We have reached the end of the season now for the Colorado Avalanche. Few conclusions arose from the season’s long-anticipated press conference. The leadership required over thirty days to collect reflections, then confer with journalists. Few future Avalanche changes appear likely. We will go over the biggest takeaways from the press conference and what it means for the Avalanche organization.

Cale Makar

Several things came out about the young defenseman. The biggest piece of news is that he will be healthy by training camp. Makar was not mentioned specifically, but general manager Joe Sakic said that all players will be healthy in time for training camp. I saw Cale at Game Six for the Colorado Eagles waiting for his brother, Taylor, after the game. Cale was not in any sort of sling for his arm or shoulder or anything.

Sakic mentioned he has already been in contact with Cale’s agent regarding a contract extension.

Coaching staff

The entire coaching staff will remain with the Avalanche, which will include Jared Bednar and Dave Hakstol. There are expectations that the power play will be better with Hakstol, but everyone will remain.

Practice facility

One of the biggest complaints from players and fans alike has been about Family Sports Center. The facility is open to the public and houses recreational hockey, you and high school hockey leagues besides the Avalanche. During training camp, the ice surface can get beat up and abused and barely passes as an NHL facility. Owner Josh Kroenke said they “are very close to getting a facility started,” but could not provide a timeline.

Possible trades

It could happen. The Avalanche have only 25 draft picks over the next four drafts. There are only a handful of prospects that could fight for third or fourth-line spots on the team right now. So the Avalanche need to build their draft stock back up again through undrafted college players or trades.

“We’re gonna, we’re gonna do, if we feel we, it’s gonna help us or make us better,” said Sakic. “We’re gonna look at all options to try to get better. We, I mean, we don’t have the picks right now, like we to bring somebody up, yeah, it’s one thing, but picks and prospects, we have a few prospects that are going to compete for that, but for the, for the most part, unless we’re looking at trades and, and which we will to see what can make up, make us better, we’re going to look at that and try and do something, but it’s not really an age thing right now. We feel like this is an older team, but we’ve been building. We were young 10 years ago, and this group’s come a long way now. We’re in that window, and and this team deserves to try and win, but we’re going to do whatever we can.”

If these names were mentioned, we could be looking a very different top-six next season. Either way, the Avalanche will be aggressive in the trade market and we could see some the fan favorites leave this summer.