For the better part of a dozen years, Brock Nelson would cue up video of the New York Islanders and watch himself move around the ice.
That’s the weirdest part for him now. When he tunes in to check out his old pals or catches Islanders highlights, that’s not him when No. 29 makes something happen.
It’s going to be an interesting weekend for Nelson and a different kind of Sunday night at Ball Arena. The guy who used to wear No. 29 for the Islanders will play against them for the first time since being traded to the Avalanche. The guy who used to play here, Jonathan Drouin, is now the guy wearing No. 29 for his old club.
“Yeah, (Drouin) texted me just to see if it was OK,” Nelson said. “It is funny — there’s a couple times where I watch their games and that just looks funny. Anytime I watched video for 12 years, I was just so programmed to be like, ‘OK, there I am.’ It’s weird to see somebody else out there.
“He’s a great guy, great player and it’s just a number. I told him I’d never tell him not to wear the number. I’m not there. Go ahead. But I appreciate him even thinking that he had to reach out.”
Nelson was a marquee addition ahead of the 2025 NHL trade deadline for the Avs. He became the biggest move of the offseason as well, when the club kept him in Denver with a three-year, $22.5 million contract ahead of him reaching the free-agent market.
It’s been a pretty seamless fit with the Avalanche. He was already friends with Devon Toews from their days together on Long Island. He had an off-ice workout connection with Nathan MacKinnon.
Now Nelson will get the first of two reminders of his previous life in rapid succession. The Avs play Sunday at home against the Islanders and then travel to Long Island for the return match in less than three weeks.
“It will be fun to see those guys,” Nelson said. “There’s a lot of them I haven’t seen since the trade. I’ve talked to a lot of them. It will be weird. It will be different. Hopefully, I’ll see a few of them the day before and catch up a little bit. But I’m glad it’s here first and I get to see them before going there.”
The last time Nelson played at UBS Arena, he was named the No. 1 star of the game. His on-the-bench postgame interview was an emotional one — for him and Islanders fans. Everyone involved knew a trade was imminent.
“I’ve never really gone through anything like that,” Nelson said. “You see guys going back after long stints, and it can be emotional. So, yeah, I think it would be tough if we were going back first. It will be nice to get through this one, just to kind of see them.
“I’m sure there will be a couple of laughs, a couple funny chirps going back and forth. Just some good banter.”
Toews wasn’t with the Islanders for as long, but it was the organization that drafted him. He went through a similar situation — getting traded to Colorado, trying to find his place on a team with high expectations and settling into a completely new NHL environment for the first time.
Through Toews’ eyes, Nelson’s transition is going well.
“He’s playing great,” Toews said. “He’s not a guy that’s ever going to dwell on stats and things like that. He’s been a positive contributor to our team. That’s what he needs to be. Points will come when they come. He’s been a great addition to our penalty kill. He’s a great faceoff guy, which I knew from my time with him in New York. He’s finding ways to contribute in different ways.
“When you bring in guys like that, it raises your standard for your structure and your detail in your game. That’s sometimes lacking with younger guys, guys that are still learning and finding their way. Those (veteran) guys help with those details and then help the young guys as well, making sure they’re doing the right things and are in the right places instead of just being hyper focused on producing offense.”
Nelson has been the No. 2 center since the day he arrived. There was no question about the role he would play, which helps. Having guys like Toews and MacKinnon in his corner from day one also helped.
The offensive numbers have not matched his days on Long Island to this point. He had a mid-career renaissance from 2021-24, scoring at least 34 goals and 59 points in each of those three seasons.
In 37 games with the Avs, he has 10 goals and 20 points. This year, it’s four goals and seven points in 18 games.
The one part of his role that is different is the offensive expectations. The Avs don’t need Nelson to score 30-plus goals and drive the offense on a consistent basis to be successful.
New York needed him to raise the team’s ceiling. In Denver, he has helped raise the Avs’ floor.
“If you look at his analytics and underlying numbers, they’re all good,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “He’s a really smart, really well-rounded 200-foot player. From my tally, he’s fourth on the team in scoring chances. He hasn’t scored easily so far, but he’s right there tied with Val and his defensive metrics have been good. It’s just about trying to give him more shooting opportunities.
“Part of it is just the steadiness of his game and doing the right thing all the time.”
Nelson was a fixture in the Islanders’ core for years, but life changes quickly in the NHL. Calum Ritchie, who was part of the Avs’ package to get Nelson, will be on the other side and could be a key part of the Isles’ future. Trading Nelson was part of a reset, which was turbo-boosted when the Islanders won the draft lottery and landed defensive wunderkind Matthew Schaefer with the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NHL draft.
Drouin is helping to replace some of the offense the club lost when it traded Nelson. Schaefer looks like a runaway Calder Trophy winner and has changed the long-term outlook for the franchise.
Nelson was part of the group that helped the Islanders reach back-to-back conference finals, the best stretch of success the franchise has had since the early 1980s when it ruled the NHL. He expects to have a chance to reminisce about those days Saturday night with his old friends, and then try and beat them Sunday night.
He’s also looking forward to the game back there in a couple of weeks. His wife and kids are going to make the trip. They’ve got a couple of old stomping grounds spots lined up and plenty of friends to catch up with.
“Sometimes I think back to my routine there and how programmed I was, how I knew everything about the surroundings,” Nelson said. “There are times where it feels like you’re still kind of feeling it out here, settling in. But there are also times where it feels like I’ve been here forever. Crazy to think it was 12 years there. It feels like it went by in a blink of an eye.
“But the more you think about it and you expand the picture, you think about the life things that happened — kids, family, all that stuff, just the friends we met there — and I feel fortunate for the time I had there.”
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Corey Masisak
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