No team has ever made 100% of their picks in the NHL Draft. It just doesn’t happen. You can hire the best scouts in the world who know exactly what to look for and which players fit your team’s mold, but there’s still a lot of luck involved when you try to project how 17- and 18-year-olds will develop. the line. The Colorado Avalanche have done quite well with high draft picks. Out of the top 10? That’s when things start to get iffy.
With just over two weeks until the 2024 NHL Draft, let’s take a look back at the last 10 years of first round picks by the Avalanche. They have succeeded a lot in some, but they have also failed (a lot) in others. So are the things.
Draft 2014
Let’s get the worst out of the way right away. Conner Bleackley had a decent draft year in Red Deer that saw him selected 23rd overall by the Avalanche. Almost immediately after that, things fell apart.
I still remember his first training camp. They put him on the wing with Matt Duchene and Ryan O’Reilly for scrimmages. That’s about as good as it gets for a young player, but it was painfully obvious that the kid wasn’t fit. He took a beating in scrimmages and the organization simply wasn’t happy with his performance. He was sent back to Red Deer and a year later he lost the “C” from his jersey. The Avalanche had already made the decision not to sign him, so they moved him at the deadline in a package to bring in Mikkel Boedker. Arizona didn’t sign him either, so he re-entered the draft. St. Louis took him with a fifth and got some AHL games out of him, but he was never very good at that level. Just a total bust of a draft pick. It’s rare for first-rounders to not even get a contract, which tells you how bad things got.
On the board when Avalanche was selected: Jared McCann, who has three consecutive seasons with 25 goals, was chosen once after Bleackley. Two picks later, a guy named David Pastrnak was…
2015 draft
Has anyone ever gone back and looked at this draft? It’s absolutely stacked. Connor McDavid at No. 1 helps, but he looks at the guys who followed him. Jack Eichel, Mitch Marner, Timo Meier, Kyle Connor, Matt Barzal, Travis Konecny and many others. Some pretty good names, but the Avalanche hit a real home run here, recruiting Mikko Rantanen Tenth overall. Yeah, you’re not going to trade that draft pick.
2016 draft
You can’t go back and change history, but I often wonder if anything would have been different if the Avalanche had allowed Tyson Jost to stay in North Dakota a little longer. The 2016-17 season was terrible for the franchise and they were desperate for something good to happen. In that desperation, they signed Jost after a good freshman year in college and threw him straight into the NHL. Maybe one more year wouldn’t have changed anything, but Jost came to the NHL and was pretty much the same from day one to the day he was traded. He didn’t cause much offense and didn’t have the size or skating to make up for it.
On the board when Avalanche was selected: The players selected immediately after Jost aren’t much better, but at 14th overall, the Bruins nabbed Charlie McAvoy. Two picks later, Jakob Chychrun went to Arizona.
Draft 2017
Is anyone complaining about kale makar? I don’t believe it.
2018 draft
Ah, Martin Kaut. Another one of those guys where I often wonder if anything would have changed if the Avalanche had handled things a little differently.
Kaur’s best moments, without a doubt, came in her first 9 games in the NHL. He seemed tenacious on the pucks and even offended a little. However, the Avalanche had already made up their mind. Once he turned 9 games, he would return to the AHL and not play another NHL game so they wouldn’t burn a year off of his initial contract. Of course, the NHL folded right after Kaut played his ninth game, but Colorado was pretty set on this decision. Kaut wasn’t invited to the bubble when the league returned, and they probably could have used him. That team was badly beaten and missing several regular players when they were eliminated by Dallas. If Kaut had entered the bubble and continued what he had started earlier that season, would his trajectory have changed? Who knows.
Kaut never hit his stride again in the NHL after that. His attitude didn’t help. He felt that he deserved to be in the NHL, although he didn’t play very well in the opportunities he had. Of course, he didn’t get much of a chance if you look at his time on the ice, but they wanted him to take the bull by the horns. That never happened and he just wasn’t that kind of person. He was traded for Matt Nieto and is now back in Europe.
On the board when Avalanche was selected: K’Andre Miller, a solid top-four defenseman for the Rangers, made six picks after Kaut.
Draft 2019
This is one where I would say the Avalanche did well. Bowen Byram at 4th overall and Alex Newhook at 18th. Byram had his share of health issues, but still played a huge role in the team as they won the Stanley Cup in 2022. His best hockey came during that Stanley Cup Final, and Game 6 might still be his best NHL game yet. -date. He just didn’t have a good season this year, stagnant and stagnant on the depth chart, so Colorado moved him up. Casey Mittelstadt at the NHL trade deadline. Smart move, if you ask me.
Alex Newhook showed promise, but never took the next step with the team. However, that doesn’t make it a bad choice. Newhook is still a solid NHL player. The hope was that he would take the 2C job after Nazem Kadri left in free agency, but when that didn’t happen right away, the organization seemed to move on pretty quickly. He was traded last summer for a 1st and a 2nd, who eventually became Ross Colton. Montreal is very happy with Newhook after his first year.
On the board when the Avalanche selected: In this fantasy world, the Avalanche could have had an absolutely stacked blue line, because Thomas Harley went just two picks later to the Dallas Stars.
Draft 2020
Colorado took Justin Barron 25th overall, and he sneaked into two NHL games for them before they moved him in a win-now trade. However, that “win now” exchange certainly worked. I would venture to guess that all Avalanche fans are very happy with Artturi Lehkonen.
Draft 2021
That 2021 draft was strange. Teams weren’t really able to scout in person due to COVID, and the first round looks to be filled with a lot of misses. Colorado drafted Oskar Olausson 28th overall, and while I think Olausson has progressed in the AHL this season, I’m not so sure I see an NHL player there. He missed the end of last season due to shoulder surgery, so he will be rehabbing this summer.
On the board when the Avalanche selected: The players chosen immediately after Olausson in the first round don’t seem much better. When you get to the second round, you get Olen Zellweger, who is a good prospect for the Ducks. There were some good players picked later in the second, like Logan Stankoven, but we’re talking 20 picks after Olausson, so a lot of teams missed him.
Draft 2023
It’s too early to pass judgment, but I imagine the Avalanche are very happy with the early results. Calum Ritchie and Mikhail Gulyayev. Both had strong D+1 seasons, especially Ritchie, who looked like a different player after shoulder surgery. I heard from reliable sources that the Maple Leafs would have taken Ritchie with the next pick if the Avalanche hadn’t, which is why other squads were pursuing him. Gulyayev will spend a few more years in Russia unless his contract is voided, so Colorado will have to be patient with that pick.