After a rather unceremonious exit from the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Colorado Avalanche now find themselves missing an important piece of the puzzle that built the roster into this year's President's Trophy winners.
The Vegas Golden Knights swept the Avs in the Western Conference final, ushering the team into the offseason after one of their best regular seasons in franchise history. Now, less than a week later, GM Chris MacFarland has been hired by the Nashville Predators to fill their vacant General Manager and President of Hockey Operations roles.
MacFarland was hired by the Avalanche in 2015 as an assistant general manager after filling the same role with the Columbus Blue Jackets in addition to his duties as the Springfield Falcons general manager. The now 56 year old executive has spent the past decade with the team, and had his name inscribed on the Stanley Cup in 2022 as an assistant general manager to Joe Sakic.
Over the past four years as the Avalanche's general manager, the team has been one of the best in the NHL though has had difficulty finding its way back to the Stanley Cup Final since his promotion. MacFarland and the Avs have mortgaged much of their future in order to get the veteran depth on the team now, including this year and next year's first round picks, and 2028's first rounder conditional on Colorado not falling back to earth next season after bowing out of the playoffs after finishing the regular season with the best record in the league.
Predators GM Barry Trotz announced his retirement from the position earlier in the season, and has been acting in an advisory role for the team in their search for his replacement. Colorado, meanwhile, now faces a short offseason before the 2026 NHL Draft with former GM and current Avs President Sakic temporarily taking back over in the general manager's chair.
Sakic will have to balance the books in the meanwhile, with Cale Makar's contract expiring next season and looming over any potential candidate, as well as some of the core's aging contracts.