About Colorado Avalanche
Originally founded as Quebec Nordiques in 1972 the franchise was absorbed as a part of WHA until 1979 when the NHL-WHA merger occurred.
While the team was fairly successful on the ice, its finances never really met the expectations and eventually the franchise was sold and moved to Denver when they became Colorado Avalanche.
In their first season after relocation they won Stanley Cup thus becoming the first and only team in NHL history to win a championship their first season after relocation and only the second one across all major leagues in North America. They were also the first major league sports team to bring the city Denver a championship.
The team carried on a high note advancing to playoffs for another 9 seasons and they managed to grab another win in Stanley Cup Finals in 2000-01 thus making them the only active NHL team to win all their Stanley Cup Finals appearances.
The Avalanches fortunes started to turn around and the team had started to struggle to reach the playoffs accomplishing the feat only once since 2010-11.
The team has also won the Presidents’ Trophy twice and won their divisions nine times, including their lone title in Central Division in Western Conference, which has been their division since the 2013 league realignment.
The team’s colours are burgundy, silver, blue and black and they are represented by their second in team’s history mascot, Bernie the St. Bernard dog.
The Avalanche’s coaching duties lay in hands of one of the greatest goaltenders in NHL history, Patrick Roy who won four NHL championships during his career, joined the team as their coach in 2013 and was awarded the Jack Adams Trophy for the best NHL coach in year 2014.
Current goaltending duties are Semyon Varlamov’s responsibility who has played for the team since he was traded in 2011. He won a gold medal in 2012 World Championships, playing for his team, Russia.
The franchise’s named captain is very young left wingman, Gabriel Landeskog who was drafted 2nd overall in 2011 draft by the team and was named their captain a year later thus becoming the youngest captain in NHL history. He won rookie of the year award, Calder Memorial Trophy for his outstanding playing skills.
He gets plenty of mentoring and help from the Avalanche’s alternative captain Cody McLeod who joined the team in 2007. He’s well known for his harsh style of game which can easily be documented in the history of the team, he is the only player to register at least 100 penalty minutes in five consecutive games. He’s the longest tenured member of the team.
The franchise has hope to develop young players like Matt Duchene (center) and Tyson Barrie (defenseman) into faces of franchise soon. In the meantime, the duo that was selected by the Avalanches in 2009 draft are slowly turning into legitimate weapons on the ice.
With plenty of youth there’s plenty of potential and the franchise’s fans might just need a bit more patience to start to see their team challenging the top tier.
