravalli: Well, that’s fine, you’re willing to lose in the first or second round all these seven other years because you won the Stanley Cup in the middle of it in 2022. That’s pretty good. So I think so many fan bases would take that in comparison.

But I think what it does is raise some real significant question marks, as Nathan MacKinnon hinted at very clearly with “I don’t know what we’re going to do”. This is a team that’s kind of in transition. They made so many significant changes. They were trying to become just the second team in NHL history to win a Stanley Cup after changing out half of their roster from opening night. And they say that they’re deeper, but they’re missing the top end talent.

I think the tough part about that is Brock Nelson, one of the guys that you brought in, didn’t really contribute that much down the stretch. You traded your top prospect in Cal Richie to get him. And then, by the way, you’re going to have to pay Marty Necas. What’s that going to cost? $8.5-9 million? Were you better off just giving Rantanen the $12 million that he was looking for, and ultimately signed for, in order to make that happen?

It’s a really intriguing situation, and I think there’s going to be lots of regret and certainly lots of questions to answer. It’s not that Jared Bednar 0-4 in Game 7s (Pete DeBoer is 9-0 by the way). It’s that you can only coach what you have.

I personally think that the Colorado Avalanche, and I’m not going on a ledge here, I think they’re a worse team without Mikko Rantanen. I think it’s going to be hard to spin it in another direction.