28. Colorado Avalanche – 64

Top 15 Prospects

*Was traded to Anaheim for a 5th-round pick

**Was traded to Nashville in the Trenin deadline deal

Individual Breakdown:

For a team that won the Cup two years ago and is well into their competitive window, Colorado has managed to keep some valuable prospects in their pipeline at all times. They seem to have made the most of their 2023 1st round picks by selecting Calum Ritchie, the consensus top-rated prospect by the DobberProspects team, and Mikhail Gulyayev. Ritchie’s prolonged injury likely hurt this rating for some voters, but he has turned his OHL team around so dramatically upon return that fantasy owners wouldn’t be blamed for clamoring to add him. Meanwhile Gulyayev earned himself a regular KHL role at age 18, which is an impressive feat even if the offensive production may not have attracted fantasy owners yet.

As the resident Colorado team writer for DobberProspects, I was extremely curious to see the range of scores divvied out by my fellow writers:

The biggest wildcard among my peers appears to be Kovalenko, who is a major question mark after dominating the KHL but suffering a knee injury immediately before his season ended and was set to turn pro in North America. We hoped to see his multi-cat value down the stretch but this may have to wait until 2024-25.

2021 1st-round-pick Olausson also caused some debate, ranging from a 2/10 to a 6/10 score. While his stock has certainly fallen since draft day, the effort made this season to be more present in the crease and score goals for close range has me personally hanging on for at least another season of development before lowering my score.

Finally, Annunen would have likely received some higher scores from my fellow rankers if his one-way, two-year extension was in place at the time of ranking.

Like most teams with low overall ratings in this exercise, the bottom half of the list is a grab bag of guys with low upside or very low NHL likelihoods and the Fantrax ownership reflects this. Ritchie is perhaps under-owned compared to other franchise’s top prospects in their organizations, while Behrens at 7% is certainly under-owned given his score and the team’s history of finding d-men. In the bottom half of the list, fantasy owners are clearly desperate for goaltending. Prosvetov (13% rostered) may get another chance as a backup if injuries hit, so anyone somehow currently in fantasy playoffs but in desperate need of an extra goalie can hold on, but the 2% holding onto Holm can use that spot more effectively.