The Colorado Avalanche’s Decline

The Colorado Avalanche’s Decline

The Falling Avalanche

The Colorado Avalanche had the strongest start after relocation that a team could really hope for. As the Quebec Nordiques, the franchise played in only two Conference Finals in its entire history; following their 1995 relocation to Denver, the team reached six Conference Finals in their first seven seasons, winning two Stanley Cup championships and leading their division every year from 1995–96 through 2002–03. The Avalanche did not miss the postseason until 2006–07. In their first decade in the league, they grew accustomed to success, and arguably had the most successful first decade of any team in NHL history. It’s understandable, then, that their fans grew concerned when they missed the playoffs two years in a row, in 2011–12 and 2012–13, and started to panic when things only got worse from there.

Two Decades, Two Different Records

Dividing the franchise’s 20-year history into two halves illustrates the Avalanche’s decline in stark terms.

The First Decade of Dominance

The statistics from the Avalanche’s first decade tell a story of success. They averaged 44 wins per season, had nearly twice as many wins as losses, and went 78-48 in playoff games (16-5 in playoff series).

The Decade That Followed

By contrast, the Avalanche from 2005-06 to 2014-15 posted an overall regular-season record of 384-324-76, an average of 38 wins per season. They made the postseason only four times in that ten-year span and went 13-19 in playoff games (2-4 in playoff series). After leading their division in eight of their first nine seasons, the Avalanche finished atop their division only once from 2005-06 to 2014-15. They finished last in their division more times than they finished first: twice while in the Northwest (2008-09 and 2012-13) and once since the realignment that put them in the Central (2014-15).

The Salary Cap Forces a Rebuild

The NHL’s full-season 2004-05 lockout neatly divides the two halves of Avalanche history, and while it’s impossible to pinpoint one single cause for the Avalanche’s decline, the timing seems far more than coincidence.

A Payroll Built for a Different Era

The most significant change to come out of the lockout was the introduction of a salary cap for the 2005-06 season. The Avalanche had a payroll of over $63 million in the 2003-04 season. Only four teams spent more that season, and the Avalanche spent far and away the most of any team in the Northwest Division. The second-highest spender, the Vancouver Canucks, had a payroll of just over $42 million, two-thirds what Colorado spent on its players. When the NHL’s salary cap of $39 million was implemented in the 2005-06 season, the Avalanche were forced to cut their spending on salaries by more than 35%, forcing some very difficult decisions about their roster.

Losing the Roster’s Anchors

The first decade of the 2000s was a gradual fading for the Avalanche. Among the players lost due to the new cap restrictions were center Peter Forsberg and defenseman Adam Foote, both of whom had been with the franchise since the early ’90s. They’d already lost Patrick Roy the year before the lockout. Roy, who had minded the net for the Avalanche in both their Stanley Cup wins, announced his retirement at the end of the 2002-03 season. Though Rob Blake was one of the players they managed to retain after the salary cap shake-up, he chose to return to the Los Angeles Kings when he reached free agency in 2006. This left Joe Sakic as the last remnant of their Stanley Cup era, a connection that faded when he announced his retirement in 2009.

Building a New Era on Old Foundations

Every era eventually comes to an end, and though the salary cap perhaps hastened the Avalanche’s decline from the dominant team they’d built in their first nine seasons, even all the money in the world could not stop time from passing. Arguably the most damaging loss the Avalanche suffered in the early 2000s was that of Patrick Roy, who left before the new salary cap was even implemented. It has been a decade of transition for the Avalanche, building a new winning team on the traditions of the old. Though they struggled from 2009 to 2015, they did lay the foundations for a strong team. With Joe Sakic as their general manager and Patrick Roy now standing behind the bench as head coach, the Avalanche have certainly taken care to maintain a link to their past greatness.