Hockey Mountain High Podcast

It was a busy Day 1 of the NHL draft for the Avalanche, acquiring Ross Colton from the Tampa Bay Lightning in exchange for the 37th overall pick, landing Colorado a player that perfectly fits the Avs system and their competition timeline for a bargain price. The Avs also held on to both first round picks, and used them to draft Callum Ritchie and Mikhail Gulyayev late in the first round. What's th...

In a trade that came out of nowhere, the Avalanche have traded Alex Newhook to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for the 31st, and 37th overall pick in this coming draft, and Gianni Fairbrother. This a weird trade to talk about, because there is clearly more moves coming quite soon before the draft. What are the Avs going to do with these draft picks now? If they trade them, what player will they...

It's finally time to talk about the NHL Draft, and Adam Kimelman from NHL.com joins the show to talk about what the Avalanche could do at 27th overall with their first round pick, and gives some options for the who the Avs selection could be in this historically deep draft, and how they can still find great value late in the first round. Is it more important for the Avalanche to draft a Center or...

The Avalanche have made their move at center, acquiring Ryan Johansen from the Nashville Predators in exchange for the signing rights to Alex Galchenyuk. The Predators are also retaining 50% of Johansen's contract, giving the Avs a cheap center option for two years while giving up as close to nothing as possible in return. How can Johansen fit into the Avalanche's system? What's a reasonable expec...

Offseason moves are bound to start coming down any day now with the Draft less than a week away, but are the Avalanche going to pull the trigger on any big deals some time soon? The guys build some mock trades ranging from realistic, to bold, to outright ridiculously nonsensical deals. What are some of Avalanche's best options at second line center? What pieces can the Avalanche even move to get a...

In one of the trades of all time, the Avalanche acquired Fredeik Olofsson from the Dallas Stars in exchange for the hefty price of future considerations. Jokes aside, is there any reason to put expectations on Olofsson to be anything with the Avalanche? A few moves have been made this offseason, but it feels everything is on the verge of blowing up with the draft less than two weeks away. What wil...

A new Stanley Cup champion has been crowned as the Vegas Golden Knights dominated the Florida Panthers in one of the most dominant clinching games of all time, capping off what was a well deserved title run for the Golden Knights with a dominant playoff from start to finish. Who wins a hypothetical series between last years Avalanche, and this years Golden Knights? Erik Johnson will also not be re...

The Panthers are back in the Stanley Cup Final with an OT win in Game 3 over the Golden Knights (recorded before Game 4), but did they do enough to swing this series in their favor (spoiler, they did not). Pierre-Luc Dubois has requested a trade from the Winnipeg Jets, and reportedly wants HOW much money on his next contract? Has he lost his mind? The Blue Jackets continue to make moves, with a si...

The Stanley Cup Final marches on, and might be coming to an early close following Vegas's domination of the Panthers in Game 2 to take a commanding 2-0 series lead heading to Florida. Is there anything Floirda can do to slow down this relentless Golden Knights squad? In Avs news, Colorado Eagles head coach Greg Cronin is hired to be the next head coach of the Anaheim Ducks, leaving a big vacancy a...

The offseason marches on, and it's time to start getting creative. The guys draft their best Avalanche team of all time, and with only a few rules. Two forward lines, two defense pairs, and two goalies. Also no Nordiques players, and most importantly, no time to prepare beforehand. Go vote on Twitter on who drafted the better team! But first, the Stanley Cup Final gets underway in Vegas. The Vegas...

The Stanley Cup Final is set, and the Vegas Golden Knights will take on the Florida Panthers with a first time Stanley Cup Champion guaranteed to be crowned. However, with the Dallas Stars being officially eliminated, every team in the Central division season is over. The guys take a look at the state of every team in the Central division, what the offseason could hold for them, and the future of...

Saturday marked the one year anniversary of the Avalanche advancing to the Western Conference Final, and the now famous game winner by Darren Helm with 5.6 seconds to go. The guys reminisce on last years historic Stanley Cup run as the one year anniversary creeps closer, and as this seasons Western Conference Final rages on following Dallas wining two in a row to extend the series. Is Vegas going...

Second line center is one of the main points of focus for the Avalanche this offseason in order to get back to Stanley Cup contention, so how could they be planning to address it? Who are some center options for the Avalanche on trade market and the free agent market? What would the Avs have to give up for a second line center in a trade? Are there even any good center options on the UFA market? E...

For the first time in show history, the Tell It Avs It Is Mailbag is open! Answering listener questions ranging from second line center, a hypothetical XHL league, and the Nordiques. But first, the Conference Finals through two games have been outstanding with all four games going to overtime. Both the Panthers and Golden Knights are up 2-0, but can either Dallas or Carolina mount a comeback? Are...

Avalanche news may be lacking, but the NHL . The Coyotes time in Arizona may be coming to a close falling the failed vote to approve the arena plan in Tempe, leaving them with very few options as relocation now becomes a far more realistic option with almost nowhere else to go. The Stanley Cup Playoffs still march on, and the Conference Finals are set with two razor close series. Can Florida conti...

The Avalanche have a bunch of upcoming unrestricted free agents this offseason, including several important key players from last season. Which Avs UFAs will be back next year, and which ones would be better off walking in free agency? Also, looking at the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the second round begins to wrap up. Is it time for the Maple Leafs to blow it up after another disappointing exit? Also...

The Avalanche will be without Gabe Landeskog for the entire 2023-24 season, after Landeskog underwent cartilage replacement surgery to deal with the injury that kept him out of last season. Can the Avalanche still compete without their captain again next season? Can they build a more complete team with that $7M opened up for the season? Also, some reports on Bo Byram's potential next contract have...

As the Avs offseason is still in the early stages, Cale Makar has been nominated for the Norris Trophy for the third straight season, does he have a chance at actually winning the thing after the season Erik Karlsson had? It's finally time for the Connor Bedard draft lottery, will the lottery balls keep him out of the Central Division and out of the Avs hair for the foreseeable future? Finally, th...

The Avalanche's season is over early this year after the first round exit to Seattle, and so where do they go from here? The guys take a look back at the Avalanche season that was, complete with injuries and adversity, but still a surprisingly large amount of things to be proud of and move forward with into the future. How well are the Avalanche positioned for the future, and what can they do this...

The Avalanche's season has come to an end as they lose Game 7 to the Seattle Kraken 2-1. It was far from a bad game for the Avs, but the bounces went against them, and they waited too long in the series to show up to blame bad luck. While this season has come to close, this was a long and exhausting season from start to finish full of injuries and adversity, and it's hard to walk away from this se...

The two best words in hockey, Game 7. The Avalanche dominate Game 6 in Seattle with a 4-1 win and force a winner take all Game 7 back in Denver. This is the Avs hockey we've been waiting for all series long, and there were no passengers from start to finish in their best effort of the series. However, the Department of Player Safety allowed Jordan Eberle to get away with fracturing Andrew Cogliano...

The Avalanche season will be on the line on Friday in Game 6 following a 3-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken in Game 5. It's just not good enough, the Avs are not doing enough to get the job done. Game 5 hardly felt like a playoff game at all, and the intensity was entirely lacking as the Avalanche stars once again had to try to do everything themselves with unsustainable ice times. Cale Makar was susp...

We've got a series folks. The Avalanche lose Game 4 against the Seattle Kraken 3-2 in overtime, and once again don't put out their best performance as the series is tied heading back to Denver for Game 5. The starts have been a massive problem for the Avs, and they once again fell behind early, which cannot continue as this series persists. Mikko Rantanen singlehandedly tied the game with two goal...

The Avalanche's star players showed up big time and led the Avs to a huge 6-4 win over the Seattle Kraken in Game 3, giving them a 2-1 series lead and ruining Seattle's first playoff game in over 100 years. The Kraken had no answer for the Avs star power. Nathan MacKinnon disrespected the Kraken several times over, and finally broke through for two goals. Mikko Rantanen finished the night with thr...

There is truly nothing like the emotional roller coaster of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Avalanche beat the Kraken 3-2 to tie the series at one heading to Seattle, completing the comeback after falling behind 2-0 in what was absolutely some of the worst hockey this team has ever played in the first period. Finally after four periods, the defending champions showed up to play and stopped handing i...