The Top 25 Under 25 is a collaboration by Mile High Hockey staff members. Six writers have ranked players under the age of 25 in the Colorado Avalanche organization as of September 1, 2025. Now, we\u2019ll count down each of the 25 players ranked (plus one Honorable Mention).<\/p>\n
The first in our prospect rankings with truly legitimate shot at the opening night Avalanche roster, Russian center Zakhar Bardakov crossed the pond to North America this summer after several seasons with SKA St. Petersburg spent honing a forechecking and defense-oriented game that could translate well to a bottom-six role in Jared Bednar\u2019s lineup. With an obvious need for a defensive center given the roster\u2019s current construction, Bardakov is likely to have every opportunity to earn an NHL job off the bat.<\/p>\n
Bardakov was acquired seemingly as a thrown in contract to make the math work on the trade that sent Kurtis MacDermid to New Jersey for a fourth round pick, but quickly gained hype as a prospect by flashing speed and grit in all three zones for a good SKA team as he increased his production to 35 points including 15 goals with a bigger role last season. His faceoff acumen drew particular notice, as Colorado routinely lacks the strength at the dot that he could offer if his work in the KHL translates to NHL draws.<\/p>\n
Most overage prospects in the Avalanche system are expected to spend time in the AHL before getting serious consideration for NHL work, but Bardakov\u2019s contract with Colorado includes a clause allowing him to return to the KHL if he ends up in the minors, per an interview with RG Hockey<\/a>, saying:<\/p>\n \u201dA couple of games in the minors is fine, but if you\u2019re asking if I\u2019m ready to spend years fighting through the AHL, my answer is probably no. Colorado sees me as a two-way, third-line forward who can play on the penalty kill. We\u2019ll see how it works out. I\u2019m ready to compete\u2014I always started in the third or fourth line at SKA every season. I\u2019ll fight for my spot.\u201d<\/p>\n Hopefully for all parties involved, Bardakov can earn a fourth line role out of camp and his out clause never becomes an issue. To excel in the bottom six, he\u2019ll need to chip in some points while making himself a nuisance on the forecheck and in board battles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Top 25 Under 25 is a collaboration by Mile High Hockey staff members. Six writers have ranked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103693,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[55916,385,99],"class_list":["post-103692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-2025-top-25-under-25","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103692"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103692\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}