2014-15 Colorado Avalanche Preview

Oct 1, 2014 - 7:36 PM (SportsNetwork.com) - Patrick Roy earned plenty of hardware during his playing days and it seems the Hall of Fame goaltender isn't done adding trophies to his mantle.

Not much was expected of the Colorado Avalanche in 2013-14, but Roy managed to raise the bar in Denver as a rookie NHL coach, leading the Avs to a Central Division title while picking up the Jack Adams Award for himself.

Of course, Roy is hardly satisfied with merely making the playoffs. He was a big part of four Stanley Cup championship teams as a goalie, lifting the Cup twice with Montreal and two more times in Colorado. Clearly, anything short of returning to the top of the NHL mountain as a coach would be considered failure.

Colorado president Joe Sakic, a teammate of Roy's on two championship teams and himself a Hockey Hall of Famer, was criticized before the start of last season for pairing a rookie coach with a young team. However, Roy made it easy on his old friend by getting the Avs off to a ridiculously hot start, winning 14 of his first 16 games behind the bench. The critics kept waiting for the Roy's Avalanche to implode, but that didn't happen until the first round of the playoffs when Colorado fell in seven games to Minnesota.

Even after putting together a 52-win season and taking first place in arguably the toughest division in hockey, Colorado still has plenty to prove in 2014-15.

The Avs' critics are not as vocal as they were a year ago, but they haven't gone anywhere. The only way to shut them up for good is by winning it all. Roy may not get Cup No. 5 in 2015, but he's made it harder to bet against him.

FORWARDS - The Avalanche halted a three-year playoff drought last spring, and it wasn't all due to Roy's coaching ability.

Colorado was able to stockpile talent through the draft while making the playoffs once in the five seasons prior to Roy's arrival behind the bench, and last season was a good sign the youth movement is taking hold.

We knew about talented young forwards Matt Duchene, Gabriel Landeskog and Ryan O'Reilly prior to last season, but 2013-14 saw Nathan MacKinnon join Colorado's list of offensive studs. At 23 year of age, Duchene and O'Reilly are the elder statesmen of the group.

MacKinnon, the first overall pick of the 2013 NHL draft, posted 24 goals and 63 points in 82 games last season en route to winning the Calder Trophy as an 18-year-old rookie. He also produced at a dizzying pace during the playoffs, burning the Minnesota defense for 10 points (2 goals, 8 assists) in seven games.

Considering Duchene, MacKinnon and O'Reilly are all natural centermen, it makes sense Sakic allowed pivot Paul Stastny to walk via free agency. Stastny could come back to haunt the Avs as a member of the divisional rival St. Louis Blues, but it's hard to argue with Sakic's decision to rely on his younger and better options down the middle.

Even without Stastny, Colorado has a logjam at the center position and it will likely lead to O'Reilly being pushed to the wing as he was for much of last season. The versatile O'Reilly didn't seem too bothered by the switch, as he set personal bests in both goals (28) and points (64).

Duchene also set a career best in points with 70, recording 23 goals and 47 assists over 71 games. Not to be outdone, the 21-year-old Landeskog set high marks in both goals (26) and assists (39) during his third season as an NHLer.

Colorado's young guns are a big reason the club finished fourth in the NHL with 2.99 goals per game last season, but Roy does have veteran options to utilize on the top two lines. One of those players is incoming free agent Jarome Iginla, who turned 37 years old this summer but is coming off a 30-goal season with Boston.

Iginla notched 61 points (30G, 31A) in 78 games for the Bruins and reached the 30-goal mark for the 12th time in his illustrious career. Signing a player of Iginla's age to a three-year, $16 million contract is a risky investment but Colorado is betting the former longtime Calgary Flame has a few good years left.

Sakic also acquired Daniel Briere from Montreal in an offseason trade which sent P.A. Parenteau to the Canadiens. Briere will turn 37 years old a few days before the start of the season and is coming off a 12-goal, 25-point showing for the Habs in 2013-14. As always, Briere managed to pick up the pace in the playoffs with seven points in 16 games and his postseason prowess could come in handy.

Briere could be pegged for the third line, while Iginla and winger Alex Tanguay could earn coveted spots on one of Colorado's top lines. Tanguay is aiming to rebound after injuries caused him to miss all but 16 games during the regular season and all of the playoffs. The 34-year-old does boast six seasons of 20-plus goals on his NHL resume, including four such campaigns while during his initial run with Colorado from 1999-2000 to 2005-06.

With the top two lines expected to do the heavy lifting for the offense, Colorado's bottom six can focus on playing a responsible two-way game. It's a job veterans like Jamie McGinn, John Mitchell and Maxime Talbot are more than capable of handling.

DEFENSE - While the Avs are loaded with talented young players up front, the defense is lagging far behind.

Colorado was near the bottom of the league rankings in terms of shots allowed per game (32.7) and the blame falls mostly on the club's less than impressive group of defenseman. Sakic added veteran Brad Stuart to the mix in an offseason trade with San Jose, but the problems on defense are still a going concern.

Erik Johnson is the clear No. 1 option for Roy, as he led the Colorado blue line in points (39) while logging a team-high 23 minutes of ice time per game. Jan Hejda is Johnson's normal skating partner and is coming off a season in which he recorded six goals and 11 assists over 78 games.

Stuart, 34, is a stay-at-home type who could balance out the second pairing by giving Tyson Barrie ample opportunities to push the puck up ice. Barrie led Colorado's defense with 13 goals in 64 games last season and finished one point behind Johnson.

Barrie also plays a key role as a point-man on the power play. It was clear Colorado missed him after the blueliner was knocked out of the playoffs by Matt Cooke's vicious knee-to-knee hit in Game 3.

Nick Holden added 10 goals from the back end during the regular season and added three more tallies in the playoffs. Even more impressive is that it was the first full NHL campaign for the 27-year-old undrafted defenseman.

Holden has earned his spot on the third pairing, but his partner could change with regularity as Colorado expects to carry eight defensemen. Nate Guenin, Zach Redmond and Ryan Wilson all could fill the sixth D-man spot this season.

GOALTENDING - It's fun to talk about Roy's amazing rookie season as a coach and the emergence of Colorado's young offense, but the most essential component of the team's thrilling 2013-14 campaign had to be goaltender Semyon Varlamov.

Facing a ton of shots most nights, the Russian netminder played Vezina-caliber hockey for the Avs throughout the season. Varlamov went 40-14-6 with a 2.41 goals against average and .927 save percentage, all while facing 1,973 shots -- over a 100 more than the next-closest goaltender. Boston's Tuukka Rask wound up beating him for the Vezina, but it's hard to argue Rask made more of a difference for the Bruins than Varlamov did in Colorado.

Varlamov stumbled a bit in the playoffs, logging a .913 save percentage in the series against Minnesota but it's easy to forgive him for that since Colorado wouldn't have made the postseason without him.

While watching the Avs in 2013-14, it was hard to believe Varlamov was the same goaltender who sported a 3.02 GAA for Colorado during the previous season. If the 26-year-old Russian gets injured this season or reverts to his 2013 form, Colorado could be in real danger of missing the playoffs.

Roy started Varlamov 60 times last season and that number is likely to go up in 2014-15. Backup netminder Reto Berra is there to spell Varlamov when needed, and nothing more. Berra went 9-18-3 with a 3.07 GAA in 31 games for Calgary and the Avs last season, but only two of those appearance came following his trade to Colorado.

WHEN ALL IS SAID AND DONE - The Avalanche won't sneak up on anybody this season and playing in an extremely difficult division along with Chicago and St. Louis makes repeating as Central champs a tough act to follow. But it would be truly disappointing if Colorado doesn't make it back to the playoffs, which is a distinct possibility considering the competition in the stacked Western Conference. Roy raised the bar for his young team in 2013-14, and it could prove difficult to duplicate the shocking 112-point season. Colorado may take a step back a year after the franchise made huge gains, but it would be unwise to bet against Roy and the Avs over the long term.