The Feb. 26 NHL trade deadline is approaching and the Avalanche is close enough to taste the playoffs just a year after being the laughingstock of the league.
Shockingly, the Avs are in position to be a buyer at the deadline, a year after it hardly had anything to sell. They had good players a year ago but nobody was playing well and the team seemed contaminated by a losing culture.
Make no mistake, big change has occurred. The Avs’ turnaround is the second biggest success story of the season, behind the expansion Vegas Golden Knights’ march to Western Conference supremacy.