Colorado Eagles grounded for the summer

A tough series went the way of Abbotsford ending Colorado’s season.

It was a successful year for the Colorado Eagles which ended in familiar fashion as they failed to advance out of the Pacific Division yet again. A tight best-of-five game series with the Abbotsford Canucks went all the way to Game 5 but a 6-0 shutout on home ice wasn’t the note the squad wanted to end on. The Eagles also experienced a scoring drought going 1/15 on the power play in the series with 10 total goals scored and getting shutout twice.

First, the positives as the Eagles set franchise records in their seven-year AHL history for most points (94) and wins (43) as they won their first Pacific Division title and earned a “first round” bye to avoid the play-in. Jacob MacDonald won the Eddie Shore award for the league’s best defenseman and set an AHL record for most goals in a season by a defenseman (31). This was supposed to be the team to get Colorado to the Western Conference Finals.

The Colorado Avalanche went all-in on stacking the roster with high-priced experienced AHL veterans by bringing back defensemen Jacob MacDonald, Calle Rosen plus forwards TJ Tynan and Chris Wagner for another tour of duty with the organization. All were given minor league salaries of $400-525k. Coupled with bringing back captain Jason Megna on an AHL deal and newly signed forwards with significant professional experience in Matthew Phillips and Jere Innala, the Eagles were in violation of the AHL’s development rule which meant one of these seven had to sit out at any given time.

In the playoffs scoring was tough to come by even for the experienced veterans and none of them scored more than two points in the Abbotsford series, though Megna led the way with two goals. In the Game 5 defeat all were on the ice for multiple goals against with the exception of Megna who was -1 all the way to MacDonald at -4. Innala was scratched for the entire postseason as the Eagles decided to go with the six who had AHL playoff experience and since Innala spent the majority of his pro career in Sweden and Finland prior to this season he was the odd man out.

On the prospect front, forwards Ivan Ivan and Chase Bradley were the only two to participate in all nine Eagles playoff contests. Each scored a goal with Ivan adding an assist as well as Ivan’s goal in the 5-3 victory in Game 2 was the game winner. Rounding out the rest of the prospect forwards, Oskar Olausson played all five games against Abbotsford and contributed three assists. Jean-Luc Foudy dressed in four games and scored the opening goal in the 3-1 Game 4 win against Abbotsford. Jason Polin and Matt Stienburg played three games each in the Abbotsford series with no points, though Polin played in the four San Jose games and scored a goal. Nikita Prishchepov only played in three San Jose contests and Taylor Makar got in one game that series.

Now is the time for the Eagles to regroup and decide how to shape the roster for next season. There are some key Restricted Free Agent decisions upcoming with respect to Foudy, Stienburg and Polin but also the impending departure of much of the veteran core that was so heavily relied on. All of Tynan, Phillips, Wagner, Innala, and Rosen are free agents who will need to get re-signed or replaced. If there’s any changes in strategy such as focusing on the young players that will continue with the Avalanche organization remains to be seen, too.