Montreal Canadiens: Five Teams That Prove NHL Teams Can Go From Last to Playoffs

2017-18 Colorado Avalanche

The 2016-17 Colorado Avalanche had one of the worst seasons in NHL history. They were a decent team the previous year, finishing with 82 points, but things went sideways in 2016-17.

The only big change on the team occurred behind the bench, but the timing was awful. Patrick Roy had been the team’s head coach but chose to step away from the team in August of 2016. This left them scrambling for a bench boss on the eve of training camp and they settled on Jared Bednar.

They did have some good young players to build around, inducing Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog. So, even though they finished the season with just 48 points, the team pretty much decided to stay the course for the 2017-18 season.

Their only real big trade occurred early in the season when they finally dealt Matt Duchene who wanted out. He was sent to the Ottawa Senators for a package that landed them Samuel Girard on the roster immediately.

The Avalanche had some added depth with rookie Alex Kerfoot, Tyson Jost and JT Compher all playing their first full seasons. They also benefited from having Semyon Varlamov back healthy after he played just 24 games in the last place season.

Huge breakouts from MacKinnon and Rantanen as well as much better goaltending and a little more depth on the blue were the biggest reasons for the Avalanche turning it around. A little consistency from a young coach on the bench didn’t hurt as well as Colorado went from last place to the postseason in 2018. They lost to the Nashville Predators in the first round in six games.

Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield taking their games to whole new levels, decent production from rookies like Shane Wright, Jordan Harris and Jesse Ylonen and a healthy season from Carey Price could see the Canadiens make a similar turnaround in 2022-23.

Want your voice heard? Join the A Winning Habit team!

Write for us!