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Tag: chris macfarland

  • Avalanche sign goaltender Scott Wedgewood to one-year contract extension

    Scott Wedgewood didn’t need a full calendar year to show the Colorado Avalanche why the club should want to keep him around.

    Wedgewood signed a one-year contract extension Thursday morning worth $2.5 million, a source confirmed to the Denver Post. The 33-year-old goaltender is in the final season of a two-year deal he had originally signed with the Nashville Predators, and he would have been an unrestricted free agent this summer.

    Instead, the Avs now have the “Lumber Yard” tandem of Mackenzie Blackwood and Wedgewood in place through the 2026-27 season.

    “It’s just a place that my wife and I have felt at home with,” Wedgewood said. “A great hockey team. All those guys in the room, I owe them a lot of beers for putting me in this situation. It’s just been a good fit since I got here.”

    The Avs traded goalie Justus Annunen and a sixth-round draft pick to the Predators on Dec. 1, 2024, for Wedgewood. It was the first of many roster-overhauling deals that general manager Chris MacFarland made last season.

    Wedgewood’s arrival helped stabilize the goaltending position. The Avs were last in the NHL in save percentage before Dec. 1. They added Blackwood 10 days later and had the sixth-best save percentage through the remainder of the 2024-25 season.

    Blackwood missed the first 12 games of this season, rehabbing from an offseason procedure. Wedgewood has filled in as the starter and leads the NHL with 10 wins (10-1-2). His .913 save percentage is fifth among goalies with at least 10 games played, and his 2.26 goals against average is third.

    Wedgewood said the deal was almost completed Wednesday night, but his wife likely found out on social media when it was officially done Thursday morning because it was just before the morning skate at Ball Arena. His parents are also in town to help celebrate.

    “It’s a chance to play 30-plus games, a chance to be on a really good team, a chance of winning (the Stanley Cup),” Wedgewood said. “When you put it in that perspective, it’s probably the best spot in the league to be a 1A and 1B with (Blackwood).”

    The Avs also have Ilya Nabokov, a second-round pick in the 2024 NHL draft, under contract for next season. Nabokov, 22, was the KHL playoff MVP in 2024 and is expected to join the Avs in the spring after his season with Magnitogorsk ends.

    After back-to-back strong seasons as Magnitogorsk’s starter, Nabokov has struggled at times this year.

    “We’ve got Nabokov coming, we’ve got Blackwood locked in (through 2030), but Nabokov’s never played in North America or the NHL,” Bednar said. “(A) good prospect and has some growth that he still needs in his game.

    “When you get a guy (like Wedgewood) who wants to be here and fits in your culture and then performs like this on the ice, I think the natural progression is trying to get him locked up.”

    Nichushkin week-to-week

    When Gavin Brindley signed a contract extension Tuesday, his coach said he believes the 21-year-old can be a top-six forward in this league. Two days later, he is one.

    Valeri Nichushkin will miss at least a handful of games and is week-to-week, Bednar said Thursday morning. The club expects to have a better handle on his timeline early next week.

    “Nothing too serious, which is good, but serious enough that he’s going to miss a handful of games at least,” Bednar said.

    The Avs have had players missing with injuries this season, but the top-nine forwards all played each of the first 17 games.

    In the meantime, Brindley will move up to the second line Thursday night against the Buffalo Sabres and play next to Brock Nelson and Ross Colton. Brindley has been an early-season surprise for the Avs, earning more trust from the coaching staff while playing primarily on the fourth line.

    “Gavin Brindley — that’s how we (replace him),” Bednar said. “With Val, it’s power play, it’s penalty kill, it’s top-six minutes, it’s empty net when you need one and empty net when you need to keep the other team off the board. It’s a lot of different duties that we will split up.

    Corey Masisak

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  • Renck & File: Dre Greenlaw’s body let him down. Then he let down Broncos. Time to change that Sunday

    You thought we forgot about Dre?

    Everything Dre Greenlaw brings to a team, we have not yet seen. His leadership, controlled violence and sticky coverage. That was the hype. Eight months later, it is time to examine Greenlaw’s reality in Denver.

    Hmm. Absent or incomplete? Which one fits best?

    First, his body let him down, a quadriceps injury costing him the first six games. Then he let his team down, yelling at official Brad Allen after the walk-off win over the Giants, resulting in a one-game suspension.

    This must change Sunday at Houston. A Broncos upset could hinge on his performance.

    Greenlaw has made an impact behind the scenes, setting an example with his work ethic and daily intensity. But it has not translated to the field, where his season consists of six tackles on 21 snaps against the Giants. Greenlaw showed accountability on Thursday, admitting he should not have put the Broncos in position to play without him because of his outburst. This was an important step.

    Now, the Broncos need the best of Greenlaw moving forward. They are a contender. Whether or not they can win the AFC West or host a playoff matchup hinges on games like Sunday. The Texans are scrambling for a wild-card berth. The Broncos can move 3.5 games ahead of them with a win. After demolishing the hapless Raiders, the Broncos would then host the Chiefs on Nov. 16 in the franchise’s biggest game since Super Bowl 50.

    This will not happen without Greenlaw returning to his 2023 form, without the former star filling the vacuum left by Pat Surtain II’s absence. There is evidence that Greenlaw’s ability remains; that he can instill fear for roughly 45 snaps on Sunday.

    But he cannot talk about it. He has to be about it.

    Troy Renck

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  • Keeler: Avalanche roster hasn’t been this old since 2007. Will time, and Stanley Cup, finally be on GM Chris MacFarland’s side?

    The Condor hung up his wings for good Monday. If Eric Johnson turning 37 makes you feel old, imagine how it makes him feel.

    “You snap your fingers and your career is over, and it’s so short in the big picture of your life,” Johnson, who patrolled the Avalanche’s blue line from 2011-2023 and then again for a smidge earlier this year, mused at Family Sports Center. “And it’s so short in the big picture of your life, that I just figured that, ‘Why not come to the rink every day like it’s the best day ever?’ I hope that rubbed off on people over time.”

    RELATED: Meet the 2025-26 Colorado Avalanche: A breakdown of the complete team roster

    Sure did. But seeing the affable EJ call time on a stellar run was also a reminder, and not a sunny one, that the Avs’ current core is creeping closer to the end of the movie than the beginning.

    Brent Burns isn’t the only greybeard in the building. Colorado, per EliteProspects.com, opens the 2025-26 season on late Tuesday in Los Angeles with the fourth-oldest roster in the NHL at an average age of 29.17 years. It’s the third-oldest in the Western Conference behind Winnipeg (30.17 years) and the Kings, their first-night sparring partner (29.74).

    The Avs’ roster as of Monday morning featured nine players 30 or older. It’s the first time a Colorado roster sported an average age over 29, according to the Elite Prospects database, since 2006-07. Joe Sakic was 38 then. That group totaled 95 points but missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since the franchise relocated from Quebec City.

    Coach Jared Bednar is juggling a few katanas while the Sword of Damocles dangles over his head this season. But load management is among the trickiest, given the annual grind of the Western Conference and the usual stratospheric stakes.

    Push the guys in order to snatch home ice? Or ease things up with the marathon of 7-8 months in mind? When your captain’s still testing a new knee on the fly, there’s no easy answer.

    “I think Bedsy and the staff … are going to be smart, particularly with (Gabe) Landeskog, right?” Avs general manager Chris MacFarland replied Monday when I asked about the load. “We’re going to glean information on how (Gabe) does in back-to-backs, or three (games in four days), or four (in six days) and his practice schedule …  He’s a really important player. So I think we’ll just we’ll glean that information … and we’ll read and react off that.”

    For years, C-Mac’s Avs were young, to paraphrase noted philosopher Bob Seger, and they were strong, running against the wind. Only those winds blow even harder now, and they’re not so young anymore. Big Val Nichushkin turns 31 in March. Landeskog turns 33 in November. Brock Nelson turns 34 next month. Among the defense, Josh Manson turns 34 on Tuesday. Devon Toews turns 32 in February. Burns turns 41 in March.

    Time is no longer on Bednar’s side. At one point Monday, MacFarland even sounded reflective, if slightly defensive, about the expiration date on what should’ve been an NHL dynasty.

    “COVID hurt us,” MacFarland said. “There’s no ifs or buts about it. And then the uncertainty of Gabe’s situation and the unfortunate stuff with Val. But that stuff’s in the past.

    “I think our guys, what Bedsy and our players have done is, that they have a chance. I think the organization’s job is to try and give them as good a chance as possible, and their play dictates that. I think over the last seven, eight years, their play (has) consistently dictated that. Hopefully, it will continue to do so this year as well.”

    To his credit, MacFarland has been as dedicated to tweaking and shuffling the fringes of his roster as former Nuggets GM Calvin Booth was to sitting on his hands. Better to try and fail than to shrug, as Booth did, while Father Time coldly ripped the pages from Nikola Jokic’s desk calendar.

    But Avs 1.1 (2023) and 1.2 (2024) never got as close as version 1.0 (2022 Stanley Cup champs) did in terms of bottling that combo of strong health, strong depth, strong special teams, strong goaltending, strong intangibles and strong matchups.

    Although 1.3 (2025), on paper, flew awfully close. Wise puckheads looked at Stars-Avs last spring and declared that the winner was easily bound for, at worst, a Western Conference final — and that we were getting a main event far, far too early. They were right, in hindsight. Not that it should make anyone in burgundy and blue feel any better.

    A long Cup run is a marathon, a two-month, uphill march of sweat, blood, guts, focus and willpower. It’s a battle of attrition and desperation; a story that inevitably demands a dozen hands and five or six heroes.

    Lord Stanley is one of the hardest trophies in sports to win and even harder to keep. And yet the fact that the Florida Panthers have made it look even easier than the Lightning did does not reflect as kindly on MacFarland and Bednar, who have been good at their jobs at the same time some peers have been great.

    It’s not unfair to assume the pair’s window might have already come and gone. If you’re curious, the last 14 teams with an average age of 29 or more from 2020-21 through 2024-25 averaged 95.2 points during the regular season. Eight of the 14 “old” squads reached the playoffs. And four of those eight got bounced out of the bracket in the first round.

    Sean Keeler

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  • Avalanche have issues to sort out, regardless of who is missing from the lineup

    Avalanche have issues to sort out, regardless of who is missing from the lineup

    No team in the NHL is going to win much when five of the top nine or 10 players on the roster are not available.

    For the Colorado Avalanche, that’s just the state of things right now. But the issues for the Avs during an 0-3 start, particularly in an ugly 6-2 loss Monday night to the New York Islanders, go beyond just missing some very good players.

    It’s a pretty simple message: Focus on the process and clean up the areas that the healthy players can control.

    “I think we recognize what we have to improve on,” Avs forward Logan O’Connor said. “We played good enough in games one and two to sort of try and replicate that. Then, for whatever reason, we deviated from our entire game plan and you saw the result (against the Islanders). It wasn’t pretty for us. 

    “We know the aspects of the game that we have to focus on.”

    Most of those aspects involve the part of the game where Colorado does not have the puck. It’s still an incredibly small sample size, but the volume of what the Avs are yielding to the other team has not been the issue.

    It’s the quality. The Avs entered their game Wednesday night against Boston ranked 10th in the NHL in scoring chances against per 60 minutes at 5-on-5, and in the top five in shot attempts allowed per 60.

    High-danger scoring chances are another matter — Colorado is 19th. Given the troubles the goaltenders have had, and the missing players, the margin for error is very slim. Allowing too many Grade-A chances is a recipe for disaster, as the Avalanche has found out.

    “Defensively, we’re giving up too many rush chances, too soft in front of our net,” O’Connor said. “I think it’s just stick to the habits that have given us success in the past, the execution and the competitiveness. That’s an area we probably lacked in last was our competitive urgency, especially in the defensive zone.

    “Giving guys too much time and space, not playing hard enough at our net front — I think those are areas that if we clean those areas up within our structure, we should be able to have success. We have been pretty good offensively with generating chances, but we’re giving up way too much.”

    The Avalanche began this season without Gabe Landeskog, Valeri Nichushkin and Artturi Lehkonen, three forwards who are all dynamic offensive players. Colorado lost Jonathan Drouin after the first game, and defenseman Devon Toews is set to miss his second straight contest against the Bruins.

    While those are all strong offensive players, the Avs have not felt their absence with the puck nearly as much as they have without it. All of the offensive numbers, traditional or advanced, have been strong.

    But those four forwards are also all strong two-way players. They make a significant impact without the puck as well. That’s the part of their games that Colorado appears to be missing the most so far this season.

    “They’re very trusted, highly reliable, good-to-great defensive players,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “But, the message is … realistically, checking and playing away from the puck — yeah, there’s skill and ability involved in that, but it’s hard work and commitment. Those are two (things) that we keep bringing up. 

    Bednar thought Toews could be a possibility to play Wednesday night, but he remains out with a lower-body injury. There isn’t a timeline for any of the four forwards right now, though Lehkonen could return early next month if the checkup on his surgically repaired shoulder at the end of this month goes well. Nichushkin can’t return until mid-November at the earliest, but he’ll likely need time after being reinstated to get up to game speed.

    Corey Masisak

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  • Keeler: Avalanche can’t stop scoring. Alexandar Georgiev can’t stop winning. Mea culpa, Georgie. You got right.

    Keeler: Avalanche can’t stop scoring. Alexandar Georgiev can’t stop winning. Mea culpa, Georgie. You got right.

    Lazarus of Bethany’s got nuttin’ on Alexandar Georgiev of Bulgaria. Tough times don’t last. Tough goalies do.

    “I think in Game 1, we didn’t give him a lot of chances to make quality saves,” Avalanche defenseman Josh Manson told me before Colorado and Georgie wiped out the Whiteoot in Winnipeg with a 6-3 victory late Tuesday. “I felt like a lot of (shots) were going in from the backside or (to) his right, which is tough.

    “And then that can rattle your confidence a little bit. But he’s stepped up and just playing like how he can.”

    He grounded the Jets for four straight games. He won twice in Manitoba. He rose to the moment. He blocked out the jeers. He stiffed the haters.

    Forgive me, Georgie.

    This is how Lord Stanley comes home.

    Down 3-1 in a best-of-seven series Tuesday, Winnipeg threw everything at the crease that wasn’t nailed down. The Jets blistered Georgiev with 19 shots in the second period alone. They came away with one goal to show for it.

    Game 1: Seven goals against. Games 2-5: Eight goals. Combined.

    Forgive me, Georgie.

    This is starting to look familiar.

    Sean Keeler

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  • Avalanche believes Casey Mittelstadt can unlock even more after recent breakout

    Avalanche believes Casey Mittelstadt can unlock even more after recent breakout

    If Casey Mittelstadt scores a huge goal or sets one up with a beautiful pass for the Colorado Avalanche this spring, there is one member of the organization who will probably feel an extra twinge of pride.

    Mittelstadt’s career hit an unexpected low point in 2019-20, when the Buffalo Sabres sent their recent top-10 draft pick and a player who carried such high expectations to Rochester in the American Hockey League. Toby Petersen, now a skills coach for the Avalanche, was an assistant coach on that team.

    Things had not gone according to plan with the Sabres after joining the club after his freshman season at the University of Minnesota and a full rookie season in the NHL at 20 years old. Mittelstadt played 36 games with Petersen and the Americans.

    “I think that was a big turning point for myself,” Mittelstadt said. “I was able to go down and just play really freely. The coaches were really supportive. I think I started to really enjoy being at the rink with the guys and having fun again. I realized that I love this game and this is what I want to do. Having Toby on the staff was huge for me. He and Chris Taylor, they’re great guys and great people and they helped me a lot.”

    Mittelstadt’s rise, fall and rebirth as an NHL player is a reminder that not every prospect, not even the phenoms, has a smooth, linear path to fulfilling their potential. He is one of the best players in Minnesota high school hockey history. He was the No. 8 pick in the 2017 NHL draft.

    Players picked that high, particularly forwards, often never see the AHL. And when they do after spending 114 games in the NHL, it’s seen as a disappointment. Mittelstadt said there were a lot of people who deserved credit for helping him get to this point — in the midst of a second-straight productive season and the No. 2 center on a Stanley Cup contender after the Avs traded defenseman Bo Byram for him this past week.

    Hockey is a small world, and Mittelstadt, now 25 years old, is reunited with one of those people.

    “I was pretty excited when I heard (Petersen) was here,” Mittelstadt said. “He’s a familiar face and someone that I can bounce things off. We had a great relationship in Rochester. He’s obviously a smart hockey mind, so definitely excited to have him here.”

    The Avalanche believes Mittelstadt can solve what has been the organization’s toughest riddle: Who can be the next center on the depth chart after Nathan MacKinnon? It worked with Nazem Kardi, and there’s a Stanley Cup banner at Ball Arena as a reminder.

    It has not worked to varying degrees with several others, most recently Alex Newhook, J.T. Compher and Ryan Johansen. Mittelstadt began his Avs career Friday night next to Valeri Nichushkin and Jonathan Drouin, and both his new coach and general manager have made it clear that’s the spot in the lineup they expect him to help upgrade.

    “We’re not trading Bo Byram for a 31-year-old or a 30-year-old. We’re not trading Bo Byram probably for a winger,” Avs GM Chris MacFarland said Friday. “Defensemen are really hard to get, and top-two line centers, top-three line centers are really hard to get. You’ve got to draft them or you’ve got to pay a big price to get them, whether that’s in free agency or via trade. So the fact that we traded a player and a person of Bo’s stature for Casey tells you what we think of him.

    “We think an awful lot of him. We think he’s going to have a big role here. Hopefully it will be a good marriage, but we’re excited to have him.”

    Mittelstadt’s breakout didn’t happen directly after his time in Rochester, but injuries and the COVID-19 pandemic were factors. He played 81 games across two seasons, and the production did tick upward.

    A bigger jump came last season. He finished with 15 goals and 59 points. He followed that up this year with 14 goals and a team-leading 47 points in 62 games before the trade. If he can produce at a similar level for the Avalanche, Colorado will have its most productive No. 2 center since Kadri left.

    But the Avs believe there could still be more for Mittelstadt to unlock. MacFarland mentioned it the day they traded for him. Mittelstadt has taken longer to blossom into an impact player, but the jump from high school hockey to the NHL with just one season at the NCAA level might have been too much, too fast.

    His body needed time to develop, and he needed time to figure out how to translate his sublime skills to the pace and physicality of the NHL.

    “He’s got good hands. He’s a very good playmaking center with really good vision,” MacFarland said. “We think the last two years, his game has taken a jump. He’s gotten stronger with experience, and we think there might even be another level to his game.”

    There’s another reason to dream a little more on Mittelstadt. Several young players have left Buffalo in recent seasons, a franchise that hasn’t reached the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2011, and found a new level of performance elsewhere.

    Sam Reinhart, Evan Rodrigues, Brandon Montour and Linus Ullmark, who were all teammates of Mittelstadt’s when he broke into the NHL, have all reached new heights after moving on.

    Corey Masisak

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