The 1994-95 Quebec Nordiques were pretty darn good. Actually, they were nearly Stanley Cup good. Quebec posted the best regular season record in the NHL’s Eastern Conference before losing to the eventual Stanley Cup champion New York Rangers in the playoffs.
Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Owen Nolan, Adam Foote, Uwe Krupp and others formed a great core. When they moved to Denver for the 1995-96 season, they instantly became the best professional sports team in the city.
Just one thing was missing.
That next season, while the Nordiques-turned Colorado Avalanche got off to a really good, 16-7-4 start (36 points, which included an eight-game winning streak), future Hall-of-Fame goaltender Patrick Roy of the Montreal Canadians was scuffling. Miserable and fighting with this head coach, Roy pushed himself out of the good graces of Canadians fans and on December 6th, he was traded to Colorado. The Avs gave up their promising young goalie, Jocelyn Thibault, in the deal.
What had been missing from the newly minted Avs was no longer missing. Roy found his groove, and was almost instantly the missing link for what became a Stanley Cup champion hockey team. Denver got its very first championship parade.
Fast forward: The 2026-27 version of the Colorado Avalanche have goal-scoring talent that’s comparable to their predecessors of more than three decades. A pair (at least) of future Hall of Famers, plus a glut of talented forwards and savvy, experienced defensemen. Just one thing is missing. Again.
Both starting goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood and backup Scott Wedgewood have had great moments with the Avs. Both are capable, if not consistent. A year ago, they combined to lead the league in fewest goals allowed during the team’s President’s Cup-winning regular season. But in the playoff loss to Las Vegas, it was Golden Knights netminder Carter Hart who stole the show. Literally.
The combo of Blackwood and Wedgewood is good… but not Stanley Cup great.
As we begin this newest NHL season, star goaltender Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets, who helped lead the United States to the gold medal in last winter’s Olympic games, remains in a contract holdout that was turned into a suspension. He’s eligible to return to the Jets on Friday. Whether or not they decide to play him is up in the air.
Hellebuyck is a three-time winner of the Vezina Trophy as the league’s best netminder and has also won the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s MVP. Convinced he is worth more than the small-market Jets are willing to pay him, Hellebuyck sits at home and hopes to be traded.
So… why not the Avalanche?
Last season, the Avs were the best team in the NHL during the regular season, but goaltending (and an anemic power play) did them in during the postseason. Could one of the league’s best goalies have made a difference?
Keep in mind that the 1994-95 Avalanche were not hurting between the pipes. Thibault would go on to play for 15 seasons, including an All-Star year in 2003. But when Roy arrived in the Mile High, he lifted up the entire organization. And he excelled in the playoffs.
At the time of his trade to Colorado, Roy was considered one of the best three or four netminders in the game.
Even as he sits out in the contract dispute, Hellebuyck is also considered one of the three or four best goaltenders playing the game today.
How great would he look in an Avs sweater?
Not that acquiring Hellebuyck from Winnipeg would be easy.
Back in the mid 1990’s, then-Avalanche general manager Pierre Lacroix was a shrewd operator. He proved it again and again with the future acquisitions of Hall-of-Famers like Ray Bourque and Rob Blake. But Lacroix had one very big and decided advantage over his current-day protégé, Sakic: When Lacroix was running things in Colorado, there was no salary cap in the NHL. So if Sakic is going to make any sort of similar move – and ‘Super Joe’ has not been hesitant in the least to pull the trigger on trades large and small – he’s going to have to figure out how to make it cap-compliant.
Keep in mind this isn’t being proposed by a capologist, but perhaps Colorado could potentially package Blackwood and winger Artturi Lehkonen (a free agent after the season who will be looking for a big raise) in exchange for Hellebuyck? They could make the salaries work. Hellebuyck is under contract for seven more seasons (plus an option year) so he’ll want to renegotiate for more per year, not more years on his current deal. If the Avs sent those two players to Winnipeg, they’d be unloading almost $10 mil in salary for this season (and could still throw in another player if they needed to.) Hellebuyck’s current deal is for $8.5 mil, so they could not only give him a salary bump, but also a chance to win the Cup.
What’s in it for the Jets? Entering this week of play, the Jets and the Avs had allowed up the exact same number of goals, so they’re also good, not Cup great. Blackwood would be an upgrade in net and Lehkonen a potential first-line scoring threat that could improve them substantially.
Is this trade idea worth considering, Avs faithful?
Strike 1: Should the Colorado Avalanche try to trade for Connor Hellebuyck? Mile High Sports.
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