The Avalanche have some work to do on building the team for next offseason, especially at center, and will likely need to take a look at the UFA market to get back into the Stanley Cup picture next season. Who should they be looking for, and how aggressively do they need to pursue. Now that the Conference Finals are set, is there anything to three of the same teams being in final four again this year? What's next for the Toronto Maple Leafs after a 9th straight playoff failure? Also, answering your mailbag questions!

This offseason for the Avs is one of the most important in recent history, and the first order of business is figuring what to do with their own unrestricted free agents. Brock Nelson, Jonathan Drouin, Ryan Lindgren, Erik Johnson, Joel Kiviranta, and Jimmy Vesey all have the UFA tag coming up, who is the most likely to stay and who is the most likely to go? Who is the most important to keep? What are some reasonable prices to have them stick around? Also, looking around the playoffs as the second round wraps up.

Four months after Avalanche traded Mikko Rantanen to Carolina, things could not be going worse. Rantanen somehow ends up in Dallas, ends the Avs season, and is the favorite to win the Conn Smythe for the Stanley Cup favorite Stars. Total disaster. But does that mean that the trade was really the wrong decision? What details from when this trade happened are we forgetting? Griffin and Christian take a look back at the process of the Rantanen deal, the ridiculous circumstances that landed him in Dallas, and how the story of this trade is still being written.

Send questions to the mailbag here: https://forms.gle/7ytuJfsiTr1x3VDt6

Send questions to the mailbag here: https://forms.gle/7ytuJfsiTr1x3VDt6

The season is over. A stunning third period collapse in Game 7 has brought the 2024-25 season to an abrupt end, where Mikko Rantanen scored a third period hat trick as the Avalanche blew a 2-0 lead with 12 minutes to go. This is the fourth straight Game 7 loss with this core, the seventh in a row as a franchise, and the third straight playoff loss to Dallas with this core. They had no business losing this series, but they found a way to do it, and now a very long an uncomfortable offseason awaits. Changes are probably coming.

Keep up with everything on the site at HockeyMountainHigh.com

The Avalanche stay alive in Game 6 with a chaotic 7-4 victory over the Stars to force a do or die Game 7 back in Dallas on Saturday night. It was far from perfect, had plenty of chaos, but was enough for the Avs to live and fight another day. Plenty of the players that they needed to produce came through, . Heading into Game 7, nothing has changed. This was the easy part, now comes the hard part of finishing the job this time around and winning a Game 7 on the road in Dallas. Can they do it and slay all their demons in one go?

Send questions to the mailbag here: https://forms.gle/7ytuJfsiTr1x3VDt6

The Avs are faced with elimination after everything that could go wrong, went wrong in Game 5 vs. Dallas in a 6-2 loss. With all the usual excuses gone for the Avalanche, it is now time to put up or shut up. There's no time to talk about 'when' or 'if' anymore with this team, they have to 'be', or we're in for a long offseason with uncomfortable questions about the players who haven't pulled their weight in this series. Here why's the Avs are going to get it done.

Now that was much better. The Avalanche absolutely dominated the Stars in Game 4, playing as close to a perfect game as you can get to tie the series at 2-2 heading back to Dallas for Game 5. Best of all, Gabe Landeskog scores his first goal since 2022, and has shattered all expectations in his return by being one of the best players on the ice in both games. If the Avalanche keep up this level of play down the stretch in this series, they're going to be in great shape. Can we expect to see more of Game 3 or Game 4 the rest of the series?

That was embarrassing. The Avs got Gabe Landeskog back after over 1,000 days out of the lineup, but couldn't muster the energy necessary to close this one out and get him a victory in his return. The powerplay goes 0/6 including multiple late game powerplays that completely fell flat, which made all of the difference. Game 4 has now become a crossroads where they can get back in this series before heading to Dallas, or for the second straight year lose it all on home ice.

This series is tied at 1-1 following a 4-3 overtime loss in Game 2 to the Dallas Stars. The Avs controlled most of play, but a lackluster third period and a critical mistake in overtime cost them the chance to take a 2-0 lead back to Denver. This is going to be a back and forth series, so this can't be a emotional hangover going into a critical pair of games back home with Landeskog's return potentially on the horizon.

Send questions to the mailbag here: https://forms.gle/7ytuJfsiTr1x3VDt6