Confession time: The puck heads on the Grading The Week (GTW) staff have probably called the Presidents’ Trophy worse things than any of your relatives have called any of the last five U.S. presidents.
And we’d like to take all of it back. Well, most of it.
Because it’s looking like the Avalanche might need you, Mr. Presidents’ Trophy.
Not so much because Avs GM Chris MacFarland has to prove to the free world that he built the NHL’s best regular-season team in ’25-26. (Although he has.) Oh, no. The Avs need to do whatever it takes to nail down the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference.
For home ice? Sure. That works, too. But really, it’s more about making sure you’re matched up in the first round with a Wild Card team — not opening up in the same slot as last spring’s Stanley Cup run. And not paired up with one the other two contenders in a stupidly tough Central division right now.
As of early Saturday morning, Colorado led all of the NHL with 51 points. The No. 2 team in the league? Dallas, right behind the burgundy and blue, with 47 points. The division’s No. 3 team, Minnesota, woke up Saturday with 39 points. Oh, and the Wild also just traded for defenseman Quinn Hughes, arguably the best offensive D-man in the league after Cale Makar.(Side note: Among the pieces shipped from Minnesota to Vancouver was a familiar and beloved name to local ice aficionados: ex-DU defenseman Zeev Buium.)
Avs’ pursuit of No. 1 seed — A.
So, anyway, let’s check the math. Remember how that first-round, seven-game series loss with Dallas played out last spring? How everyone said it should’ve been a Western Conference final?
Yeah, well, it wasn’t. And it would seriously behoove the Avalanche to avoid a similar second-place-vs.-third-place pairing in the opening round of the ’26 postseason.
Basically? Keep it up, fellas.
From Dec. 6-12, the Avs went 3-0-1 and put six goals past the Panthers. Just win, baby. Because the top of the Central is only going to be an absolute dogfight.
NHL.com keeps a rolling, “if-the-season-ended-today” Stanley Cup bracket going through the regular season. As of late Friday night, the Avs were holding the ‘1’ seed and paired up with San Jose as the worst of the two wild cards. It also had the Stars and Wild locking horns in one of those Central ‘2’ vs. Central ‘3’ bloodbaths. Let’s not go there again.
Rockies take Pill, look younger — C.
Team GTW is perfectly cool with the Rockies flushing whatever and whomever they can as far as coaches/teachers/ideas from 2025. We’re very cool with poaching anyone and everyone from the Dodgers’ organization. When in doubt, steal from the best.
Besides having more L.A. blue higher up the food chain, what’s interesting about the new swatch of coaching/managerial hires is their respective ages. Basically, the guys in charge on the field are going from old Gen X/young Baby Boomer to very, very Millennial.
Skipper Warren Schaeffer will be 41 on Opening Day. New pitching coach Alon Leichman will be 36. New hitting coach Brett Pill will be 41. New bullpen coach Matt Buschmann will be 42. Average age: 40.
As of April 1 of last season, the average age of the Rockies’ manager (64), hitting coach (57), pitching coach (56) and bullpen coach (37) was 54 years old.
That’s a drop of 14 years. If the Rockies improve in 2026 by that exact number of victories, that’s … um … still only 57 wins. But it would also be the first season-over-season improvement for this franchise since 2020 (.433 win percentage) and 2021 (.460) so, hey. There’s that.
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