Season stories, legends, venues and owners from Avalanche history.
Regular-season stats. Sources: Hockey-Reference, NHL.com and the 2025-26 Colorado Avalanche Media Guide. No 2004-05 season (NHL lockout).
Beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-2. Game 6, June 26, 2022: won 2-1 at Amalie Arena. Artturi Lehkonen scored the winner.
“It's hard to describe. ... Some tough years mixed in there, but it's all over now. We never stopped believing.”
Cale Makar won Game 2 in overtime even though Nashville's Connor Ingram made 49 saves.
Darren Helm scored the series winner in Game 6 in St. Louis with 5.6 seconds left in regulation.
Artturi Lehkonen scored in overtime of Game 4 in Edmonton to finish the sweep.
Andre Burakovsky and Nazem Kadri won Games 1 and 4 in overtime, and Lehkonen's goal clinched it in Game 6.
“It's just been building over time. ... It was just all leading up to this.”
“'Gabe' was telling me the last couple of years, 'When we win it, you're getting it first.'”
Beat the New Jersey Devils 4-3. Game 7, June 9, 2001: won 3-1 at the Pepsi Center. Alex Tanguay scored twice, including the winner.
“Joe was just an amazing, classy, great captain, and an amazing person.”
Peter Forsberg won Game 3 in overtime in Vancouver on the way to a sweep.
The Kings rallied from 3-1 down with two 1-0 wins, but Colorado won Game 7 5-1, with the first goal from former King Rob Blake.
Sakic scored on the power play 24 seconds into overtime of Game 5 to send Colorado to the Final.
Down 3-2 to the defending champs, Colorado won Game 6 4-0 in New Jersey behind Roy, then took Game 7 at home.
“In the end, it's so hard, regardless if you're favored or not. ... It is so hard to win.”
“And we had one mission that was just to win the Stanley Cup, and then you do it in the end, it was a great feeling.”
Swept the Florida Panthers 4-0. Game 4, June 10, 1996: won 1-0 in triple overtime at Miami Arena. Uwe Krupp scored the winner.
“When you score a goal, the celebrations are huge, but when it's the goal and you're the champion, an incredible weight is lifted off your shoulders.”
Joe Sakic won Game 5 just 51 seconds into overtime, then scored the go-ahead goal late in the Game 6 clincher in Vancouver.
Sakic ended Game 4 in triple overtime in Chicago, and Sandis Ozolinsh won the Game 6 clincher in double overtime.
Colorado knocked out the 62-win Red Wings, and Claude Lemieux's hit on Kris Draper in Game 6 lit the fuse on the rivalry.
Patrick Roy stopped all 63 shots in Game 4, and Uwe Krupp scored at 4:31 of the third overtime to finish the sweep.
“My career was hanging by a thread because of [a knee] injury, and then I won the Stanley Cup.”
Playoff game scores are from Colorado's side. Sources: Hockey-Reference, NHL.com, AP and Wikipedia; each quote links to where it was published.
Game · NHL
The NHL looks back at the 1-0 triple-overtime win in Miami that won Colorado its first Stanley Cup.
Game · HockeyWebCast
March 26, 1997: the brawl in Detroit that turned Avs-Red Wings into the NHL's fiercest rivalry.
Montage · NHL
Sakic hands the Stanley Cup straight to Ray Bourque after 22 years of waiting.
Play · Sportsnet
The captain becomes the 31st player in NHL history to score 500 goals.
Play · NHL
Forsberg in the 2002-03 season he won the Hart and Art Ross trophies.
Play · NHL
Back from thumb surgery, Nazem Kadri wins Game 4 of the Final in overtime.
Game · Sportsnet
Colorado dethrones the two-time champion Lightning in Tampa.
Speech · Sportsnet
Cale Makar is named playoff MVP after a Norris Trophy season.
Documentary · NHL
The NHL's official film of the championship run, start to finish.
Speech · Colorado Avalanche
Nathan MacKinnon wins the Hart and Ted Lindsay awards after a 140-point season.
Videos are hosted on YouTube by the channels shown and play here through YouTube's player. If a channel removes a video, it will stop playing.
C · 1995–2009
Captain of both Cup teams. Won the 1996 Conn Smythe and the 2001 Hart Trophy, and scored 391 goals after the move to Denver.
C · 1995–2004, 2007–08, 2011
2003 Hart and Art Ross winner and one of the best two-way centers ever.
D · 1995–2004, 2008–11
Shutdown defenseman who played more games than any defenseman in franchise history.
G · 1995–2003
Traded to Colorado in December 1995. Won two Cups and the 2001 Conn Smythe, his record third.
RW · 1997–98
Played his final NHL season in Colorado (22 points).
RW · 1998–2013
Scored 50 goals in 2002-03 to win the Rocket Richard Trophy, and was the first Avalanche player to play 1,000 games in Colorado.
D · 2000–01
Came from Boston in March 2000 and won the Cup in his 22nd and final season.
LW · 2000
Arrived with Bourque in the March 2000 trade.
D · 2001–06
Acquired in February 2001 and won the Cup four months later. Top-scoring defenseman three times.
LW / RW · 2003–04
Both signed for one season in 2003-04. Kariya had 36 points, Selanne 32.
C · 2005–07
Had 46 points in 2005-06, the first season after the lockout.
C · 2006–14
Set an NHL rookie record with a 20-game point streak and led the team in scoring in 2007-08 and 2009-10.
C · 2009–17
Led the team in points three times and won Olympic gold with Canada in 2014.
LW · 2011–present
2012 Calder winner and the youngest captain in NHL history at the time (19 years, 286 days). Captained the 2022 Cup team.
C · 2013–present
2014 Calder and 2024 Hart Trophy winner. Scored 140 points in 2023-24 and 53 goals in 2025-26.
RW · 2014–17
Led the Avalanche with 29 goals in 2014-15.
RW · 2015–25
Scored 55 goals in 2022-23, the most by a Colorado player. Traded in January 2025.
D · 2019–present
Won the Norris Trophy and Conn Smythe in 2022, then a second Norris in 2025 after a 30-goal season.
Placed by the year each player joined the Avalanche in Colorado (Quebec years not shown). Hall of Famers with short Colorado stints are shown as smaller cards. Sources: 2025-26 Colorado Avalanche Media Guide (retired numbers, Hall of Fame list) and the Season Stories data.
Win % is wins divided by games played. Seasons are labeled by the year they ended; no 2004-05 season (lockout). 2020 playoff wins include the 2-1 round-robin. ★ championship season
After the Nordiques moved to Denver, the owners planned to call the team the Rocky Mountain Extreme, and logos had already been drawn. When The Denver Post broke the name, angry fans flooded talk radio, and the team switched to 'Avalanche' the next day.
Source: cpr.org
On Dec. 2, 1995, Montreal left Patrick Roy in for nine Detroit goals. Walking off, he told the team president it was his last game for the Canadiens. Four days later he was traded to Colorado.
Source: thehockeywriters.com
Florida fans threw plastic rats onto the ice after Panthers goals, and they rained down in Game 3 of the 1996 Final. Roy didn't allow another goal the rest of the series, and the Avs swept. The NHL changed its rules the next season so home teams could be penalized for thrown objects.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
On his day with the Cup, defenseman Sylvain Lefebvre had his daughter baptized in it. In 2022, Avs defenseman Jack Johnson did the same for his three kids.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
The Avs' first mascot, Howler the Yeti, got into a shoving match with a visiting fan at McNichols Arena in 1999 and quietly disappeared a couple of years later; many believe that's why, though the team never said. Colorado went without a mascot until Bernie arrived in 2009.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
After Colorado won Game 7 of the 2001 Final, forward Shjon Podein refused to take off his uniform and kept it on for 25 hours of celebrating.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
Patrick Roy liked to hold his glove up after a save. In Game 6 of the 2002 conference final against Detroit, he did it with the puck not in his glove, and Brendan Shanahan tapped it in. Detroit won that game and then Game 7, 7-0.
Source: hookedonhockeymagazine.com
Already out with a herniated disk, captain Joe Sakic broke three fingers in a snowblower accident at home in December 2008. He never played another NHL game and retired the next summer.
Source: nhl.com
Back from thumb surgery for Game 4 of the 2022 Final, Nazem Kadri scored in overtime, but the puck wedged at the top of the net and almost nobody realized the game was over. The goal stood.
Source: russianmachineneverbreaks.com
Minutes after the Avs won the Cup in Tampa, Nicolas Aube-Kubel hit a rut skating to the team photo and fell with the trophy, denting its base. He later got a Stanley Cup tattoo, dent included.
Source: thescore.com
Each story was checked against at least one published source, linked on its card. Where a story is disputed, the card says so.
Opened Oct. 1, 1999. The Avalanche won the 2001 Stanley Cup on home ice here in Game 7 and hosted the 2001 NHL All-Star Game and the 2022 Stanley Cup Final.
Named for Denver mayor William H. McNichols Jr. The Avalanche's first home, where they sold out every game after their first month and raised the 1996 Stanley Cup banner.
NHL Stadium Series vs. Detroit before 50,095 fans (loss).
NHL Global Series vs. Ottawa before 13,396 fans (overtime loss).
NHL Stadium Series vs. Los Angeles before 43,574 fans (loss).
NHL Outdoors vs. Vegas, played without fans (win).
NHL Global Series vs. Columbus before 12,882 fans (win).
Sources: 2025-26 Colorado Avalanche Media Guide (capacities, records by building, special-game attendance); opening dates from the arenas' histories.
Owner; Josh Kroenke has been team president and governor since 2013
Kroenke bought the Avalanche, Nuggets and Pepsi Center in 2000, and the team won the Stanley Cup in his first season. His son Josh took over day-to-day control of the Denver teams, and the Avs won the Cup again in 2022.
“The Kroenke ownership, also including Stan's son, Josh, who is president of both the Avalanche and Nuggets, has been great for Colorado.”
“So that is the commonality — it's just sort of the ultimate reward for a lot of hard work by a lot of people.”
Ann Walton Kroenke has been owner of record since 2015; the team credits Stan and KSE.
Owner; Charlie Lyons, chairman and CEO
COMSAT's entertainment arm, led by Charlie Lyons, bought the Quebec Nordiques and moved them to Denver. The Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in their first season. Ascent built the Pepsi Center, then spent 1999-2000 trying to sell the teams.
“To have been able to bring Denver its first major championship, in the team's first year, I mean, how does that even happen?”
Liberty Media owned Ascent for a few months in 2000 before the sale to Kroenke closed.
Records are regular-season results for the seasons credited to each owner (whoever owned the team for most of a season gets it). Sources: team histories, AP/UPI, Denver Post, SABR, Sports-Reference and Wikipedia; each quote links to where it was published.