Colorado Avalanche 2022-23 Regular Season By the Numbers

Now the real fun begins.
What a journey it was and it's only just beginning. Now, 82 games later, the Colorado Avalanche have yet another regular season in the books. What a unique ride it was.

Following the shortest summer in NHL history - packed with celebrations after having victoriously been crowned Stanley Cup Champions last June - the Avalanche embarked upon their title defense in what unfolded to be a season full of adversity, growth, perseverance and commitment to do things One Way.
Having begun the infancy of the season with a quick detour to Tampere, Finland for a memorable 2022 Global Series against the Columbus Blue Jackets, Colorado returned to North America and faced a revolving door of injuries that burdened the lineup on a daily basis, with every position having been affected which required a whopping total of 43 players to be used.
All that considered, the Avalanche still found a way to persist and clinch the Central Division with 51 wins, 109 points, and a 51-24-7 record.

After digging deep and Finding A Way to win last year, the Avalanche will prepare to continue to defy the odds and defend the coveted Stanley Cup as they'll approach this postseason #OneWayOurWay and take on the Seattle Kraken in the First Round beginning on April 18 at 8 p.m. MT at Ball Arena. In the meantime, take a look back at some of the most notable numbers from Colorado's impressive yet pesky, 2022-23 campaign:

BACK-TO-BACK 50-WIN-SEASONS

For the first time in franchise history, Colorado completed back-to-back 50-win seasons as the team finished with 51 wins this year and had secured 56 wins during the 2021-22 season.
With 51 wins, 109 points the Avalanche completed their 2022-23 season with a 51-24-7 record, an impressive feat for a group that persevered all season long and held themselves committed to a winning expectation.

6-STRAIGHT POSTSEASON BERTHS

With their dominant record, Colorado punched its ticket to the postseason for the sixth-consecutive year. Colorado's six-straight postseason berths is the second longest active streak behind a tie with Boston and Toronto, who both have qualified for the STanley Cup Playoffs for seven-straight seasons dating back to 2016-17.
The group also secured home-ice advantage after clinching the Central Division.

THREE-STRAIGHT YEARS BEING CROWNED KINGS OF THE CENTRAL

Despite being 14 points outside of first place in the Central Division on Jan. 15, Colorado went on a mission and ascended to the top of their division in a journey that took 90 days and required all 82 games of the regular season to do so, as they clinched the Central Division for the third-straight season.

29 WINS ON THE ROAD, 11-GAME ROAD WINNING STREAK

Colorado established a new franchise record, as it recorded the second-most wins as the visiting opponent in the NHL with 29. The Avalanche also won 11-straight games on the road, which was tied for the longest streak in the NHL. Boston (31) was the only club to win more games on the road.

43 PLAYERS USED

Colorado utilized 43 different players throughout the 2022-23 regular season as a result of being plagued by a laundry list of injuries from start-to-finish. Throughout the entirety of the 2022-23 regular season, the Avalanche never once had all of their roster available/healthy.

NINE DIFFERENT COUNTRIES REPRESENTED:

Colorado's diverse roster is proud to represent players who hail from nine different countries, which ranks the most in the NHL.
Countries represented:
Bulgaria:Alexandar Georgiev
Canada: Bowen Byram, Andrew Cogliano, Samuel Girard, Darren Helm, Brad Hunt, Kurtis MacDermid, Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Josh Manson, Alex Newhook, Logan O'Connor, Evan Rodrigues and Devon Toews
Czech Republic:Pavel Francouz
Denmark: Lars Eller
Finland: Mikko Rantanen and Artturi Lehkonen
Russia:Valeri Nichushkin
Sweden:Gabriel Landeskog
Switzerland:Denis Malgin
United States: J.T. Compher, Erik Johnson, Jack Johnson, Ben Meyers and Matt Nieto

MOUNTAIN OF MILESTONES

It was quite the impressive year for the Avalanche, who were proud to celebrate a mountain of milestones.
Mikko Rantanen
reached the 50-goal mark
, becoming the third player in Avalanche history to do so and the fifth player in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques history to do so, a feat that accomplished just nine times. Rantanen also went on to establish a new Avalanche record for most goals in a single season with 55. Rantanen also eclipsed the 100-point mark for the first time in his career.
Nathan MacKinnon hit the 100-point mark also for the first time in his career, which marked the only the first time since the 1995-96 season (Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg) that the Avalanche have had two 100-point scorers.
Avalanche Head Coach

in Avalanche history, as he accomplished both milestones in the same night. Bednar finished the 2022-23 regular season having inked a three-year contract extension.

19-5-2 (.769) COMBINED RECORD IN BACK-TO-BACKS

Colorado finished the season with a 19-5-2 (.769)combined record in back-to-back sets this season, which ranked second best in the NHL (Behind Boston's 23-3-2, .857). The Avalanche were 9-3-1 in the first game and a league-best 10-2-1 (.806) in the second game. Colorado swept their final four back-to-back sets of the regular season and eight of their last 10.

53 INSTANCES OF SCORING THE FIRST GOAL

The Avalanche drew the game's first strike a whopping 53 times during this season, which ranked the most among all NHL teams.

42 WINS WHEN SCORING FIRST

The Avalanche ranked second in the NHL (behind Boston with 43) for wins when scoring the first goal of the game as the Avalanche did so 42 times.

9 WINS WHEN TRAILING FIRST

Despite Colorado's dominance when striking first, the Avalanche have showcased that they can come-from-behind to win as they picked up nine wins when trailing first.

6 WINS IN SHOOTOUTS

The Avalanche won six times in a shootout, which was tied with Los Angeles, Nashville and Vancouver for the second-most in the league behind Minnesota (7).

274 GOALS

The Avalanche produced 274 goals this season, and only allowed 223 goals against.

6 DIFFERENT PLAYERS WITH 50-POINT SEASONS

The Avanche's high-octane offense featured a total of six different players having reached 50+ points this season.
Colorado's 50-point scorers included;
Mikko Rantanen
(105),
Nathan MacKinnon
(111),
Cale Makar
(66), J.T. Compher (52), Artturi Lehkonen (51) and Devon Toews (50).

3 PLAYERS WHO REACHED THE 20-GOAL MARK

Colorado saw three players hit the 20-goal milestone as Rantanen (55), MacKinnon (39) and Lehkonen (21) did so.

MIK50, the 50-GOAL SCORER

During a career-best season, where he finished with 105 points and 55 goals,
Rantanen became just one of 94 players in the history of the league to ever have eclipsed the impressive 50-goal milestone
.
In the history of the Colorado Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques franchise there have been a total of five players to reach the 50-goal plateau and it's been accomplished nine times. With the Nordiques, Michel Goulet and Jacques Richard each produced 50-plus goal seasons. Goulet did so an astonishing four-consecutive times (1982-83, 1983-84, 1984-85, 1985-86), while Richard accomplished it during the 1980-81 season.
With the Avalanche, Rantanen became the first 50-goal scorer since Milan Hedjuk did so in 2002-03. Rantanen's 50th goal just happened to be scored 20-years to the exact day that Hejduk scored his 50th goal back in 2003. The other Avalanche skater to reach the 50-goal plateau was Joe Sakic, the team's current President of Hockey Operations, who did so during the 1995-96 season and in the 2000-01 campaign.
Hailing from Nousiainen, Finland, Rantanen became the third ever Finnish-born player to score 50 goals in the NHL as he joined Teemu Selanne (1992-93, 1996-97, 1997-98) and Jari Kurri (1983-84, 1984-85, 1985-86, 1986-87).

2xCENTURY MARK

For the first time since the 1995-96 season (Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg), the Avalanche had two players reach the 100-point marks as MacKinnon (111) and and Rantanen (105) both did so in their remarkable career-best seasons.

4 HAT TRICKS

Colorado had a total of four hat tricks recorded this season. Rantanen led the way as he produced three separate hat tricks; Nov. 4, 2022 versus the Columbus Blue Jackets and Dec. 11, 2022 against the St. Louis Blues and on April 6, 2023 against the San Jose Sharks.

MacKinnon concluded the regular season with an extraordinary effort as the centerman scored his sixth-career hat trick to help the Avalanche clinch the Central Division in their 4-3 win over Nashville in Game 82.

48 GOALS FROM THE BLUELINE

Colorado's received a total of 48 goals from its defensemen.

FASTEST BLUELINER TO REACH 200-CAREER POINTS

Makar's productive season included yet another historic milestone as the 24-year-old became the fastest defensemen in NHL history to reach 200-career points in just 195 games. Makar accomplished the impressive feat in 12 fewer games than the previous best mark set by Sergei Zubov, who did so in 207-career games.

1.10 POINTS PER GAME

Despite only suiting up for 60 games, Cale Makar produced 66 points (17G, 49A) on the season for a 1.10 points per game average. Only San Jose defenseman Erik Karlsson was generating points at a higher clip than Makar as the Swede did so at a 1.23 in his historic 100-point season where he became only the sixth ever defensemen to record 100 points and first since Brian Leetch (1991-92).

1.56 P/GP

Despite only playing in 72 games, Nathan MacKinnon produced a nightly average of 1.56 points per game which ranked the third highest among all skaters in the NHL. Only Edmonton's Conor McDavid (1.87) and Leon Draisaitl (1.60) generated at a higher clip and both McDavid (82) and Draisaitl (81) dressed in nearly every game of the regular season compared to MacKinnon.

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48.8 FOW%

J.T. Compher was exceptional in the faceoff circle this season, where the centerman ranked seventh in the entirety of the NHL in faceoff wins with a percentage of 48.8%. Compher took a grand total of 1,665 draws, won 813 of them and lost 852 of them.

40 WINS, .919 %

Alexandar Georgiev finished the season with a 40-16-6 record and a .919 SV% which was tied for the best among NHL netminders with Boston's Linus Ullmark (40 wins, .938 SV%). Georgiev's five shutouts were tied for the second most in the league.

2.72 GA/GP

Colorado allowed an average of 2.72 goals against per game, which is the ninth fewest in the NHL.

3.34 GF/GP

Colorado produced an average of 3.34 goals for per game, which ranked the 9th most in the NHL.

24.5% POWER PLAY PERCENTAGE

Colorado boasted a 24.5% power-play percentage which ranked sixth-best in the NHL.

64 POWER-PLAY GOALS

The Avalanche lit the lamp 64 times on the power play, which was tied for the fifth-most PPGs in the league. Mikko Rantanen led the team with 13 power-play goals.

79.0% PENALTY KILL PERCENTAGE

Colorado finished with a 79.0% penalty percentage which ranked 17th in the league.

6 SHORTHANDED GOALS FOR

The Avalanche scored six shorthanded goals during the regular season. Logan O'Connor led the team with two shorthanded goals.

2,727 TOTAL SHOTS, 366 FROM MacKINNON

Colorado unleashed 2,727 shots over the course of the regular season which ranked the ninth-most in the NHL. Nathan MacKinnon led the Avalanche with 366, which ranked the second-highest in the NHL behind Boston's David Pastrnak (407). MacKinnon also surpassed his previous career-best of 365, which he set in the 2018-19 season.

33.3 SHOTS/GP

Colorado averaged 33.3 shots for per night, ranked the seventh-most in the league.

29 SLAP-SHOT GOALS

The Avalanche scored the third-most wrist shots of any team in the NHL with 29. MacKinnon led the way with six slap-shot goals.

32 TIP-IN GOALS

Colorado scored the fifth-most wrist shots of any team in the NHL with 32. Valeri Nichushkin led the way with eight tip-in goals, which ranked the sixth-most in the league.

11 DEFLECTION GOALS

The Avalanche scored the third-most goals off a deflection in the league with 11. Rantanen deflected the most goals among his team as well as the entirety of the league as the Finnish winger scored four goals off a deflection. Andrew Cogliano ranked second among the Avalanche and was tied with five other players for the second-most goals off a deflection in the NHL.

28 WRIST SHOT GOALS

Rantanen recorded the third-most goals off a wrist shot in the NHL with 28.

6 SHUTOUTS

Colorado recorded six shutouts this season with five taking place with Georgiev between the pipes and one occurring with
Pavel Francouz
in net.

3 NHL ALL STARS

This season, the Avalanche's star-studded roster had three players, MacKinnon, Rantanen and Makar all selected to represent the club at the 2023 NHL All-Star Weekend (ASW) in Sunrise, Florida.

4x82 GAMES PLAYED

The Avalanche had four players; Rantanen, Compher, Logan O'Connor, Alex Newhook dress in all 82 games of the regular season with the team.

83 and 84 GAMES PLAYED

Jack Johnson went on to play in 83 regular-season games, while Lars Eller dressed in 84 regular-season games, both as a result of joining the Avalanche following the NHL Trade Deadline. Johnson joining the Avalanche via Chicago and Eller via Washington, both teams had played at least one more game than Colorado, who wrapped up the regular season as one of the final games of the 2022-23 schedule on Friday, April 14.

3 NHL DEBUTS

As a result of a revolving door of injuries that struck the Avalanche throughout the regular season, the team relied on its organizational depth and as a result, four different players made their NHL debuts; Oskar Olausson, Jean-Luc Foudy and Cal Burke.

2021-22 SEASON LEADERS

Goals:Mikko Rantanen (55)
Assists:Nathan MacKinnon (69)
Points:Nathan MacKinnon (111)
Plus/Minus:Devon Toews (39)
PIMs:Mikko Rantanen (82)
PPG:Mikko Rantanen (13)
PPP:Mikko Rantanen (37)
SHG:Logan O'Connor (2)
SHP: Logan O'Connor and Valeri Nichushkin (3)
GWG:Mikko Rantanen and Nathan MacKinnon (9)
OTG: Mikko Rantanen (3)
Shots:Nathan MacKinnon (358)
Shot %: Mikko Rantanen (18.0%)
FOW%:J.T. Compher (48.8%)
Wins:Alexandar Georgiev (40)
GAA:Alexandar Georgiev (2.53)
SV%:Alexandar Georgiev (.919%)
Shutouts: Alexandar Georgiev (5)
Hits:
Erik Johnson
(121)
Blocks: Devon Toews (138)

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15 PLAYERS WITH CAREER BESTS

Colorado's impressive season has featured career-high campaigns for 15 different players, including goaltenders.

UP NEXT: DEFENDING THE STANLEY CUP BEGINS IN THE DEEP

The Avalanche take on the Seattle Kraken in the organization's first-ever berth to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Game 1 of the First Round between Colorado and Seattle begins on Tuesday, April 18 with an 8 p.m. MT puck drop at Ball Arena.