Colorado Avalanche Loaded With Young Talent. Who Is Their Best Player?

Numbers never lie, but they don't always tell the entire story.  When you examine the new look Av's under the  microscope of hope and change, you hope that what we are seeing is the change we've been hoping for.

This team is young and fast and gritty like the coach they embody.  They are as good as their record suggests and better than many had projected.  The Av's are so loaded with new talent that casual fan's who stopped caring when things got tough are getting to know these guys as we speak.  There are some remnants of the past years and a couple of special draft picks and trades as well.  In fact, this team has started to remind me so much of the championship Av's, that I am finding myself asking the same question we asked way back when.


Who is the best player on this team of really great players?

Back in the day when Peter Forsberg patrolled the ice, Joe Sakic made it really hard to call Forsberg our best player.  Hindsight will give added points to great defensemen like Ray Bourque and Adam Foote, but the joy of it all was simply having the conversation and walking away not really caring because they all played for us.

The Av's are not the Bronco's or the Nuggets.  They wouldn't even be in the same league as the Rockies if they had not brought our first professional sports title to Denver.  We love hockey to the extent that we expect to win.  More of us will tolerate baseball simply because of its heritage and because Coors field is magical.  Until the Rockies are a legitimate contender, we will basically ignore them as well.

This team is easily as loaded with talent as the Av's of old.  Experience they lack, but talent is at a premium and the Av's are demanding the attention of the entire league.  The numbers paint the picture for me, because every player that the eye test told me was possibly the best Av, has the numbers to back up my vision.

At first I was inclined to choose the first in line, Matt Duchene.  Duchene is an incredible skater with a litany of moves to score himself, and even more moves to share the puck.  Duchene is like water in his ability to adapt and adjust to what the defense has offered at that time.  Not many guys in the entire league can do what Duchene can do.

Ryan O'Reilly can.  Well at least most of it.  O'Reilly is not the breathtaking trick skater that Duchene is, nor is he the pure playmaker, but he is the most consistent individual scorer on the team.

At least he appeared to be until we uncovered the magic of the rookie Nathan Mackinnon.  Mackinnon was too new for us to be sure that what we thought we were seeing was for real.  It's for real, and in a year the question will have to be asked again simply because of the rise of Mackinnon.

Paul Stastny is of legendary pedigree and has done little to disappoint an amazing family legacy, but when we thought we had drafted the leader for our future, Gabriel Landeskog came along to take that mantle and the team captain label as well.  Landeskog is the strongest player of the bunch and the most like Forsberg in stature and maybe even in his game.  Of the names mentioned above, Landeskog maintains the highest plus minus rating of +10.  He may not do as much to take your breath away as some of these other guys do regularly, but his steady play is a comfort to the entire team and the coaching staff.

While I eluded to the coaching staff,  Patrick Roy is as much a key to the resurgent Av's as anything, but I held his name back to withhold the answer to both of our questions.

Who was the best Av's player way back when.  Roy was, and similar to the impact that he had for the original Av's, Semyon Varlamov is having that impact for this bunch of developing players.  Varlamov has allowed these young Av's to successfully experience on the job training, and to avoid the depressive impact of losing with loads of talent.

Varlamov is not only our best player, he might be the reason that we compete for a Stanley Cup soon.  How soon is soon?  Ask Roy.  He recognizes the type of goal tending that wins championships.