November 6, 2026
November 6, 2026
Avalanche’s 2025-26 Season: A Record Year With a Stunning End
The Avalanche’s 2025-26 season produced the greatest regular season in franchise history and one of its most painful exits. Colorado piled up 121 points, captured the Presidents’ Trophy, and watched Nathan MacKinnon climb past Joe Sakic in the record book. Eight wins in nine playoff games followed. Then the Vegas Golden Knights swept it all away in the Western Conference Final.
Colorado opened camp carrying a sting from the previous spring. The 2024-25 club had fallen to Dallas in seven games in the first round. Gabriel Landeskog had returned during that series after nearly three years away, and his comeback gave the room fresh belief.
General manager Chris MacFarland reshaped the edges of the roster. Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood went to Columbus in June for prospect Gavin Brindley and draft picks. Jonathan Drouin left for the New York Islanders, and Ryan Lindgren signed in Seattle. Brent Burns arrived from Carolina on a one-year deal, bringing more than 1,400 games of experience to the blue line.
The core stayed locked in place. MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Martin Necas, and Brock Nelson formed the spine of the attack. Necas signed an eight-year extension on October 30, a clear signal that the Hurricanes trade of the year before had become a long-term bet. Jared Bednar returned behind the bench with a mandate to finish the job.
The fall belonged to Colorado from the first night. MacKinnon recorded his 1,016th point in the season opener, passing Sakic for the most in franchise history. The team then seized control of the league standings and never let go.
A 10-game winning streak ran from November 4 to November 26. Along the way, the Avalanche crushed Edmonton 9-1 on the road. Bednar collected his 400th career win in Vancouver. On November 22 and 23, Colorado blanked Nashville 3-0 and Chicago 1-0, the first back-to-back shutouts in franchise history. The scoreless run reached a franchise-record 221 minutes and 42 seconds before Minnesota finally broke it on November 28.
The numbers bordered on absurd. A win over Vancouver on December 2 pushed the record to 19-1-6. Only the 1979-80 Philadelphia Flyers had ever suffered just one regulation loss through 26 games.
MacKinnon kept chasing ghosts through December. He scored in overtime at Madison Square Garden on December 6. Five nights later, in a 6-2 win over Florida, he scored his 392nd goal to pass Sakic for the franchise lead. He closed the calendar year with his 400th career goal on December 31.
The wins kept stacking up. Colorado clawed back for a 5-3 victory over Carolina on January 3 and became the first team with only two regulation losses through 40 games. An 8-2 rout of Ottawa followed on January 8. Two days later, Trent Miner earned his first NHL win and first shutout in a 4-0 victory over Columbus.
MacFarland treated the trade deadline as a declaration. On February 24, he sent Sam Girard and a second-round pick to Pittsburgh for defenseman Brett Kulak. Nicolas Roy arrived from Toronto on March 5 at the cost of a conditional first-round pick. Nashville sent over Nick Blankenburg for depth.
The emotional move came on March 6. Colorado reacquired Nazem Kadri from Calgary, sending Victor Olofsson, Max Curran, and conditional picks the other way. Kadri had helped win the 2022 Stanley Cup in Denver, and his return completed a familiar circle. That same night, the Avalanche edged Dallas 5-4 in a shootout. Landeskog reached 600 career points and Necas reached 400.
The stretch run turned into a coronation. A 4-1 win over Chicago on March 20 made Colorado the first team to clinch a playoff berth. It also extended the club’s run to nine straight postseason appearances. On April 9, the Avalanche locked up the Presidents’ Trophy.
Colorado finished 55-16-11 with 121 points, a franchise record. Both its 55 wins and 48 regulation wins led the NHL. The Avalanche scored 302 goals and allowed only 203, and they finished nine points clear of Dallas in the Central Division. The full game-by-game record is preserved at Hockey-Reference’s 2025-26 Avalanche page.
Goaltending made that defensive dominance possible. Scott Wedgewood went 31-6-6 with a 2.02 goals-against average and four shutouts. Mackenzie Blackwood added 23 wins and three shutouts. The pair shared the William M. Jennings Trophy for the fewest goals allowed.
The first round tested Colorado’s patience more than its talent. Each of the first two games against the Los Angeles Kings ended 2-1. Roy, the deadline addition, scored the overtime winner in Game 2. The Avalanche then won 4-2 and 5-1 in Los Angeles to complete the sweep. They allowed just five goals in four games.
The second round opened with chaos. Colorado outlasted Minnesota 9-6 in Game 1 and followed with a 5-2 win. The Wild answered with a 5-1 rout at home, but Colorado reclaimed control with a 5-2 win in Game 4.
Game 5 delivered the defining comeback of the spring. Minnesota led 3-0 after the first period, and a return trip to St. Paul loomed. The Avalanche clawed back to force overtime. At 3:52 of the extra period, Kulak, the deadline acquisition, sent Colorado to the conference final with a 4-3 win.
Everything that had gone right for nine games unraveled against Vegas. Makar missed the first two games with an upper-body injury, and Colorado dropped both at home, 4-2 and 3-1.
Game 3 became the scene that haunted the season. Landeskog, Kadri, and a short-handed breakaway from Jack Drury built a 3-0 lead after one period. Colorado had been 74-1 all-time in playoff games when leading by three. Mark Stone’s power-play goal sparked the comeback, and Vegas tied the game by the second intermission. Tomas Hertl then scored at 8:21 of the third in a 5-3 win, as KSL’s account of the collapse detailed. MacKinnon also took a puck to the right knee that night.
The end came quietly on May 26. Blackwood started Game 4 and made 24 saves, but Carter Hart held Colorado to a single Landeskog goal in a 2-1 loss. A team that averaged 4.11 goals per game through two rounds managed 1.75 against Vegas. CBS News Colorado chronicled the sweep that ended the Presidents’ Trophy run.
MacKinnon delivered the finest goal-scoring year of his career. He scored 53 goals and 127 points in 80 games, winning the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy. His 97 even-strength points were the most since Wayne Gretzky’s 103 in 1990-91. He finished third in Hart Trophy voting behind Nikita Kucherov and Connor McDavid, according to Pro Hockey Rumors’ breakdown of the 2026 Hart vote. In the playoffs, he added 15 points in 13 games.
Necas broke through with 38 goals and 100 points, the first 100-point season of his career. Makar posted 20 goals and 79 points in 75 games and reached 500 career points on March 28. He finished as a Norris Trophy finalist. Nelson scored 33 goals, played his 1,000th NHL game on April 13, and earned a Selke Trophy nomination.
Landeskog’s season carried a meaning beyond the scoresheet. He scored six goals in the playoffs and won both the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy and the Mark Messier Leadership Award. Burns, meanwhile, reached 1,000 consecutive games played in April. The Avalanche’s official season review catalogs those milestones in full.
The Avalanche’s 2025-26 season will be remembered as the best regular season Colorado ever played and the one that slipped away fastest. A franchise-record 121 points, a Rocket Richard Trophy, and a Jennings Trophy all belong to this group. So does a three-goal lead that vanished in a single period in Las Vegas.
For a fanbase that had celebrated the 2022 title, the Avalanche’s 2025-26 season left a hard lesson. Dominance from October to April guarantees nothing in late May. MacKinnon, Makar, and Necas remain in their primes, and the core is signed to chase another title. The sweep will follow them until they do.
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