Avalanche have second best odds to win Stanley Cup next season

The Colorado Avalanche, once again, will be among the favorites to win the Stanley Cup next season.

That’s been the case for almost a decade now.

With the Carolina Hurricanes beating the Vegas Golden Knights in six games on Sunday night, another NHL season has come and gone.

And it’s never too early to start looking toward next year, even if the sweep in the Western Conference Final against Vegas is still painful for Avalanche fans.

On one hand, it’s great to see the Avalanche near the top of the list. It’s a lot more fun to root for a team that has a shot at a championship every single year.

Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Gabriel Landeskog and the overwhelming majority of the core will be back next season. Makar is due for a huge contract extension, something Avs president and GM Joe Sakic is confident will get done.

Sakic also isn’t slamming the door on any trades as Colorado might look to unload some salary with a second-tier player like Valeri Nichushkin or Artturi Lehkonen. Ross Colton could be on the move as well. Regardless, fans will cheer for an Avalanche squad that looks largely the same.

And that could be part of the problem.

It was amazing winning a title in 2022, but Colorado has come up consistently short since that moment in time. They lost in Round 1 to the Kraken, Round 2 to the Stars, Round 1 to Dallas and were swept in Round 3 by the Knights this season. The playoff failures keep happening.

Again, this is better than being in a rebuild or having no hope. But the Avalanche need to prove it and get back to the mountaintop.

The oddsmakers certainly think that’s a realistic possibility.