Valeri Nichushkin leaves behind complicated legacy with Avalanche

The Valeri Nichushkin era with the Colorado Avalanche is over — and there’s some much to unpack.

Joe Sakic traded Nichushkin to the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday afternoon, dumping the remaining four years on his contract and acquiring three draft picks in return.

This is a complicated ending for one of the more controversial players in Avalanche history.

When Nichushkin was at his peak, he looked like a top-10 player in the NHL. Some might call that hyperbole, but take yourself back to the 2022 Stanley Cup playoffs.

Valeri Nichushkin was a monster for the Avs, posting nine goals and six assists in 20 games. He could’ve won the Conn Smythe. Colorado hoisted the best trophy in sports and Nichushkin watched Cale Makar earn the honor — a worthy recipient of postseason MVP.

But Nichushkin was still on top of the world.

He was a key member on a championship team and was rewarded handsomely with an eight-year, $49 million deal. He only made it halfway through that.

There were a lot of great moments along the way, but extreme lows as well.

The incident in Seattle that involved 911 calls at a hotel, police reports and eventually Valeri Nichushkin disappearing from the team during the playoffs. Colorado lost that series to the Kraken in seven games, ending their chances of going back-to-back.

The following season, he was hit with a six-month suspension during Round 2 against Dallas. The Avalanche went out with a whimper once Nichushkin was sidelined before Game 4; he had been their playoff leader with nine goals.

They rallied to win Game 5 but then fell to Matt Duchene and the Stars in 2OT in Game 6, squashing dreams during another year with title hopes.

Valeri Nichushkin skated in good chunks of the last two seasons, hopefully putting his demons behind him. But the reality is he was never the same guy. He scored 17 goals and had 32 assists, good for 49 points this past year.

That’s not what the Avalanche were looking for out of a player making more than $6 million per season.

Addiction is powerful and Valeri Nichushkin said all the right things when he returned from his suspension. He was clearly remorseful and didn’t want to allow another incident to happen ever again. That should be applauded — his health is far more important than hockey.

But Colorado fans can’t help but feel a little robbed by everything that happened. Did Nichushkin derail a dynasty? That’s oversimplifying things. However, his actions during the 2023 and 2024 playoffs off the ice did the Avs absolutely no favors.

We can root for the man to get the help he needs while also being disappointed. Both those things are true. Valeri Nichushkin has improved his life — which is excellent — but the Avalanche haven’t won another Stanley Cup since things went wrong in Seattle. It’s hard not to feel like those aren’t a little bit correlated.

Hopefully, Columbus can be a fresh start for Nichushkin and Sakic can use the salary cap space to make another big move that helps the Avs get back to championship form this season. A Makar massive extension is coming, but that won’t affect the cap until 2027-28.

It’s a little ironic that Nichushkin and Makar were in the Conn Smythe conversation in 2022 and now their fates were somewhat tied together again. It wasn’t feasible for Colorado to pay Nichushkin big money during the first three years of Makar’s behemoth of a new contract.

It’s complicated with Valeri Nichushkin in Denver — filled with good and bad times.

Acknowledging both of those makes the finality of Thursday even a little more tough to process.