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COL

Colorado Avalanche

Rated #4 of 32 by xG-Elo in 2026-27

2026-27 regular season

Record
7 wins, 5 regulation losses, 1 overtime losses
Points
15
Points rank
#16 of 32
Goal diff
+12

Every club’s 2026-27 standings

The model’s read · 2026-27

Rated 12 spots higher than the standings

  • #16 of 32In points
  • #4 of 32By xG-Elo
Where the model disagrees most
How the rating works — it is built from expected-goal margin, not from results

xG-Elo moves game by game with the model’s expected-goals margin, never with the score or the standings, which is why it can disagree with a club’s points. That disagreement is the sentence above. Under 7 spots apart the two are read as in line: a display rule for the wording, not a test of whether a gap is real.

This club’s rating is 1534. Every club starts from 1500 and is pulled back toward it between seasons, so above 1500 is stronger than an average team and below it weaker.

2026-27 · 13 games · goals

Goal margin: expected and actual

The goals point the other way, so this gap lies in what neither ledger shows, such as one-goal games, overtime and shootouts, or where the rating began the season.

Expected goal margin+5.1 · #8 of 32

Actual goal margin, same attempts+13 · #3 of 32

Gap +7.9 goals, actual minus expected

Scoring, against the model
+11.1More goals than its chances were worth
Goals allowed, against the model
+3.2More than its opponents’ chances were worth
Compare with every club — where its two margins sit among the league’s

Expected goal margin+5.1 · #8 of 32

Actual goal margin, same attempts+13 · #3 of 32

  • Expected, from chance quality
  • Actual
  • Another club
Every club’s two margins, 2026-27, in order of expected margin
#ClubExpectedActualGap
1CAR+21.6+21−0.7
2MIN+18.1+12−6.0
3NJD+13.8+5−8.8
4UTA+13.7+5−8.7
5VGK+13.3+10−3.4
6TBL+9.8+6−3.8
7DET+6.1−1−7.1
8COL+5.1+13+7.9
9EDM+4.3+13+8.7
10FLA+3.9+2−1.9
11DAL+3.6+5+1.4
12NYR+2.3+2−0.3
13BUF+1.6−6−7.6
14STL+1.5+2+0.5
15MTL+0.5+3+2.5
16WSH+0.3+6+5.7
17BOS0.0+18+18.0
18OTT−0.9−2−1.1
19LAK−1.8−8−6.2
20NSH−2.7−4−1.3
21PIT−3.0−1+2.0
22NYI−3.5+5+8.6
23CGY−4.8−17−12.2
24TOR−5.2+7+12.2
25WPG−6.3−10−3.7
26CBJ−6.8−9−2.2
27ANA−7.9−7+0.9
28SEA−8.4+2+10.4
29CHI−13.6−21−7.4
30SJS−15.8−7+8.8
31PHI−16.2−21−4.8
32VAN−22.5−23−0.5

Every club’s expected goals and goals, for and against, are on the Teams page.

How these are counted — open-play unblocked attempts at every strength; not the standings’ goal totals

The reading in full

The goals do not explain this gap: the club’s goal margin ran 7.9 ahead of its expected-goal margin, which points the other way. It lies in what neither ledger shows, such as points won or lost in one-goal games, overtime and shootouts, or where the rating began the season.

The rating is built from expected goals, the chances a club makes and allows. The standings are built from results, and results from goals. These are the two ledgers side by side, over the same attempts.

Both margins count the same pucks: open-play unblocked attempts, at every strength, with a recorded location. The actual margin is the goals on those attempts, so it leaves out penalty-shot goals and each shootout winner’s extra goal, which the standings count.

Raw, the Colorado Avalanche scored 11.1 more goals than their chances were worth and allowed 3.2 more than their opponents’ chances were worth so far in 2026-27. The scoring and allowed bars are these raw figures, measured against the model alone: the model’s league-wide level for the season being played is read once, after the season, so no average club is measured until then, and the league’s own level stays in each club’s figure. Goals allowed beyond the chances is goaltending, and whatever else the model does not see.

Expected goals and goals, Colorado Avalanche, 2026-27
LedgerForAgainst
Expected goals42.937.8
Goals on those attempts5441
Rating entering the season
1542 · #3 of 32
Rating entering its latest game
1534 · #4 of 32

The rating carries each club into a season from the last one, pulled back toward 1500, and then moves after every game by how far that game’s expected-goal margin beat or missed what the two clubs’ ratings predicted, home ice included. Its latest figure is the rating the club took into its most recent game.

What it cannot establish

Whether scoring or keeping out goals beyond expected is skill that will last, luck that will not, or chances the model reads wrong: nothing here tells the three apart. For skaters, finishing above expected has carried only partly into the following season — does finishing persist? These figures say which ledger the standings came from, not which ranking is right.

Regular season · per game · same attempts

Season trends

  • Expected
  • Actual
  • 2021-22: expected goal difference +0.41 per game, goal difference on the same attempts +0.93 per game, over 82 games
  • 2022-23: expected goal difference +0.38 per game, goal difference on the same attempts +0.62 per game, over 82 games
  • 2023-24: expected goal difference +0.35 per game, goal difference on the same attempts +0.62 per game, over 82 games
  • 2024-25: expected goal difference +0.45 per game, goal difference on the same attempts +0.51 per game, over 82 games
  • 2025-26: expected goal difference +0.93 per game, goal difference on the same attempts +1.23 per game, over 82 games
  • 2026-27 to date: expected goal difference +0.39 per game, goal difference on the same attempts +1.00 per game, over 13 games
Goal difference per game, expected (xGD) and actual (GD), using the same open-play attempts
How it is counted — not the standings’ goal difference

Each regular season, both figures count the same open-play unblocked attempts: expected goals for minus against, and the goals scored on those attempts for minus against, each divided by games played (GP). That is not the standings’ goal difference, which also counts penalty-shot goals and each shootout winner’s extra goal. The season to date is drawn on its own, joined to nothing.

Next game

Calgary Flames at Colorado Avalanche

Sat, Oct 31 · 10:00 PM ET

Pre-game win chance

CGY 31%COL 69%

Set Oct 30, 8:55 AM ET, before puck drop.

The model’s projection, not a betting recommendation. Its accuracy is modest (AUC 0.600, on a scale where 0.5 is a coin flip and 1.0 is perfect). That figure is measured on 2025-26, the season the rest adjustment was first seen in, so it describes that season rather than testing the model on games it had not seen.

Game preview

Last game · numbered by five-on-five time together

Lines from last game

Oct 28 vs NJD (New Jersey Devils). These are the lines that game was played with, not a projection of the next one.

Forwards

  1. Line 1LehkonenNecasMacKinnon11:34 together at five-on-five
  2. Line 2SvechkovKellyO'Connor10:26 together at five-on-five
  3. Line 3LandeskogNelsonRoy9:18 together at five-on-five
  4. Line 4SchwartzKadriHughes9:13 together at five-on-five

Defence

  1. Pair 1MakarToews10:53 together at five-on-five
  2. Pair 2KulakBurns6:13 together at five-on-five

Also played (defence, not part of a pair): Sam Malinski 19:24 at 5-on-5, Josh Manson 4:06 at 5-on-5

Power play

  1. PP1NecasKadriHughesMacKinnonMakar2:24 together on the power play
  2. PP2NelsonLandeskogLehkonenSchwartzToews0:47 together on the power play

Penalty kill

  1. PK1NelsonLehkonenToewsMakar1:37 together killing a penalty
  2. PK2KellyRoyKulakBurns0:30 together killing a penalty

Goalie

Box score

Skaters
G
A
+/-
PIM
SH%
PPG
SHG
HIT
BLK
GV
TK
FOW
FOL
FO%
SHFT
TOI PP
TOI SH
0
0
−2
0
6
0.0
0
0
0
0
2
0
0
0
—
29
25:51
3:09
2:44
0
1
0
0
4
0.0
0
0
0
1
1
1
0
0
—
30
24:42
0:48
3:53
0
0
+2
0
3
0.0
0
0
0
0
1
1
0
0
—
30
22:42
0:00
1:40
0
2
+3
0
3
0.0
0
0
0
1
2
0
0
0
—
27
21:11
0:00
1:14
0
0
−1
0
4
0.0
0
0
1
0
4
0
0
0
—
19
19:35
3:10
0:05
1
0
0
0
2
50.0
0
0
0
0
1
0
12
10
54.5
19
19:00
2:24
0:20
0
1
+1
0
2
0.0
0
0
1
1
0
0
0
1
0.0
21
18:33
0:52
2:56
0
2
+2
2
4
0.0
0
0
2
4
1
0
0
0
—
25
17:49
0:00
1:23
0
0
0
0
3
0.0
0
0
1
1
2
0
6
7
46.2
21
16:38
1:33
3:10
1
1
+1
0
2
50.0
0
0
0
0
0
0
8
3
72.7
15
15:06
3:05
0:00
1
0
+1
0
3
33.3
0
0
0
1
1
0
0
1
0.0
17
14:13
0:00
2:20
0
0
+1
2
2
0.0
0
0
1
0
1
2
0
0
—
16
13:39
0:00
0:58
0
1
+1
2
0
—
0
0
1
0
0
0
3
5
37.5
15
13:31
0:00
0:00
0
0
0
0
3
0.0
0
0
0
2
1
0
3
1
75.0
14
13:09
3:04
0:00
1
0
−1
0
1
100.0
1
0
1
1
2
0
0
1
0.0
16
12:29
0:53
0:00
0
1
+1
0
0
—
0
0
1
0
0
0
4
2
66.7
16
11:26
0:00
0:32
1
1
+1
0
3
33.3
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
—
14
10:53
0:47
0:00
0
0
0
0
0
—
0
0
1
0
1
0
0
0
—
7
4:06
0:00
0:00
Goaltending
SOGA
MIN
PIM
22
2
20
.909
59:27
0
How these lines are found — from the shift charts, numbered by time together, not a coach’s depth chart

Every shift each player took in the game is lined up against everyone else’s, using the NHL’s own shift charts. Only five-on-five time with both goalies in net counts, so power plays and penalty kills do not split a line. Line 1 is the three forwards who spent the most of that time on the ice together, line 2 the most of the rest, and so on; defence pairs the same way.

A group that never took a full shift together, about a minute, is not called a line: its players are listed as also played. A game is used only when every skater’s time in the shift chart is within 30 seconds of the box score, so a chart the NHL published incomplete is skipped rather than read.

A power-play unit is the same five skaters on the ice together while the club had five skaters to the other side’s four or three; a penalty-kill unit is four skaters together while short a man. The second unit is the best group that shares at most one player with the first, since one player often plays on both. Power-play and short-handed time follow the penalties, not an empty net: a goalie pulled for an extra attacker at even strength is still even strength.

The box score is the NHL’s own, except four figures it does not publish. Short-handed goals and faceoffs won and lost come from the play-by-play, which is used only when it reproduces the box score’s goals, power-play goals and faceoff percentages exactly; power-play and short-handed ice time come from the shift chart.

From the last 7 days · newest first

News

  1. Injury

    BREAKING NEWS: Josh Manson Injury Forces Avalanche Into Unexpected Blue-Line Shakeup (external site)

    The Hockey News - Colorado Avalanche via Yahoo Sports ·

    In this story: Brent Burns, Josh Manson, Sam Malinski, Colorado Avalanche

  2. Injury

    Former Avalanche Prospect Set to Miss 4-6 Weeks With Injury (external site)

    The Hockey News - Colorado Avalanche via Yahoo Sports ·

    In this story: Colorado Avalanche, New York Islanders

All Colorado Avalanche news

Current roster · clubs updated weekly

Roster

Per-game rates, recency-weighted over every season since 2021-22. Skaters are listed by Adj. P, points per game pulled toward the league average when the sample is small; the other rates are the recorded ones.

Forwards: per-game rates
Forwards#Adj. PPTSGA
Nathan MacKinnon291.541.550.590.964.34448
Martin Necas881.081.090.380.702.55467
Nazem Kadri910.750.750.270.472.98436
Artturi Lehkonen620.750.750.400.352.13391
Brock Nelson110.720.730.350.382.32441
Gabriel Landeskog920.650.650.310.342.07162
Jaden Schwartz710.580.580.270.311.96328
Nicolas Roy100.430.430.170.261.28418
Parker Kelly170.350.340.170.171.22371
Fedor Svechkov90.330.320.100.231.02135
Tristen Nielsen570.320.250.000.250.754
T.J. Hughes130.320.310.150.152.2313
Fabian Lysell220.300.250.080.171.7512
Vinnie Hinostroza180.280.280.100.181.12206
Logan O'Connor250.270.270.110.161.26360
Sampo Ranta750.270.000.000.000.8616
Adam Beckman340.240.140.000.141.0523
Zachary L'Heureux680.240.230.100.131.3490
Gavin Brindley540.240.230.090.141.0661
Georgii Merkulov490.200.100.000.100.8511
Zakhar Bardakov930.180.170.020.150.5860
Nikita Prishchepov850.130.000.000.000.4010
Taylor Makar160.050.000.000.000.5614
Defence: per-game rates
Defence#Adj. PPTSGA
Cale Makar81.031.040.300.742.86436
Devon Toews70.570.570.130.441.73442
Wyatt Aamodt50.470.500.500.001.502
Brent Burns840.430.430.100.332.08477
Sam Malinski700.390.390.070.311.74209
Josh Manson420.360.360.070.291.48362
Christian Wolanin860.310.200.020.170.9025
Brett Kulak270.230.230.040.201.21504
Domenick Fensore30.230.000.000.002.253
Noah Juulsen470.150.150.010.140.53176
Keaton Middleton670.110.090.000.090.9444
Goalies: per-game rates
Goalies#
Scott Wedgewood41.9112.2323.025.256:25178
Mackenzie Blackwood39.9032.5423.526.056:09206
Trent Miner50.9252.0022.324.156:296
How these rates are built — the club is their current one, re-checked weekly; the rates span every season since 2021-22

Each player is listed under the club the NHL had them on when we last checked, and clubs are re-checked once a week: a player traded in the last few days can still appear under their previous club, while the rates beside them span every season since 2021-22, wherever they played them. Each rate is a recency-weighted per-game average, and Sample is the number of games it rests on.

Skaters are ordered by a points rate shrunk toward the league average in proportion to how little a player has played, so a one-game sample does not out-rank a career. That rate is Adj. P; PTS and the other columns are the recorded rates, and for anyone with a real sample Adj. P and PTS are nearly the same number. Save percentage is total saves over total shots, weighted, not the average of per-game save percentages, which would count a two-shot relief appearance as heavily as a forty-shot start.

2026-27 cap · 2025-26 production

Best cap efficiency

Best cap efficiency on this club: points per $1M of cap hit
#SkaterCap hitClub controlPTSPTS / $1M
1Brent BurnsD82$0.85M1 yrUFA3541.2
2Parker KellyC82$1.70M4 yrsUFA3520.6
3Vinnie HinostrozaC65$0.88M2 yrsUFA1820.6
4Gavin BrindleyC56$0.88M2 yrsRFA1314.9
5Fedor SvechkovC70$1.25M2 yrsRFA1713.6

Club control counts every season a player is signed through, extensions included, so it can describe a different contract from the cap hit beside it. A player measured against the season that earned his contract looks expensive, so recent signings sit low and entry-level deals sit high, by construction. Cap efficiency across the league.