Let's look at some team stats for the Avs as well as a few individual stats leaders:
As you can see, the team was quite good in most statistical categories, though our penalty killing certainly could have been better. We were clearly a very up-tempo, aggressive offensive team and took the most shots on goal per game of any team in the league. In the previous post there are also some interesting hints about our style of play as 6 of the 9 players with the most giveaways were Avs but also 5 of the top 9 in takeways also being Avs, including
Brian Hughes leading the league in giveaways and placing 7th in takeaways.
Hughes, it should be noted, had some great defensive games during the season, but also some very poor ones, while he was consistently tremendous offensively, finishing the season with the best offensive average game rating in the NHL.
Turning to our Goalies, playing time was still pretty split between
Terry Ross, who appeared in 47 games (43 last season), and
David Mencl, who was in 40 games (42 last season).
Ross went 30-13-4 with a 2.37 GAA (7th best in the NHL), a .920 save percentage (8th), and a GSAA of 14.14 (7th).
Mencl wasn't as good, but wasn't really bad either- he was 17-17-1 (often played well in losses), with a 2.65 GAA, a .918 save percentage, and 9.42 GSAA.
I should also note that in the two seasons in which he has played for the Avs,
Terry Ross ranks tied for 1st among all NHL goalies in GAA (2.50) and 2nd in save percentage at .920.
Players who had good seasons:
Brian Hughes, LW- I think we have pretty much covered this.
Aleksandr Dugin, RW- 24 goals, 37 assists, -11(?), GR: 71
Tommy Lockhart, LW- 16 goals, 26 assists, +14, GR: 68
Lukas Nordin, LW- 15 goals, 13 assists, +14, GR: 71-
Nordin was quite good when healthy but went down with a Grade 3B concussion in mid-January and has been on the Injury List since then.
Sherwood Sharp, RD- 23 goals, 45 assists, +18, GR: 67
Aleksandr Yermolayev, RW- 16 goals, 47 assists, +31, GR: 67
Nikolay Ivanov, C- 23 goals, 39 assists, +19, GR: 66
Luke Bosum, LD- 10 goals, 31 assists, +15, GR: 65
Michal Lezak, RD- 13 goals, 25 assists, +8, GR:64 (actually a bit of a regression from 2020-2021, but still mostly solid).
Players that were not so good:
Jesse Shafer, RW-
Shafer was acquired off the waiver wire in February for a bit of depth. He only played in 15 games, collected no points, was -5 with a GR of 56.
Andy Patrick, C- 7 goals, 9 assists, +6, GR: 58. The veteran Center wasn't horrible but with depth at the position and the team trying to get more playing time for top prospect
Clark St. Croix, Patrick was traded to San Jose in February for San Jose's 5th round draft pick in the upcoming entry draft.
Dan Law, RD- 2 goals, 0 assists, +2, GR: 59. Law has spent much of the season in the AHL on the Colorado Eagles, having been pushed out of regular playing time by younger players.
James Joyal, C- The 38-year old Joyal had been a good player and he wasn't horrible this season- 9 goals, 12 assists, +8, GR: 59, but with one year left on his contract he is rapidly being pushed down the depth chart.
The team rewarded veteran star
Brian Hughes and young rising star
Aleksandr Dugin with contract extensions in mid-February. The 32-year old
Hughes was extended through 2026 and the 26-year old team captain
Dugin should remain an Av through 2028.
Having completed another successful regular season the Avalanche were rewarded with a first-round playoff matchup with the reigning Stanley Cup champs- the Edmonton Oilers- who come into the playoffs having won 9 straight games.
Next up, we'll see how that went.