The Hockey PDOcast - Sam Malinski Crushing It in His Current Role, and Ways the Avalanche Can Use the Regular Season To Prepare for the Playoffs

Episode Date: December 29, 2025

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by AJ Haefele to deep dive the Colorado Avalanche by looking at how Sam Malinski has been crushing it in his current role and what it means for his future, using the regular season to experiment with different combinations, important lineup construction considerations for the playoffs, and nitpicking areas for even further potential improvement the rest of the way.  If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

Regressing to the mean since 2015, it's the Hockey P.D.O.Cast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the Hockey Pee-Ocast. My name is Dimitra Filippovich. And joining me is my good buddy, AJ. Hey, Jay. What's going on, man? Not a lot. Just hoping to watch The Avalanche win, you know, another. 30 or so games over the next few weeks, months? It seems like it'll happen. And we're going to break all of that down here today. I'm very excited to talk hockey with you, as always, over the next hour. And judging by the response on Twitter after we teased doing the show right before the holiday break,

it sure seems like I'm not the only one. So it's going to be a lot of fun today. And I think the last time we had you on, we were just a couple weeks into the season. The abs had won their first five games. And we were like, okay, this team looks. Pretty dang good. This is what we wanted to see from them coming out to start the year, making a statement. And over the next two months since then, they've proceeded to lose just two games in regulation,

both of those two Eastern Conference teams on the road. And so I wanted to break down everything we've seen since then and also look ahead a little bit towards the end of the season with you. You know, we were originally going to do this on Saturday morning coming out of the break. and I'm sure glad that we wait until today because we would have missed out on one of the more interesting games I thought that they've played all year

if we'd done it previously. On Saturday night, they go to Vegas and they finally have to play it from behind and they get pushed in a game on the scoreboard. They entered a third period down two goals. Really one of the first times we've seen that be the case.

This season, by my count, they entered the game having trailed for like 300 and 55 minutes in their first 36 games and then they trailed in that one for 46 minutes alone and the level that you know we talked about this a lot with drance on the Sunday special but I really wanted to get into it here with you today the level we saw them ratchet their game up too offensively in their third period when they were pushing for for goals and trying to make that comeback was so fun to watch and really impressive and everything you'd expect from this team they wound up generating the 47 attempts 19 shots on goal and three goals in the final 25 minutes including the over time and so I wanted to break that down with you in terms of kind of finally seeing that element obviously not a situation you necessarily want to be in all the time but I think it's a good test and a good opportunity to kind of flex those muscles and be in some of those spots and face some adversity and not just kind of cakewalk all the way through the regular season the way the the Bruins did a couple years ago and so I don't know where do you want to start this conversation

about the abs particularly in that game and kind of some of the stuff we saw as that as that a contest against the Golden Knights transpired. Yeah, I think that the third period dominance has been, it's been there all year, but it's been hidden behind the fact that they were leading. And so it was, it's been a case of a lot of, they're leading and they're getting more ahead. And that's not as interesting of a topic when you go and you look at the scoreboard for the night and you see, oh, the Avalanche won four to one.

And you go and you look at the third period and you say, oh, well, they entered up two to one or three to one. and they just extended the lead. And it's such an interesting thing because we talk about teams and the habits that they have. And teams that are trailing in third periods, there's always the, well, they're going to push really hard. And the team that is leading is going to try and sit back and defend and they're going to play safe. They're going to, you know, park the bus a little bit. You know, they're not going to push and take as many chances offensively.

And the avalanche this year have just said, well, what we're doing is, putting us ahead so when we get to the third period we're just going to keep doing that we're going to get more ahead and it's been as we've seen spectacularly successful to this point and so in a couple of situations that we've seen them trailing they have put on monster performances and the vegas there are obvious caveats to that no jack ickel no william carlson no shay theodore that's it's a tough spot for them to be in. But up four to two is not a tough spot to be in. You're up four to two on home ice. The other team had to travel that morning to your rink. Like, you have done the work to get there.

The only two goals that they had allowed to the avalanche to that point were nonsense. They were just pucks that were thrown near the net that hit a defender and went in. I think it was Caden Corsack that just kept accidentally deflecting pucks into his own net that night and so like they they had every reason to feel amazing about the spot that they were in and they didn't close even they even were able to get away with the oh colton cissons against the avalanche turns into a borderline all-star level player nonsense and the avalanche erased that it was it they really have opened up the door for like through 37 games obviously we have half a season

to go but all-time great regular season in the making question mark question mark yeah i thought the most important element of it and i'm obviously biased because i love this player and it's a great opportunity for us to talk more about him but our guy sam bolinsky was exceptional in driving a lot of that offense and he had three primary assists in that game it bumped him up to 19 5 on 5 points in the year the only defenseman with more so far are warrenski mccarr hudson chikrin and Morrissey. And that's despite the fact that he's outside the top 100 in terms of actual usage so far at 5-1-5. And because of his role on this team and the fact that they do have that top pair that generally plays with their best players, the three main forwards he shared

the ice with in that time have been likes of Jack Jury, Victor Oliveson, Ross Colton. He's played about 20 minutes more with Parker Kelly than he has with Nathan McKinnon. Now, in those 114 minutes we've gotten to see of Sam Malinsky on the ice with the top line with McKinnon as kind of the proxy for it. It's been otherworldly in terms of offensive results. I think the abs have generated 14 goals in that time and shots on goal are like 76 to 40 or something like that. And this is a player who unquestionably has the juice.

I think the most interesting element of it is not only for the rest of this season, but certainly a future discussion in terms of his place on this team or what is the next deal for him looks like is kind of what the ceiling of this is like and what the ideal role for him is. We've spoken about it between you and I in the past as well, but I really wanted to blow out that conversation after that performance because it got me thinking about it and this idea that, you know, guys who show this talent and efficiency on a permanent basis but are playing in a third pair role, sometimes we kind of put the cart before the horse in terms of just assuming that you can kind of scale it up and it's going to continue.

regardless of that usage and that's not often the case there are a few guys who kind of exceed that but for the most part sometimes this is just what the player is and I'd argue that that's perfectly fine like these players are incredibly valuable regardless especially on a good team

but I'm curious for your take on kind of what that looks like within the scheme of this avalanche team and kind of getting the most out of him not only for the rest of this season but certainly moving forward as well well Milinski is such a fascinating case because he came into the season, expected to play on the left side with Kail McCar, Brent Burns, and Josh Manson on the right side.

It was like, well, the very rare case of a team having too many right-handed defenders that they want in their lineup. So one of them has to move to the left. Malinsky was the obvious guy. Sam Gerard gets hurt after two games that forced them to pivot. Manson and Burns have been together ever since. Josh Manson is flourishing, having one of his best regular seasons, in many years

and on the left side. So, odd. And then Sam Gerard comes back. They put the Sam's together. The Sam's had a little bit of success last year and then had their moments of struggle in the postseason series against Dallas. And classic lefty-righty,

but they're both a little undersized, weak in front of the net, you know, blah, blah, blah. But Malinsky, I mean, his offense is just awesome. The way that he's been able to drive play, he gets pucks towards the net, he creates opportunities, and coming into the season, he was the obvious trade chip to try and improve their blue line or forward core, you know, whatever. He was, he was their obvious candidate to say, we really like this player, but he's a little bit of, he's a little extra, he's a little bit of miscast in our lineup. So this is a guy that made more sense for the avalanchev, Lance to consider shopping around. His play has been so good that I think they have to reconsider that that thought process

and say, if we don't bring Brent Burns back next year, then maybe Sam Balinski can be the third guy on that right side. And Sam Gerard might have to be a guy that we're going to look to move because we might be more interested in spending that $5 million. on extending Sam Malinsky than Sam Gerard, who Gerard is a polarizing player. He's undersized.

He don't know how many board battles he's won in his career, but it's not a lot. But he doesn't drive a lot of offense. And if he gets a shot through traffic, it's almost accidental. Like, it just doesn't happen often. And I say that, knowing he has three goals in the last week, week plus.

Like, it's just not his game. not what he does well and he's he's always been sort of misfit because he doesn't get any power play time and that keeps his offense way down and sam winsky's not getting any power play time either he has one power play assist this year his 20 even strength points out of the 21 that he has and that power play assist he has came with like eight seconds left on a power play it was a broken play. So it Bolinsky proving that he

can produce this way at even strength and drive play. And defensively he's never going to like wow you in his own zone, but he's competitive. He gets his body involved. He works. He wins some battles. He still is going to lose

plenty. But he is just being honest here. He's quite a bit bigger than Sam Terrar. Sam Dorard, whatever he's listed at is probably not true. He's real small. And Malinsky has a couple of inches, has a couple of pounds on him. And there's nothing Sam Gerard can do about that.

Like there's, there's just no overcoming that, right? And it's almost become, I think, this battle of which Sam stays. And if we're looking at the body of work and throughout their career, Gerard has been more valuable. If we're looking at the body of work now, today, right now, this. season. What has happened in these 37 games? It's Molinsky and it's Molinsky by a lot.

And that creates an interesting problem for the avalanche. Well, the thing that I love in particular about watching Malinski play right now is you can see that he's very diligently tried to emulate and incorporate what he sees

from Kail Makar all the time into his game. Stalistically. Now obviously he only does a certain percentage of it because he's a regular person and not an absolute freak athlete. But just in terms of some of the choices he makes and the style he does it with, right? Kind of that, that shimmy around at the blue line to freeze defenders and get into open space in the middle of the ice. Some of those seam passes high to low from the top of the umbrella that keeps at the blue line. You could see all this stuff in that

game in Vegas that he excelled in. The neutral zone regroups even where he kind of shakes a forechecker and then spins back around and attacks downhill. It's all done so efficiently. And he's entering a very interesting spot because, you know, they signed him to that $1.4 million, or a one-year deal in June. If there's no extension done before July 1st, he'll be a UFA entering a market that, as we've documented, is going to be pretty barren in terms of this type of player in terms of the skill set, the age, the production profile, certainly. And I'm incredibly high on him. I'm unsure what the next deal for him looks like or what the market. market for is like for him in general because we've just historically seen the like excitement

league wide for this type of player, a sub six foot defender who plays the types of minutes he does doesn't necessarily match ours. And we've used the Jordan Spence example in terms of what the Kings were able to ultimately get for him at last year's draft. And that's a player who's a couple years younger and is theoretically cheaper because he's still going to maintain his RFA status after this year. And so I'm not entirely sure that the abs are necessarily going to be priced out of this regardless of how well he plays down the stretch, but I do think all that stuff is notable. And maybe, you know, you kind of noted it with the with the Gerard stuff. I think the more pressing question for the purposes of this season is the lingering question I have about kind of

the, I guess, incongruity amongst the second and third pair as currently constructed in terms of the Burns-Manson pair. And then when Gerard and Malinski are playing together in terms of the size, the skill sets to hand in this because you are going to enter a point in the playoffs where you get into a series against a really good team that has specific types of players. And if you're playing those guys in that combination, you are exploitable or vulnerable in very defined areas, right?

With the Burns, Manson pair, it's going to be with speed and in transition. And then with the Malinski-Darred pair, it's going to be around the net and some of those battles down low. And we've seen historically that NHO coaches are reluctant to trust guys like that in those spots. And maybe they enter with good intentions and then the playoff series starts and you get up a couple goals against or we're having an ugly game. And all of a sudden you scrap that plan.

And so I'm very curious to see how that all shakes out for the rest of this season. And if there is a long playoff run in terms of how Bendar utilizes them and whether he's willing to stick with it because we haven't really seen them. aside from the start of the year where they entered intending to play Malinski as offside. We haven't really seen them entertain that that much. I think he's played less than 100 minutes so far of 5-1-5 with either Burns or Manson. For the most part, they've been pretty diligent

about sticking with those two pairs and they've been playing well. So I don't blame them, but the playoffs are going to be a different animal and how they approach that, I think, is going to be very interesting to monitor moving forward. Yeah, I think the success of Manson Burns together caught everybody by surprise and that's why they've and it's been so good together that they're just letting it ride for right now but there is the obvious problem on the horizon of like you

don't expect going into a postseason series to realistically play the sams together they're both small they're going to get bullied you don't want to be caught out that's your third pairing they're going against plenty of checking lines in a best case scenario in a worst case scenario top six lines and those are all the lines checking lines scoring lines those are that's all of them and you're going to get they're going to get bullied and there's a high probability that they will help cost you a playoff game or two along the way and as we know the Stanley Cup playoffs there's a very small margin of error and if you know that you have this problem walking in you just just have to be very careful with it and it's it's an interesting problem to have because it's

it's just what do you do if you're if you're chris macfarlane they have scared the avalanche have looked for that that the last year it was ryan lindgren a guy who they really liked for his character his work rate and all that and was a terrible fit in their system because there's argument to be made that he's just not very good and i think that macfarlane probably went outside the bounds of the analytics department on that one and it didn't go very well and i'm wondering if that will i don't want to say rain him in he makes the decisions right but it will cause like a course correct where they're like okay we need to be honest about the types of guys that work for us and there just aren't very

many available and with the standings looking the way that they are this year there might be fewer teams being willing to sell players closer to the deadline than ever before the entire eastern conference is still in a playoff race that's a lot of teams that aren't going to be in the market to move guys so they have a really niche need and there's not going to be very many team selling that means that demand is going to outweigh the supply that's going to drive prices way up and the avalanche can't handle that they don't they're very asset poor now they were very asset poor when they went all the way in last year so what do you do that means they're going to have to pull from their NHL roster and the two most obvious candidates from that are ross

colton and who has plenty of value in his own right and sam gerard and sam moinsky would be valuable if that contract was a second year, but because he's going to be walking into free agency, looking for a significant raise, I don't even know what kind of deal we're looking at. I will earmark him at like $5 million just because I truly don't know and you have to overestimate it. So I think that would be too much money. But at the same time, you mentioned the dearth of quality right-handed defensemen going into the market.

And if he has a 40-point season and he's not playing on the power play, a team could be looking at that, like in their chops. So what do you do? You're trying to win a Stanley Cup this year. You're probably better off keeping Sam Malinski. But the lack of balance that you have

in that defensive core is a significant concern. Especially with the age of Burns and Manson, Burns is obviously just always available, so it's less of a concern with him. But I do think while they've certainly exceeded my expectations that I had for them heading into the year and they've been awesome in the aggregate, there have been certain moments where you can kind of see the seams a little bit and where it could be problematic, I think particularly on the road against good teams, and especially in like the second period where it feels like sometimes they just get stuck out there for extended stretches where

they're kind of wildly chasing around their own zone. And part of that is because of their foot speed, part of it is because of the decision making and puck management at times and taking risky pinches. I love, especially playoff, Josh Manson is just such a wild animal. But even this year where it feels like he certainly just feels healthier and looks healthier and is moving around better, he's just trying stuff that is so outrageous, in my opinion. I was texting you about this during the Utah game right before the break. he legitimately tried the Jasper Brat kind of hip swivel to freeze a defender and go to the net.

And I was like, all right, why not? Let's go for it. And I love that he tries that stuff. But when you've got those two guys out there, I feel like that does leave you a little bit vulnerable if the puck gets by them in terms of recovery. On the Malinsky, my final note on that is I, you know, part of it was a byproduct of how well he had been playing in that game. But we got to see him, you know, trusted by Bennar and at three on three, he was out there with, uh, Kinnon, Landisog, and made a nice defensive play coming back to prevent an unmed rush. And after the game, I think the, the abs have been pretty purposeful about kind of trying to build them up with confidence and, and scale this up a little bit.

And so I guess that's why I'm ultimately curious in terms of how this Nets out, heading into the playoffs in terms of what the vision is and what the construction is going to be like and the usage and all of that, because I think, you know, it might not matter in the first round or two, but especially as you get later into it and teams can kind of game plan around it, I think it's going to be. a massive X factor. And so I don't know, I find that to be almost the most interesting element to the ads right now,

other than just watching them play because of how fun the games have been, just in terms of kind of trying to figure out what it's going to look like when these games matter the most. Yeah, and the ice time has slowly started to go up for Balinski while Burns's ice time has slowly started to go down. And so I think that some of that has to do with the return of Gerard and the trust that he already has from the coaching staff. but you've seen Molinsky's ice time has gone from 15-04 to 16-01 to 16-29 in the three months of the season.

So you're seeing a slow increase of that trust and a better balance. And it's instead of having a here's your top pair, here's your second pair, here's your third pair. The abs are here's your top pair. Here are whatever you would like to call them, two second pairs or two third pairs. However you want to call them. I think just given the usage, it's probably more like two low-end second pairings. But they're pretty effective. On the good days of Manson and Burns, the avalanche defense is really shut down.

Like, they really do button it up well. That pairing has so much chaos in it, though. There's so much variance. The Josh Manson Wildman Act is a, is a, a true sight to be hold. It's a lot of fun. It really is. Bribb Burns is less fun because he's usually,

like when he has his problems, it's because he's old and he can't catch up to it. Or he's just firing puck's random places because he gets it on his stick and he goes, I need to get rid of this. And it's chaotic and I don't, I don't really know, like, how to curb that. I don't think you're going to.

It's just something that you have to live with. And I think in the ideal world, they would not put them together. Because, again, in an ideal world, the perfect version of this defense, it's balanced. You have a little bit of offense and puck moving, and then you have the toughness, size, tenacity on one side. So that every time that you throw one of those pairings out, it's hard to game plan against. It's hard to operate against. And instead, it's, well, if that pairing is, if the Burns of the Manson pairing is having, a bad day, then we're going to put, we could put it every, anybody we want out there and

they're going to give us opportunities. They're just going to give them to us. And then the Sams get cycled to death. They really do. You mentioned the second period. It's a great point. They just, when they get hemmed in their own zone, they can't get out. They need a stoppage or, uh, uh, the, or they get scored on. Like there's not a, or they ice the puck and then you're just hanging on. There's a, there's a, or they ice the puck and then you're just hanging on. There's a lot of hanging on with that pairing on their off days or just when they're getting cycled. But the avalanche offense has been so good this year that we just don't see that

happen to them very often. It's just an inevitability. You know that it's going to happen. And you, you, for me, it's just this, there are so few concerns about the roster that it's why I obsess over this one thing. And I spend plenty of time. on my own show talking about this. And where I'm like, you don't want to do something here.

You really like the group. You like the players. You like the balance. But the way that they're being used right now, it's tough. And Josh Manson's been so good on the left side that I'm even open to keeping him over there. That, hey, he's been great. Let it ride with Josh Manson. Well, when you start the year the way the avalanche have, I think one of the neat luxuries.

you're afforded is using the regular season as it progresses. And it's so long with the 82 games to test stuff out, kind of prepare for the playoffs and what the, with either different looks or with individual player usage. And as we move to kind of the forward group here, I want to talk about Gabe Lanniscock a little bit, because certainly we've seen that with him in terms of the ramping up, entering this year, you know, makes that return in the playoffs.

but this being an entirely different animal in terms of the physical toll, a regular season in the NHL takes on you. And in October, it starts slow. He's playing about 14, 12 per game. November, it's up to 15, 19. And now in December, it's 1840 or so per game and a bunch of 20-plus minute performance is sprinkled in

as he gets bumped up to the top line playing with McKinnon and Hs. And I think part of that trust is just the fact that he clearly, is feeling a lot better himself and I think the skating juice is back in that game against Utah there were a number of times where in a game where they weren't generating much offensively he almost created stuff out of thin air by just

hunting and recovering loose pox and being the first one to it and showing a level of bursts that I think we weren't really seeing early on from them so I imagine for the coaching staff and the organization as a whole that's incredibly encouraging and they're just going to put as much on his plate as they can right now to see how up to the task

he is and I think so far so good based on the way he's looked out there physically. I would take him off the top line, but it has been fun to watch him slowly build into it. You mentioned the skating juice has been slowly returning. He looked so slow to start the year. I mean, it was like hard to watch at times where you were like, oh, my gosh.

And the puck skill was seriously lacking. And then it is just incrementally improved. And that's what you want to see. but the smarts are there, the physicality is there, he's mean. Way too many penalties, though. I mean, he's been taking a lot of penalties. And that has to stop. I mean, just frankly, it has to stop.

Like, he, the results with him up alongside Nathan McKinnon are not great. I'm not sure why the team continues to try and push it like this. The results with him next to Brock Nelson were real good. especially after those first like two weeks of the season where Brock Nelson just was a ghost ever since Nelson found his game Landiscock and Nelson together were they were excellent

and Val Natchewski has very quietly built his game into it as well those three work really well together they all play with power they're all big guys it's the perfect contrast to what the McKinnon line tries to do with Naches and Lekinen, with getting up and down the ice, the speed, the high-scale plays, you know, all that. And Landiscag's been obviously a huge part of that.

And he's been a great story, the leadership. There was a tangible difference in the locker room. I was in Denver for the preseason. And there was a just a, you could just tell. I talked to a lot of the guys. And you could just feel that there was a different energy around the room. with him being back. They needed an emotional center.

Anybody that's listening to the show is probably familiar with the reality that Nathan McKinnon is an emotional volcano. And anytime he goes off, it's kind of like fun to watch from the outside. But it doesn't necessarily produce great results on the ice for the team. And he needed a counterbalance. and Landisog was always the perfect counterbalance before the injury.

Three years without that, without, I always say, the adult in the room to kind of rein him in a little bit. I think made a big difference because McKinnon still looks up to Landiscag in such a way, still has that respect for him that he's not going to have for very many people. He's Nathan McKinnon. So I think that that impact of it has been extremely important. And the fact that Landisog is a solid player still is great. And his production has come up.

The league has stopped taking goals away from him, which was an annoying thing at the start of the year that kept happening. And he just keeps working his way into the game. If he would stop taking some penalties and he would actually score some goals that count, I think we could have a real fun storyline here. And if he's not a shoe-in for the Masterton this year, they can just eliminate the award. Well, I think part of why they want him on the top line, at least for now,

is just not only ramping up the usage because those McKinnon's going to play so much. And so whoever plays with them is going to get minutes accordingly, but also getting him going a little bit offensively after that slow start and kind of rewarding him for feeling better physically. But I'm with you. I actually, if you're just looking at this through the lens of experimenting with stuff and seeing what has juice, I'd like to see more reps of Gavin Brindley on that line. I think it was the game against Florida where we saw it, and it's been small doses,

but I'm, I think it's a tantalizing proposition every time I watch him. He's just rapidly rising up my dog rankings, like so fearless, so competitive in that game against the mammoth, just like at the end of a shift, just attacking in transition one on three, essentially taken on three defenders by himself, winning the battle long enough to get reinforcements and they get a great A chance out of that and has the pace. and I think the skill level to make the most of those opportunities. And some of that is kind of stunted or wasted, I think, playing lower in the lineup and smaller doses with inferior players from a talent perspective.

So it might not necessarily be the long-term solution. But at the same time, if you're just talking about testing stuff out and throwing stuff against the wall and using this room for air that you have built up for yourself, I feel like that's probably one of the more intriguing options for me right now for this team. brinley is fascinating on the avalanche because his style fits perfectly uh yeah he could fit inside your pocket but he will scratch and claw and work his way out of it like he is the work rate is elite uh the character all of that i mean i the number of times that that guy has gone into the crease and just engaged after a whistle with a guy that it looks like he's trying to climb a tree

trying to get up there to punch a guy in the face, you know? Like, he's as feisty as it gets. He gets himself involved in everything, and the skill level and the skating are perfect fits for the avalanche style. They, I think if they knew they had this player, Victor Olison wouldn't be in Denver right now. Because that's the, that's like the obvious part of the lineup. And there's this, it is what has developed into an Oliveson v. Brinley,

who's going to survive this roster battle as the year goes on. Logan O'Connor being out extended time with the injury has meant that they're both staying in the lineup and fighting it. Brinley has been really interesting across their lineup. He's been effective on all four lines. We've seen him play on all four lines. And he's been effective. Now, the recent handful of games where it's been a Victor Oliveson,

Gavin Brinley, Ross Colton as the centerman third line, not good. That line is not good. It does not work very well. Ross Colden can play center. He should not. He's much more effective at wing. And Colorado's wing depth has just sort of forced some conversations because I would agree with you that putting him up up in the top line, it happened for two games. One game went really well. One game went really poorly. And it was, it is fun to watch. It's fun to watch him kind of stretch the sea legs and be used across the lineup. His versatility is enormous. And what a huge pickup he's been for the Avalanche,

less than a million dollars for him to produce, but to also fit into a checking line. Now, he's not a great defensive player. He's going to be weak along the wall. Again, he's like five foot eight. Like, it's just reality. But the amazing part of Brinley in this season has been, that it hasn't been solely his skill that has kept him in the lineup and moved him around

and endeared himself to the coaching staff. It's the work ethic. It's the intangibles. It's the little stuff that he does. The way that he extends possessions, you were mentioning his 1v3 the other day, where he was able to fight off that battle long enough to get to finish the line change. It's all the little stuff that he does. He plays winning hockey.

And I don't know that he'll be. ever drop the gloves against somebody who is not similarly sized, but seems like one of the most obnoxious guys to play against. His skill level, but the feistiness is just off the charts. So I'm

blown away at how fun he has been, and I'm intrigued to see how they want to make him part of this lineup long term, and for some reason, he signed a two-year extension already that keeps him on the books for like

850K for the next two years? Well, the second of that is going to be less than the league minimum at that point with the cap going up. So remarkable bit of business for them, and I'm with you. He's so fun, and I do think there's a certain ceiling there that I would be exploring while I can right now. I'm with you, I think, you know, this might not just organically get resolved

when Logan O'Connor comes back and with the way Breedley's played, but in just thinking about this roster, I was curious for your take on sort of what the logical upgrade would be at the trade deadline because we know that this organization, especially now that they're firmly in this cup window, how well they've played this year, the fact that they've got one more year after this with McCarra making the $9 million that he does and this is your opportunity to strike, they're going to explore every possible option and the resources are limited in terms of what you can do to meaningfully improve and it might require subtract.

from the roster, but I do think besides getting someone who can win some face-offs, because right now Gabriel Lannisog is basically the second best face-off takeer on this team. It would probably be upgrading that Olibson spot. I think he certainly provided

some defensive utility and is a fine body, especially for what they're paying him. But with the goal scoring, drying up, and I think kind of like the the offensive anchor he's been in some ways part of it is because of the deployment and who he's playing with

but it feels like hearing you mentioned that bridley kind of struggled in that in that line with him and cold and part of it is golden playing down the middle part of his i think a lot of the numbers with olivson have been dragging people down with him um that would be sort of the most logical upgrade i could think of but l oc coming back might just naturally kind of resolve that in and of itself i think it does help but i think that the the the the easy like the cleanest approach here. I'm not saying it's the best or it's going to yield the best return, but the cleanest approach here is that Brindley takes Oly

Olivesyn's job as like your third line right wing. Ross Colton stays on your left side and they go and get a third line center and they keep Jack Drury on the fourth line with Parker Kelly and either Logan O'Connor, Yoel, Kivirontah, whoever's healthy at the time. And I think that's the cleanest way to do it. For me, what Brinley does is utility, his versatility, has outpaced Victor Oliveson, who, as you mentioned,

has been a better defensive player than offensive player. There have been that, he had that big scoring burst. He had five points in one game. It's like a third of his point totals so far this year. Might be up to a fourth. He's had a couple of secondaries recently. But his goal scoring is like the thing. You talk about Victor Oliveson,

you talk about his shot, the ability to score goals. He has scored. in five of their 37 games. He has goals in five of their 37 games. That's just not enough. And he's not a natural playmaker. He's not driving any offense.

He's been solid in his own zone. He's been better than I expected. It's just not good enough, though. He has more games than not. He just doesn't do much. As you mentioned, statistically, you can go and look that he drags down a lot of the lines that he's on.

And so I think that that third line center spot is the obvious area for them to improve. They could also put Jack Drury there and get a fourth line center if they just don't have the assets to get like a Ryan O'Reilly type, which I think would be tough because the Avalanche don't have the assets to pay for him to be a third line center

when a team like Minnesota does have assets to make him a second line center. So I just think that they're in kind of a bind there with the assets that they have to move around. Brinley has worked himself into, I think the easiest thing is for him to replace Oliveson and Oliveson probably is either a healthy scratch come play off time or he gets moved out in any kind of deal

to improve the center spot. These are all ultimately such nitpicky champagne problems though because I was looking at where we were at with this roster on this exact day last year and they were running a second line of middle, that Randinen and Colton and the entire fourth line they were fielding is just not in the NHL anymore. And so that's where we're at in comparison.

So I think that's an important thing to keep in mind. You know, the reason why I keep referencing plays from that Utah game before the break, and it was a pretty nondescript game for the most part in terms of scoring, certainly. But I think general, the way we saw the abs play, I think they're pretty fortunate to come out of that one with a regulation win, just because Scott Wedgwood was so awesome. But I was very curious about it because we've seen three head-to-head matches between those two teams right now so far this season. And I think their fourth one, final one is going to be right after the Olympic break in late February. But for all the talk, and I think deservedly so, about the top of the Central and, you know, this gauntlet for whoever finishes second and third and then a round two matchup between two of the top three or four teams in the league or whatever that we seemed destined for.

we might be getting to a point where a realistic, if not probable round one matchup at this point in the 1-8 is going to be Colorado versus Utah. And in these three games we've seen so far, I think I'd argue, I'm not sure if you agree that they've probably been the most frustrating team they've played so far in terms of bogging them down a little bit and making just the usual offensive stuff that they get kind of harder to come by. And I think all the all the underlying metrics reflect that in the three head to head games, the goal. are 6-5 Colorado. The shots are 98 to 86 Utah. The high danger chances are 34-31 Colorado, and the expected goals are a virtual dead heat. And I'm not sure what to attribute that to beyond the fact that Utah obviously has a certain level of team speed, but also just a strong top-five defensive environment. And so they do this to a lot of teams. And I've been generally disappointed or underwhelmed by their performance this season, both in terms of results and playing style.

but it's been conducive to frustrating a team like the Aves and it's still ultimately a matchup that I think you feel comfortable in but considering the state of a 1-8 potentially it would be an interesting one if the first three head-to-heads or any indication. Yeah, they have been

these two teams have played a lot of frustrating games over the last handful of years even before Utah we were talking about Utah as like a potential playoff team. Their last year in Arizona it's been a lot of this between these clubs

before Andre Torini took over on the bench so it's not even like it's necessarily just a stylistic problem it just feels like the mammoth are one of those clubs that just give the avalanche fits I don't know what it is

I really don't when I watch the games I don't see like a huge stylistic issue that causes the avalanche problems Utah can play with some speed but they are comfortable playing in the sludge. This avalanche team is more comfortable playing in the sludge than any of the previous versions since the Stanley Cup win in 2022. So I'm, I honestly, I'm, I don't want that match up because I think all of those games have been pretty boring. I don't mind a tight checking

game. Like the Vegas game was fun. The defense was not good, but it was a fun game. The Utah, Colorado games have been low scoring, but not in the fun kind of way. It's just been a lot. of all right these are two teams doing things these are two teams getting some cardio in you know it just they're not particularly physical it's not spirited battles i really truly i don't know i wish i had a better answer but this is one that feels to me that it's just it just feels like utah i guess has their number a little bit i think it's generally the way they play like you look at uh but this swore logic has them i think second or third in terms of like least amount of time spent in their own zone they're pretty low event they don't give up much

and part of it is taking a toll on their own offense and they've kind of been doing this to survive especially with low logan coolly available um but i do think it presents a an interesting matchup not to mention that i keep kind of floating around my favorite destination i probably wouldn't be this season maybe in the future but peterboer as the coach of this team would probably be the most logical fit for him and we obviously know his history against the staffs team So I think that would add a certain fun element to these meetings between these two teams. You got any notes as we kind of wind down here on the power play? Because I've certainly been speaking about it a lot.

I don't know what to make of it for the most part. It's funny watching opposing broadcasts because every time the abs go on the powerplay, they put up the graphic of where they are in league wide. And it's like they're 27th. And then each broadcast is like, honestly, no idea what to make of this. It makes no sense that defies logic with this much talent. And then you watch it. And for the most part, it's just the same thing over and over again.

They've tried different combinations. The most recent one with Landis Gogh and Elson out there with McCarr, McKinnon, and Natchez has been in only 20 minutes, albeit more efficient so far. I still think the one with Nchuskin in the middle of the ice is probably the most dangerous and the one I'd fear most if I were an opposing PK. but you've obviously watched this more than anyone out there. Do you have any takes on what's been plaguing them and what the fix is in terms of trying to ramp it up to at least league average?

So it's not something that entering a playoff series is going to be your downfall where we know how important each of these opportunities are. Yeah, there are two things that have stood out to me, not just this year, but going back to when these struggles really began last year. The first is Keal Makara stops scoring power play goals He has not been nearly the same kind of shooting threat High up in the zone

Which means that teams don't Have to aggressively Close down on him the way that they have previously Although they are still Teams will still shade You know a guy towards him Just to try and keep him from shooting Like hey let's not mess with it

we don't want to be the get right team for this guy you know but the other the other thing that really sticks out to me is that Nathan McKinnon just isn't a very good power play coach and he needs to move around a lot more because when he just stands there on the half wall on the left side it's it doesn't accomplish a lot and that's when the power play is at its worst because Nathan McKinnon at his most dangerous he's aggressive he's aggressive he's dynamic he's he's high flying hard to defend the skating is a huge reason why he's so difficult to defend when he's standing still with his back up against the wall or two feet from the wall the opposing team goes great thank you this is the easiest version of you to defend you're doing

us a huge favor when he moves around he's a lot more dangerous i i would put natius in that spot and have mckinan be the one that is moving around a lot more because when he gets a puck down low and he goes hard to the net. The defense has to collapse on him. They have to worry about him moving around and actually being difficult to defend and not so stagnant. McKinnon just standing there on the wall

is, in my opinion, it's killing them. It's just killing them. It sucks all the energy out of the building. They don't play with any pace. They don't play with any determination. He just stands there. And sometimes he rips a really nice one-time goal and it's awesome, and everybody goes, yeah, there you go.

But it doesn't happen as often as you'd like, given his reputation and the insane amount of goals that he has scored to start the season. So I think that he, a more dynamic approach to the power play and less static, don't have him just stand there. Please, stop doing this to my eyeballs. It is hard to watch. It's depressing. And it's, as we've seen, it's really, really.

ineffective. I like their approach in the game in Minnesota where they obviously broke through and scored a couple of proper goals, but one thing they tried to do is it just seemed like they were hell bent on just repeatedly and aggressively setting each other up for the most massive one-timers they could and they were just bombing looks as early as often as they could. The other was, I think, on one of the goals, McKinnon was kind of floating through the middle of the ice tier point and opening himself up for a one-timer as opposed to just standing in that spot on the left flank

and that created an interesting opportunity with a miscommunication in the middle of the ice. You look at the heat map for them on the power play and it's a polar opposite of what it is a 5-1-5 where they're the most diligent team in the league about funneling pucks through that kind of area between the two dots and there's just no real presence for it

on the power play right now. Now rush opportunities and odd man situations are just going to be more difficult to come by with the other team content to sit back defensively and be in their structure. So that's certainly part of it but it should be better than this

regardless with the personnel they have. And so we'll see a team that draws a lot of powerboys, obviously, is going to be very interesting to see how that shakes out. And I think they got to figure it out. I remember when Nature's first came, we were kind of noting how they had bumped into a lot of these issues in terms of stagnation towards the end of the Mechlorantan era there. And then Nath just came and it unlocked this whole new world

with him and McKinnon moving around and interchanging on the same side and finding each other down low. And a lot of that has dissipated from it. So I think that's been disappointing, certainly. You got any other notes here on the way out that we didn't get to that you think are notable? Or do you think we hit most of the main talking points about the abs right now? Definitely hit the main talking points. But one of the guys that I think is having such an overlooked season is Brock Nelson.

It's funny that the Avalanche 2C conversation has been deafeningly loud since Nazim Kadri left town. and now that Nelson is performing to the level of a proper 2C after the huge trade hall that they gave up to get him and then re-signed him to an expensive deal. You know, all that went into it, and then he had such a slow start with a, it was two assists in nine games. And then ever since it started to go right,

it's like, oh, okay, cool. We don't need to talk about this anymore because he's doing the job. But I think he's having a really underrated year, like, on a, from a national conversation. and the avalanche have obviously been great. They're winning a lot of games. That has put them in the focus.

Nathan McKinnon is going to vie for another hard trophy. Keel McCarr is going to be a Norris contention, obviously. But there's no award for it. I just think that you're giving me a minute or two to talk about a thing that I like to talk about. And I just, Brock Nelson has been awesome. and the size and the power that he has and the way that that second line with what has been a lot of Landiscag

and Natuskin, they're fun to watch and they bring such a different element to the Avalanche because this Aves team is no longer like a rush dominant team where they score goals in transition and that's about it.

They get a lot of off the cycle nowadays And a lot of that is because of the way that Brock Nelson's second line has operated. They don't need to come down in transition and make a nice passing play. They work. Their puck retrieval is elite. They're big. They're feisty. They get involved physically.

It's just a perfect contrast to how the McKinnon line works. And watching them work in concert and actually all the players actually playing well at the same time has been a delight and has made it just fun to watch, fun to cover, really easy to write about because you're going, oh, great, who's going to have the big day today, you know, and I'm glad we got to touch on Gavin Brindley because he really has been a super fun storyline. But Brock Nelson this year actually living up to the expectations and having the kind of season he has, has been a ton of fun. Well, to your point, they're first and rush chances, but they're also first and cycle chances and there's second and four check chances with only Carolina better. And the result of that has

been second in offensive zone possession time with only the Oilers better there as well. So if there's an offensive category aside from the power play, they're probably first or second in it. It's amusing. You know, I noted this on the Sunday special about how one of my favorite stats for this team this year and I was talking about it with you and you used it as part of your game recap following the Golden Knights game is this stat with them being up four or one right now and the few opportunities they've had to pull their goalie and needing to try to manufacture a goal. And it's bizarre that I guess part of it is just the desperation and urgency. And so you attack it a little bit differently. But with an extra attacker out there, they've been so lethal in those situations. And yet it hasn't applied to a lot

of the power play stuff we've been talking about. I'm very excited to watch this upcoming stretch to start the new year where they go on the road at Carolina, at Florida, Tampa Bay. I think that'll be some fun tests and hopefully some other spots we see them have to bring their A game. All right, AJ, what do you want to promote in the way out? As always, you guys can find me over at DMVR sports, DMVR Avalanche on Twitter. I think it's DNVR underscore Avalanche. And I am on Twitter at Return of AJ. I always say I'm not a great follow these days.

I like to tweet about non-Avalanche things. And when I do tweet about the Avalanche, people get mad at me. So, you know, that's where you can find us. The DMVR Avalanche podcast over on YouTube is a great resource as well. And wherever you get your podcasts, all that. So the crew is hanging and producing a lot of really good content this year. We have a really good team over there doing it. It's not just me.

It's a handful of us. So, yeah, find us there. We're talking abs every single day. and we don't really ever take days off unless the company tells us that we absolutely have to because otherwise we would just work. So we're around and we're having a great time covering this team and a lot of angles to talk about. Well, keep it up, buddy. It's been awesome watching you document this amazing season so far.

And a blast is always to chat with you and already looking forward to our next one while we're on the topic of the ads. I'm not exactly sure how much I can share at the moment, but I did want to tease the fact that we are working on on something collaborating with the Aves for later this season. And when they announced it, I'll get into more details on the show about it then. But let's just say, I think it's going to rock. I'm incredibly excited about it. If you enjoyed today's show, I think you will enjoy that as well. So more to come on that.

If you want to help us out, give us a five-star review wherever you listen. Subscribe to the PDO guest Patreon. We've got two new shows dropping on that feed tomorrow, providing extra content for all the sickos. I know a lot of abs fans are already subscribed and support. the show. So thank you for that. And yeah, that's all for today. We'll make sure to check out this week Sunday special with Drans, which we just dropped on the feed. We got plenty more coming to close out 2025. Thank you for listening to the HockeyPedocat streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network.