Avalanche injury losses continue to mount early in season

The Colorado Avalanche currently have the worst record in the league in the young 2024-25 NHL season and it appears the bad news will continue to pour in. Evan Rawal of The Denver Gazette reports forward Jonathan Drouin will not play Friday night due to injury, joining defenseman Devon Toews. Jesse Montano of Guerilla Sports followed up on Rawal’s report sharing that Drouin would “miss some time”.

Factoring in Valeri Nichushkin’s current suspension and the injuries to Gabriel Landeskog and Artturi Lehkonen — the Avalanche have nearly $28M (31.1%) sidelined due to injury. Few teams have the necessary depth up front to cover that kind of blow and Colorado’s record is proof positive. Much of the blame can be placed at the feet of the organization’s goaltending who have allowed the highest goals-against-per-game average out of the gates and have combined for a -10.7 goals saved above average according to HockeyReference.

The offense has been fairly average early on this season averaging 3.25 GF/G but the Avalanche’s ability to outscore opponents is quickly faltering. The team has the benefit of deploying Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen who can carry their lines but the substantial issues are growing in the team’s bottom-six.

Colorado’s bottom six has combined for a -3.6 E +/- while MacKinnon alone has managed a league-leading +3.7 E +/-. The conglomeration of miscellaneous parts in the bottom six has failed to generate much offense in the first few games of the season nor are they steering the opposition to do the same.

A slightly below-average bottom-six wouldn’t typically be that concerning to a contending team early on in the regular season. The Avalanche’s goaltending duo of Alexandar Georgiev and Justus Annunen have had the worst start compared to all other teams. Rawal reported that Kaapo Kahkonen’s visa issues are headed toward a resolution meaning Colorado could have a stable netminder join the team soon.