Schwartz Still Out, and Camp Is Coming

Jaden Schwartz signed with Colorado on July 1. It is now August. He has not played. That is a month of a three-year commitment sitting idle before the Avalanche have run a single training camp drill, and it is worth noting plainly.

The front office built this offseason around solving a specific problem. The playoff collapse against Vegas — four straight losses after leading 2–0 — came down to depth forwards who couldn't finish. One forward went 29 shots without a goal over his final ten games of the season. Management's answer was to trade Nichushkin, add Schwartz as a veteran presence, and sign Georgii Merkulov as another option. The plan had logic. The problem is that the centerpiece of it hasn't been available, and the right wing depth behind where Nichushkin used to play remains genuinely thin heading into camp.

The top of the roster is not the concern. MacKinnon, Necas, Makar — that group is intact and elite. The concern is the same one that existed in May: what happens in a tight game when Colorado needs a secondary scorer to convert. The Avalanche won fewer than half their one-goal games last season. Schwartz, healthy, was supposed to help change that profile. Merkulov is an unknown quantity at this level. Logan O'Connor is the current answer at right wing behind a departed starter, and that is a significant drop.

My read is that the next two weeks matter more than they might appear to. If Schwartz gets on the ice before camp opens and looks functional, the plan holds together. If he doesn't, Colorado enters 2026–27 having addressed its depth problem mostly on paper.