Avs look to Nicolas Roy for continued spark in Stanley Cup Playoffs

In someday, Nicolas Roy went from cellar-dweller to Stanley Cup or bust.

The Avalanche acquired the veteran in a commerce with Toronto on March 5, sending a conditional fifth-round draft choose in 2026 and a conditional first-round choice in 2027 to the Maple Leafs in change for Roy. It was a welcome transfer for Roy, who has fortified Colorado’s third line in conjunction with captain Gabriel Landeskog and Nazem Kadri, who was acquired by deadline trade the day after Roy.

“You go from definitely not making the playoffs to obviously the first team in the league and a team that’s pulling out every stop to win the Cup this year, so I’m really happy with how it turned out,” Roy stated. “As a hockey player, that’s exactly what you want… Since I’ve gotten here, my goal has been to contribute in different ways, and I was able to do that in the first round (of the playoffs). Hopefully, I can do that again in the second round.”

In the Avs’ sweep of the Kings in the opening spherical, head coach Jared Bednar referred to as Roy’s play “amazing.” Roy tallied factors in three of the 4 video games, together with the OT winner inGame 2, an help in Game 3 and one other aim in Game 4. Roy’s plus/minus for the collection was plus-five in a mean of 12.87 minutes of ice time per recreation.

Those contributions got here as a winger on the third line, a place that Roy performed some beforehand when he was with Vegas from 2019 to 2025. A pure middle, Roy’s versatility is a part of what made the 29-year-old enticing to Colorado in the commerce market. The deal to convey again Kadri, who was a key piece of the Avs’ 2022 title runaffirmed the truth that Roy would play winger whereas Kadri can be the middle on Colorado’s new-look third line.

For a lot of the season, that third line was winger Victor Olofsson, middle Jack Drury and winger Parker Kelly. Olofsson was dealt to the Flames as a part of the Kadri commerce, whereas Drury and Kelly are actually a part of Colorado’s fourth line together with Logan O’Connor, who missed a lot of the common season due to injury.

Adding firepower for a Stanley Cup run

Bednar stated the expertise of Landeskog, Kadri and Roy was a key issue in Colorado’s sweep of Los Angeles, however the coach left the door open for a attainable line shuffle heading into the second spherical in opposition to either Dallas or Minnesota.

“We’ll see who we are playing, and we’ll pick our lines based on (matchup),” Bednar stated. “(Roy) is a responsible, defensive player, and that type of offense and the way he created it (against the Kings) can be repeated against any opponent. That was a favorable matchup for us — we had three veteran guys, all that have won a Stanley Cup, playing against a younger third line. They won that matchup, and that’s a big reason why we won that series.”

Roy was a part of the Golden Knights’ Stanley Cup staff in 2023, when he registered 11 factors (three objectives, eight assists) in 22 playoff video games. He stated he is leaning on that have in these playoffs as he continues to develop chemistry with Kadri. Both of these gamers aren’t simply leases for this season’s Stanley Cup run — Roy is beneath contract through next season, whereas Kadri is beneath contract through 2028-29.

“I love the versatility of (Roy) taking faceoffs on the right side, and we can mix in a few extra plays in that regard,” Kadri stated. “He protects the puck really well down low, he’s a great forechecker, he’s got some good vision too. And obviously he’s a big body around the net and he creates some havoc and chaos down there. It’s been fun to play with him and I think there’s already some chemistry there.”

Defenseman Cale Makar says Roy’s play since making his Colorado debut on March 6 has helped the third line convey “a consistent presence” on each ends of the ice. In 15 regular-season video games with the Avs, Roy — a fourth-round choose by Carolina in 2015 who’s of no relation to former Avs goalie Patrick Roy — had 5 factors (three objectives, two assists).

“(Roy and Kadri) find areas to get the puck to the net, which is great, and they read off each other really well,” Makar stated. “It seems like they think about the game similarly.”

The Roy and Kadri trades had been aimed toward growing Colorado’s depth and firepower on its latter strains, and thus taking some manufacturing strain off the highest line of Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Necas and Artturi Lehkonen.

Necas, who performed with Roy in 2019 on the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers staff that gained the Calder Cup, stated that aim has already been achieved.

“He’s still really good with the puck, just like he was (when we played together in Charlotte), and he’s a really good two-way player,” Necas stated of Roy. “We’ve got more depth now, and you need that in the playoffs… When the top line isn’t clicking, we need other lines like the third one to contribute, and that’s what we did in the first round. We have to keep that going and (Roy) is a huge part of that.”