Schwartz's Absence Is Now a Planning Problem, Not a Waiting Game

I wrote last week that camp was coming and Schwartz still hadn't played. Nothing has changed. He signed July 1, it is now August, and the Avalanche are heading into training camp with a three-year forward commitment that has yet to produce a single shift in Colorado.

The timing matters because this was supposed to be the answer to a real question. The depth scoring crisis that unraveled the second-round series against Vegas — the inability to close tight games, the forwards generating shots and converting none of them — was exactly what Schwartz was signed to address. Georgii Merkulov, added on July 21, is another piece of that same puzzle. But Merkulov is a one-year bet on upside. Schwartz was the veteran stabilizer, the player who was supposed to give the coaching staff a reliable option behind the top line when it mattered.

Behind MacKinnon, Necas, and Nelson, the forward group thins quickly. Left wing in particular has a steep drop after Landeskog, and the right side lost Nichushkin entirely in the June trade to Columbus. The front office built this offseason around patching those holes. If Schwartz cannot go when camp opens, that patch has a gap in it.

My read is that the front office has probably already started contingency planning — they would be negligent not to. The question is whether that planning stays internal or forces another move before rosters lock.