X-Factor for the 2016-2017 Season

The Avalanche have drafted well when they have had draft pick at 10 or higher the past few years. They have picked up a lot of the more top end skill and talent when we selected players like Matt Duchene third overall in the 2009 entry draft, Gabriel Landeskog second overall in the 2011 entry draft, Nathan MacKinnon first overall in the 2013 entry draft, Mikko Rantanen with the tenth overall selection in the 2015 entry draft and this past weekend Tyson Jost who they took again at tenth overall in the 2016 entry draft.

Photo Credit: thehockeypress.ca

They have also done well in finding some potential steals in later rounds in the form of Tyson Barrie selected with their third round pick in the 2009 entry draft and  Ryan O'Rielly. (who is no longer with the team due to a blockbuster trade last summer that brought the Avalanche Nikita Zadorov, Mikhail Grigorenko, J.T. Compher and draft selections.)

The team as a whole has a very solid mix of veteran leadership from players like Francois Beauchemin, future hall of famer Jarome Iginla, Carl Soderberg and Blake Comeau to name a few.

They have a defense corp built around Erick Johnson (oh look another 1st overall selection) Up and coming top players in Nikita Zadorov and Chris Bigras As well as the fore-mentioned Tyson Barrie and Francois Beauchemin.

So all that being said then the problem for the team is obvious then, they don't have a top goalie right? You can't contend for the Stanly Cup Championship seriously without a top goalie in the league everyone knows that..

Photo Credit: avalanche.nhl.com

Oh yeah, Semyon Varlamov the starting goalie for the Colorado Avalanche was a finalists for the Vezina trophy just two short years ago. (the Vezina trophy is awarded to the leagues best goalie over the course of the given year.)

So what is it, what exactly is this team missing? On paper you would have to say nothing, this team has everything that you would expect to be able to bring home a championship. We have a small problem here..

Not only has this team been unable to bring home a championship in the last couple of seasons but they have even failed to qualify for post season play at all..  Something doesn't quiet add up here..


Personally here are my thoughts. Many fans would say that its simple, they need better defenscemen. The interesting thing to me though is when I push a bit more and ask those same fans why we need a "better" defensceman they generally stumble to come up with an actual answer.

The issue here is not the lack of skill talent or work on the back end my friends. The issue we are having is much deeper then just a simple oh we don't have that "Sexy" named "top" defenscemen on the team.

What the Avalanche need to do is to hold onto the puck for longer stretches of time during the game.

Sounds like I am making their woes far to painfully simple? well that is because I am..

The Avalanche the last couple of years have given up a staggering number of shots on goal forcing Semyon Varlamov to make over 30 saves most games just to give them a chance to win. A lot of those games he actually has to make upwards of 40 plus saves to keep the score close enough for them to win. Again we get back to the issue at hand being the defense right? better defenscemen less shots on goal right? Wrong!

I honestly believe that the core that we have today if we were to start the 2016-2017 season now would be every bit as talented and skilled enough to get the job done.  The area that this deficiency is killing us is in the possession game of the forwards.

This team is one or two more wingers who are able to keep possession and control the play away from being a consistent playoff team and threat at the cup once they get in.

Photo Credit: thecanuckway.com

Last season the Avalanche brought in two forwards near the trade deadline who were both the top Corsi (advanced hockey stats) ratings from their respective teams in Shawn Mathias and Mikkel Boedker.

The Corsi numbers show us how good a player is as keeping possession of the puck for his team when they are actually on the ice. While those were two key moves, and in my honest opinion vital to work out a way to keep for next season they still are lacking one winger to really pull the whole group together. Enter Mikko Rantanen.

Rantanen set the rookie scoring record for an American Hockey League(AHL) rookie last season with 60 points in 54 games played. During last season he also helped his home country of Finland to take home the gold as well scoring 4 points in 8 games during the tournament. He showed great leadership scoring the majority of his points for the tournament in the elimination games.

He was also the captain throughout the tournament. He brings excellent size with his 6" 3' frame. If he can come in and do what he did for the San Anotnio Rampage last year then he will have the potential to be the X factor for the Avalanche this year. His physical style of play leads to much more puck possession and he will be giving it his all this season for us.

Joe Sakic is all ready on record to say that this year Mikko would be with the NHL club all season long.

Here is the video of his draft last summer.




The other player that I think has a shot to be a real x factor for this team is Duncan Siemens. The Avalanche recently traded Nick Holden away witch will give more ice time for a guy like Siemens to finally get his shot with the big club.

When I said earlier that I believed in the defense core that the Avalanche have today I was including him in my thoughts. I fully expect him to have a big camp and yes finally play in a pre season game to show that he is ready to step up and take his game to the next level.

When he was drafted there were comparisons to Hall of Famer Scott Stevens. Here is a video from his draft year.




Who do you think will be the X-Factor for this seasons Colorado Avalanche team? #GoAvs!