You can find the full story linked here.<\/a><\/p>\nUnsurprisingly, the Colorado Avalanche were well represented.<\/p>\n
Three current Avs skaters made the cut, while two former players were also included. All five landed in different tiers.<\/p>\n
Starting at the very top, in the they could retire today and make it tier, is none other than superstar center Nathan MacKinnon.<\/p>\n
There isn\u2019t much to debate here.<\/p>\n
MacKinnon is only 30 years old, but his trophy case already looks like that of a player who spent more than two decades in the NHL.<\/p>\n
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2013 NHL Draft won the Calder Trophy as a rookie before eventually adding a Hart Trophy, Lady Byng Trophy, Rocket Richard Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award to his collection. And, of course, there\u2019s the Stanley Cup he helped bring to Colorado in 2022.<\/p>\n
MacKinnon has also finished as a Hart finalist multiple times and has established himself as one of the defining players of his generation.<\/p>\n
At this point, the only real question is where he eventually lands among the all-time greats.<\/p>\n
His Hall of Fame case isn\u2019t waiting on anything. Although I\u2019m sure he\u2019d like to add a second championship, perhaps even a third, to his collection of accolades.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One tier down, Baugh and Bultman placed Cale Makar in the probably in \u2014 and still rising group.<\/p>\n
He was one of just three players included in that tier.<\/p>\n
Makar could eventually go down as one of the two or three best defensemen to ever play the game. That\u2019s an absurd statement considering he\u2019s only 27 years old, but his resume already makes it difficult to argue otherwise.<\/p>\n
The No. 4 overall pick in 2017 won the Calder Trophy in 2020, followed it up with Norris Trophy wins in 2022 and 2025, and captured the Conn Smythe Trophy during Colorado\u2019s 2022 Stanley Cup run.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s also already a six-time Norris finalist, placing in the top three in each of the last six seasons since his rookie year. Makar has finished second in voting twice, and third two more times.<\/p>\n
Makar still has a significant portion of his career ahead of him. If he continues on his current trajectory, this tier could look pretty conservative by the time his career is over.<\/p>\n
The next group, keep compiling, included several veteran players who have already built impressive careers but aren\u2019t quite at the same level of certainty.<\/p>\n
Among them was Brent Burns, the only player in this group who wasn\u2019t originally drafted by the Avalanche.<\/p>\n
Burns is entering his 23rd season at age 41 and could break the NHL\u2019s Iron Man record this season if everything goes according to plan.<\/p>\n
The defenseman has played 1,579 regular-season games and won the Norris Trophy in 2017 with the San Jose Sharks.<\/p>\n
At this point, longevity is a huge part of Burns\u2019 case. And considering he\u2019s still playing, he has another opportunity to add to it.<\/p>\n
Perhaps winning a Stanley Cup in 2027 could help get him over the hump.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two former Avalanche players also made the list, with both being players Colorado originally drafted.<\/p>\n
Ryan O\u2019Reilly landed in the outside shots tier.<\/p>\n
The Nashville Predators center has the kind of postseason accolades that stands out. He won the Stanley Cup and Conn Smythe Trophy with the St. Louis Blues in 2019, while also taking home the Selke Trophy that same season. He had already won the Lady Byng in 2014 with Colorado.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a pretty impressive collection of hardware.<\/p>\n
But the Hall of Fame conversation isn\u2019t simply about winning a Cup or putting together one great postseason. O\u2019Reilly\u2019s overall numbers and individual accolades will ultimately determine whether he\u2019s good enough to get there.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For now, Baugh and Bultman consider him an outside shot.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s Mikko Rantanen, who landed in the on track tier.<\/p>\n
Rantanen was drafted 10th overall by Colorado in 2015 and spent nearly 10 seasons of his career with the Avalanche before being traded to the Carolina Hurricanes and eventually landing with the Dallas Stars.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s been one of the NHL\u2019s premier wingers for more than half a decade and has the production to back it up.<\/p>\n
Rantanen has 316 goals and 782 points in 716 career games. He also holds the Avalanche\u2019s franchise record for goals in a single season after scoring 55 in 2022-23.<\/p>\n
He doesn\u2019t have any individual trophies or awards, but he\u2019s also only 29 years old.<\/p>\n
If he continues producing at his current rate for another several seasons, that could change the conversation pretty quickly.<\/p>\n
And considering the other names on this list, it\u2019s pretty remarkable that Colorado has had a hand in drafting four of the five players included.<\/p>\n
MacKinnon and Makar are already well on their way. Rantanen has a strong foundation. O\u2019Reilly has a more difficult case to make. And Burns is trying to add to a resume that was built long before his time in Colorado.<\/p>\n
Not a bad group to have represented in a Hall of Fame conversation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two of my favorite writers at The Athletic, Peter Baugh and Max Bultman, recently teamed up for a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":994987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[42],"tags":[97351,2995,71991,69954,293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-994986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-cale-makar","tag-colorado-avalanche","tag-mikko-rantanen","tag-nathan-mackinnon","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117079435391313663","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=994986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/994986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/994987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=994986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=994986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=994986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}