All-Time Teams: Avalanche

Half of the first eight NHL franchises in The Collector's All Time Teams series have relocated from their original home, including today's team. Here's the All-Time Roster for the Colorado Avalanche:

The Avalanche swept Florida for their first Stanley Cup in 1996. They defeated the Devils in a seven game Final five years later.

1st Line

Left Wing - Michel Goulet Hall of Fame sniper is second in Nordiques/Avalanche history with 456 goals, including four consecutive 50-goal campaigns. His 946 total points for the franchise place him third in team annals, and his games played and assist totals are fourth-highest among Nords/Avs.

Center - Joe Sakic The captain of Colorado's two Stanley Cup-winning teams and the Avs' current General Manager, Sakic is the team's all-time leader in more than a dozen categories including games played, goals, assists, and points. All of Sakic's 625 career goals and 1,641 career points - the ninth-highest total in NHL history - were scored with this franchise.

Right Wing - Milan Hejduk Originally drafted by the Quebec Nordiques, Milan Hejduk didn't arrive in the NHL until the team moved to Denver. The franchise's fourth-leading scorer, Hejduk led the NHL in goals, plus/minus, and shooting percentage in 2002-03, won a Stanley Cup with Colorado in 2001, and won a gold medal with team Czech Republic in the 1998 Winter Olympics.

2nd Line

Left Wing - Anton Stastny The youngest of three Stastny siblings, Anton defected from the former Czechoslovakia with his brother Peter in 1980 (older brother Marian defected a year later). Anton Stastny sits sixth on the Nordiques/Avalanche career list with 384 assists and 636 points, and his 252 goals are fifth-most in franchise history.

Center - Peter Stastny The 1981 Calder trophy winner, Peter Stastny started his Hall of Fame career with six consecutive seasons of over 100 points. His 1.42 points per game average is the highest in Quebec/Colorado history, and he's second on the team's all-time list in career assists (668) and points (1,048) in just 737 games.

Right Wing - Réal Cloutier I bent the rules a bit with this selection because the Nords/Avs are thin on the right side. Réal Cloutier led the league in scoring twice in three seasons - but that league was the WHA, not the NHL. Cloutier technically qualifies, as he did play four seasons for the NHL's Nordiques - scoring 284 points in 236 games from 1980-83. That said, I must admit it's a thin line between him and another high-scoring right winger with less than 300 games played for the franchise.

3rd Line

Left Wing - Alex Tanguay Highly efficient forward led the NHL in shooting percentage in 2005-06 and 2014-15. Scored 75+ points four times in the first seven seasons of his career. Boasts the second-highest plus/minus total in franchise history and the eighth highest career totals for assists and points.

Center - Peter Forsberg Philly's 1st-round pick in the 1991 draft, Peter Forsberg was the centerpiece of the package sent to Quebec in exchange for Eric Lindros. Injuries limited "Foppa" to just 708 NHL games, including 591 contests for the Nordiques/Avalanche. However the Swedish superstar stayed healthy long enough to win the Calder trophy in 1995, the Hart trophy in 2003, two Stanley Cups, and an Olympic gold medal in a Hall of Fame career.

Right Wing - Scott Young Somewhat of a journeyman, Scott Young played for six franchises in 17 seasons, including five for the Nordiques/Avs. He won a Stanley Cup in Pittsburgh and another in Colorado, posting 15 points in the 1996 playoffs. Mikko Rantanen has scored three more points for the Avalanche than Young's 247 but he's only played 281 professional games. While Mikko technically qualifies, I'd prefer to wait a year or two. These rosters aren't sent in stone, you know.

4th Line

Left Wing - Gabriel Landeskog The second overall pick in the 2011 Draft, Gabriel Landeskog has served as Colorado's captain since his second season in 2012-13. He won the Calder trophy in 2012 and set career highs with 34 goals and 75 points in 2018-19. In his nine seasons with the Avalanche, Landeskog has scored 198 goals - the seventh-highest total in team history.

Center - Nathan MacKinnon Colorado's first 1st-overall pick and the first for the franchise since Eric Lindros was selected by Quebec, Nathan MacKinnon won Rookie of the Year honors two years after Landeskog. A runner-up for the Hart trophy in two of the last three seasons, MacKinnon posted a third straight season of 90+ points in the Covid-shortened 2019-20 campaign. If he were a winger I'd move him up to the Stastny line, but he's stuck behind three Hall of Fame centers on this roster.

Right Wing - Adam Deadmarsh A gritty power forward who performed well in the playoffs, Adam Deadmarsh is eighth on the Quebec/Colorado career list for penalty minutes with 723. Deadmarsh scored 22 goals and 56 points in 88 playoff games for the franchise, getting his name (misspelled) on the Stanley Cup in 1996. Concussion problems forced him to retire at age 28 after just nine NHL seasons.

 

Spares - Paul Stastny, Valeri Kamensky

Let's squeeze another Stastny onto this squad, shall we? Peter's son Paul Stastny is tenth in Quebec/Colorado history with 298 assists in 538 games. Adjusted for era he would have the exact same amount of points as his uncle Anton. Kamensky was an underrated scorer in the mid 1990s, averaging 0.9 points per game in his eight seasons with the Nordiques and Avs. His 51 power play markers are ninth-most in franchise annals.

Defense Pair 1

Adam Foote - Sandis Ozolinsh

Defense has not been this franchise's strong point. Foote would be a solid third-pair player on a lot of All-Time teams; here he's the number one blueliner. Foote ranks third in Quebec/Colorado history with 967 games played and a +129 rating. His 1,279 penalty minutes are fifth in franchise annals, and his 259 points (in 17 seasons) rank 20th. Ozolinsh was a much more offensive-minded rearguard, posting just six fewer points than Foote.. in 634 fewer games.

Defense Pair 2

Erik Johnson - John-Michael Liles

The 1st overall pick by the Blues in 2006, Erik Johnson has been a solid stay-at-home defenseman in Denver for the past decade. Injuries have limited him to 573 games for the Avalanche thus far in his career. Liles is the second-highest scoring defenseman in Nordiques/Avalanche history, averaging 0.53 points per game over his seven seasons with Colorado. He makes the second pair based on a higher plus/minus and DPS rating than the highest scoring blueliner in team history...

Defense Pair 3

Tyson Barrie - Randy Moller

..Tyson Barrie, who ranks first among Avs defencemen (and 15th overall) with 307 career points. Barrie posted three seasons of 50+ points and five seasons of a dozen or more goals over his eight-year tenure with the Avalanche. However his -59 career rating is the second-worst in franchise history among players who didn't suit up for the Nordiques. On the other end of the spectrum, Randy Moller has the 11th-best plus/minus rating of all Nords/Avs. His 28.3 Defensive Point Shares are second in franchise history, and his 1,002 penalty minutes are sixth in team annals.

Spare - Alexei Gusarov

Quebec got incredible value out of their last two picks in the 1988 draft. In the 12th round they selected Claude Lapointe, who played 14 NHL seasons. Their 11th round selection was Gusarov, who would spend 11 seasons with the franchise. A member of the Soviet national team, he was a champion at every level - winning World Junior gold, World Championship gold, and Olympic gold before helping Colorado win their first Stanley Cup. Normand Rochefort and Jon Klemm were considered but didn't contribute enough offensively to make this roster.

Goalies

Starter - Patrick Roy

Backup - Semyon Varlamov

On the short list of greatest goaltenders in NHL history, Patrick Roy is the franchise leader in every statistical category except losses. Roy played 12 seasons in Montreal (where several other legendary goalies played) and eight in Colorado. The 1995 trade that brought Roy to Denver was widely regarded as the final building block of a two-time Stanley Cup-winning squad. Varlamov is the Avs' leader in losses - but he's second to Roy in almost all of the positive categories including wins, shutouts, goalie point shares (GPS?) and save percentage.

Head Coach: Bob Hartley  Captain: Joe Sakic

Michel Bergeron coached Quebec for eight years in the 1980s and leads the franchise in games and wins. However his winning percentage is far below that of Bob Hartley, who is second to Bergeron in games and wins, second to Marc Crawford in winning percentage, and led the Avs to their 2001 title.

I hope you'll join us tomorrow for our next All-Time Team, the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Thanks for reading!

 

 

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Sports Card Tour 2018 - Denver

Good Friday to you! The Collector's Sports Card Tour has reached a Rocky Mountain high. Today we're in Denver.

Denver has four pro sports teams - the Rockies, the Broncos, the Nuggets, and the Avalanche.

The Broncos have hoisted the Vince Lombardi trophy three times. The Avalanche have won the Stanley Cup twice. The Rockies were champions of the National League in 2007, when they were swept by the Red Sox in the World Series. The Nuggets are 0-3 in conference finals as an NBA franchise; they reached the ABA finals in 1976.


John Elway is the Broncos' Vice President/General Manager and the city's greatest athlete. When Elway led Denver to Super Bowl XXXII I invited all my friends over to watch the game. They were all neutral fans so they wanted to see Elway finally win one. I was a huge Packer backer, and after the game ended I was so disappointed that they lost (and upset that my friends were all celebrating) I stormed off to my room. Not sure what hurt more at the time, but it annoys the hell out of me that poor old John Elway has three rings and Brett Favre only has one.

I never liked Elway, even before that Super Bowl, but I have to admit he's got some cool cards. Playoff X's and O's are one of my favorite insert sets of the 1990's. I bought a lot of Prime boxes from K-Mart to chase those.

Is it me, or does it seem like the Broncos could just plug in anyone at running back and watch him gain 1,000 yards? I don't think it's me. Fourteen different Broncos backs have had 1,000-yard rushing seasons. I have ten of them in my collection. 

Terrell Davis wasn't any old back; he rushed for over 2,000 yards in his MVP season of 1998 and won two Super Bowl rings. Injuries limited "TD" to just four full seasons, nevertheless he was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame last year.

Some strong safeties here. Brian Dawkins is part of this year's Hall of Fame class. Steve Atwater and John Lynch could soon follow him to Canton.

The rest of my Broncos hits. Like Elway, Peyton Manning finished his incredible career on top. I didn't like Shannon Sharpe as much as his brother Sterling, but his trash talk was legendary.

Equally as upsetting to me as Elway's Super Bowl win was Ray Bourque finally raising the Stanley Cup with the Avalanche. The Devils had a 3-2 lead in the 2001 Final, but destiny was not on their side. My wife and in-laws still grumble about that series; I used to tell my father-in-law that if Bourque hadn't won that year he'd still be playing.

It also gave Patrick Roy four Stanley Cup rings and a head-to-head victory over Martin Brodeur, who "only" has three Cups. I liked Roy a lot more when he was in Montreal.

Let's get the rest of the inserts out of the way so that I can show you my all-time favorite Av...

Chris Drury won a Little League World Series, an NCAA hockey championship, and a Stanley Cup. My family and I pulled both the John-Michael Liles base auto and gold parallel #d/10 out of 2005-06 Be A Player. Of all the one-auto-per-pack BAP issues, this was my favorite. Black Diamond Game Gear was the first set I saw that contained pieces of goalie pads.

Nathan MacKinnon is a top contender for the Hart Trophy as league MVP. If history is any indication, he'll beat my guy (Taylor Hall) and win. I'm really starting to dislike Denver...

...then again they've got some solid Connecticut connections, besides Chris Drury.

Here's a small sampling of my Peter Worrell super collection. Pete was a fan favorite in New Haven, when he played two years with the AHL's Beast. After his one season with the Avs, the NHL phased out fourth-line enforcers and Worrell's career was essentially over. Because he's not a big star and only has about 130 NHL cards I surmised that I'd have a much better chance of completing his card run than any of my other favorites like Favre or Brodeur.

The Colorado Rockies had a minor-league affiliate in New Haven for over a decade, starting in 1994. A good chunk of my early Rockies cards are former Ravens, such as slugger Derrick Gibson.

Gibson ended his career in pro ball with another New Haven franchise, the independent (and short-lived) Cutters. I recently told Rockies fan Rosenort of the blog Condition Sensitive that I had more cards of Gibson than Nolan Arenado. Didn't know just how true that was until now...

For the record, it's 11-2 Gibson - and that's after I bought the 2018 Topps Arenado at the card show.

You may have heard of this former Raven..

Todd Helton was Colorado's first home-grown superstar, and the first Rockie to have his number retired by the team. I absolutely would have wanted him to with the 2007 World Series - if his Rox weren't facing my Sox. He'll be on next year's Hall of Fame ballot; I wonder if he'll fare better than Larry Walker.

I had a Helton bat relic but I traded it to another Rockies blogger, Adam K. of Infield Fly Rule. Thus, the Tulo patch is the only thing resembling a "hit" in my Rox collection. I'm pessimistic about Walker's HOF chances, though some day the Hall voters will have to get over themselves and enshrine a Rockie. 

Actually, there is one former Rockies player in the Hall of Fame...

the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Meanwhile the Denver Nuggets have had a handful of HOFers, including Dikembe Mutombo.

I'll never forget that 1994 first-round series when the 8th-seeded Nuggets shocked the top-seeded Sonics. 

I think of Carmelo Anthony more as a Knick than a Nugget, but he had some sensational seasons in the Mile High city. I honestly didn't know Melo led the Nuggets to a Conference finals appearance in 2009. For a guy with an NCAA championship and three Olympic gold medals, I still get this impression that most basketball people don't think he's a winner.

Alex English was nearing the end of his fantastic career when I started collecting basketball cards. I don't think I ever saw him play, but his scoring stats were mind-boggling to me as a ten year-old. And that colorful cityscape jersey was fantastic. 

Here's another look at it because it is awesome and this post isn't long enough:

The rest of my notable Nuggets:

I almost bought an Immaculate Kenneth Faried card on COMC but cheaped out for some dumb reason. The McDyess Black Diamond is my favorite here. Don't Google Evan Fournier. He said not to ...so I didn't.

Rockies card I'd like to own: A Todd Helton auto, or more affordably a 2002 Topps Pristine refractor.
Broncos card I'd like to own: Ten year-old me really wants a Jake Butt card. Huh huh.  
Nuggets card I'd like to own: An early 90's logo card. Or an Allen Iverson card. Or that Immaculate Faried I should have bought for 85 cents when I had the chance.
Avalanche card I'd like to own: Believe it or not, I'm missing the pewter Peter Worrell autograph parallel to complete the Auto-facts rainbow. It's #d to 10 and I doubt I'll ever find one.


Favorite Rockies player: Nolan Arenado or Carlos Gonzalez
Favorite Broncos player: Von Miller
Favorite Nuggets player: Don't have one yet. I hadn't even heard of Gary Harris until about a month ago.
Favorite Avalanche player: It might be MacKinnon. But that doesn't mean I want him to win the MVP.

Next tour stop: Detroit


Thanks for reading this very long post. Have a great weekend!


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