The Colorado Avalanche enter the 2025-26 campaign with some of the best players in the world, but that doesn’t always result in a championship formula.
Three years removed from their 2022 Stanley Cup triumph, and with their championship window narrowing, the Avalanche still possess one of the league’s most formidable cores. The pressing question, however, is whether they can cultivate the requisite depth and restore the cohesion necessary to translate talent into sustained success.
The full-time return of captain Gabriel Landeskog stands as a pivotal development for Colorado. His reemergence in the NHL is nothing short of extraordinary—arguably one of the most remarkable comebacks in recent sporting memory, and, within the context of hockey, perhaps the most significant since Mario Lemieux’s storied return in 2000 after nearly four years away from the game.