With their 7-4 win against the Florida Panthers on Nov. 23, the Colorado Avalanche played their 21st game of the 2024-25 season and officially crossed the quarter-mark of the campaign. The team improved its record to 12-9-0 with the win and now sport a points percentage (PTS%) of .571, ranking 15th in the league at the current juncture.
Since starting the season with four straight losses while being outscored 25-13, the Avalanche have gone 12-5-0 in 17 games with a plus-10 goal differential and currently sit in the Western Conference’s first wildcard spot. The team has stayed afloat amid choppy waters through October and November, so let’s dive into the five key takeaways of the impressive start to the campaign at the quarter-mark.
Colorado Decimated by an Avalanche of Injuries
No discussion of the Avalanche’s fortunes this season can be had without first addressing the elephant in the room. According to NHL Injury Viz, only the San Jose Sharks and the St. Louis Blues have amassed a greater cumulative Cap Hit of Injured Players (CHIP) than the Avalanche through the first month and change. While Colorado has recently seen several of its charges re-enter the fold, the season-long tally of missed games handily explains the team’s middling record thus far:
| Player | Games Missed |
|---|---|
| Gabriel Landeskog | 21 |
| Valeri Nichushkin | 17 |
| Jonathan Drouin | 16 |
| Artturi Lehkonen | 12 |
| Ross Colton | 11 |
| Miles Wood | 7 |
Landeskog’s long-term injury recovery is well-documented at this point, and the date of his return is as murky as ever. Nichushkin was recently reinstated following his six-month suspension for violating the terms of the NHL/NHLPA Player Assistance Program. Drouin, Lehkonen, and Wood all have returned to the lineup after multi-game absences, while Colton is nearing the conclusion of his six-to-eight-week recovery timeline after breaking his foot at the end of October.
Those injuries collectively robbed the Avalanche of virtually their entire top-six forward group, and most of their top-nine core. Each of Chris Wagner (12 games played), Matt Stienburg (eight), T.J. Tynan (seven), Calum Ritchie (seven), and Nikita Prishchepov (six) played notable roles over the first two months, a much greater level of involvement than expected of American Hockey League (AHL) tweeners and NHL rookies prior…
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