3 major statistics that prove the Colorado Avalanche are the NHL’s strangest team

There’s no doubt that the Colorado Avalanche are the NHL’s strangest hockey team, but you’re probably wondering why I came to that conclusion. Well, for one, they did away with two players who were supposed to man the net this season rather early and replaced them with a couple of stopgaps.

No, I’m not complaining, and this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, given the way Alexandar Georgiev and Justus Annunen sputtered, the Avs needed to do something. Still, those two now-former Avs goaltenders play a bit of a role in a couple of the stats I’m about to share below.

That said, my prediction is that Colorado won’t be so strange during the back half of the 2024-25 season if their current goaltending unit holds up well. Anyway, let’s get on with sharing a few stats below and why they’re so significant.

Shooting and save percentage

The Avalanche’s shooting-to-save percentage ratio at 5-on-5 is 7.8 to 0.906, a little lower than what the rest of the league is sporting. The NHL, collectively, is rolling with an 8.2 to .918 ratio, and it shows the Avs have some catching up to do.

Yeah, you look at these numbers and would think “there’s no way the Avalanche have 40 points this season.” But, somehow, this team has kept pace with some of the better teams in the West, even if they’re still quite a few points behind the Winnipeg Jets and Minnesota Wild.

Creating scoring chances

This might be the most curious stat, as the Avs are plus-50 in Corsi For (CF), Scoring Chances For (SCF), and High-Danger Chances For (HDF). The actual numbers are 53.7 in the Corsi, 53.8 in SCF, and 50.9 in HDF.

Curious, considering the Avs aren’t converting the way they should be at 5-on-5, but there is a positive takeaway here. The Avs have converted 10.4 percent of their High-Danger Chances into goals, so it may explain to us why they haven’t been half-bad in the overall standings this season: it’s been winning them games.

Special teams

Another reason the Avalanche have fared well this season despite being unable to score as often as they should at 5-on-5 or, generally, to stop their opponents from scoring? Yep, their power play has given them a major boost, and it’s currently sporting a 24.07 percent conversion percentage.

Not a bad number, and one that is over three percent better than the rest of the NHL. But, as you might have guessed, their penalty kill has been anything but effective and is succeeding just 77.66 percent of the time, or roughly 2.5 percent under the league average of 79.14.

If the Avs can get their PK together during the second half of the season, watch out because elite special teams can make a lot of decent hockey teams elite. And when you have some of the best forwards in the league, like the Avs possess, then nothing is off the table.