{"id":789027,"date":"2026-07-28T09:27:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T09:27:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/789027\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T09:27:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T09:27:08","slug":"identifying-the-biggest-villains-in-avalanche-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/789027\/","title":{"rendered":"Identifying the Biggest Villains in Avalanche History"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Athletic recently published a story naming the biggest villain in the history of every NHL franchise<\/a>, and there were several Colorado Avalanche connections.<\/p>\n

The most obvious was Patrick Roy, who was named the Detroit Red Wings\u2019 biggest villain. Roy backstopped the Avalanche throughout the height of the bitter Colorado-Detroit rivalry in the late 1990s, making him an easy choice from the Red Wings\u2019 perspective.<\/p>\n

As for the Avalanche, Jesse Granger selected longtime Red Wings forward Darren McCarty. McCarty was one of the central figures in the rivalry and, of course, the player who took it upon himself to exact revenge on Claude Lemieux after Lemieux\u2019s hit on Kris Draper during the 1996 Western Conference Final.<\/p>\n

Reading the story got me thinking about other players who could qualify as Avalanche villains. With the franchise celebrating its 30th season, there are plenty of candidates, and it felt like a fun discussion to open up.<\/p>\n

One obvious name is Todd Bertuzzi, whose infamous sucker punch on Steve Moore in 2004 effectively ended Moore\u2019s career. That\u2019s an easy one.<\/p>\n

Then there are Mikko Rantanen and Matt Duchene. While neither belongs in the same category as Bertuzzi, both were fan favorites before eventually leaving Colorado, and each became a polarizing figure afterward. Their situations couldn\u2019t have been more different, but they share one thing in common: Former top-line forwards who were once loved and now hated by a large portion of the fanbase.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, The Athletic also named Adam Foote as the Columbus Blue Jackets\u2019 biggest villain for a similar reason. Foote was Columbus\u2019 captain before forcing a trade back to Colorado ahead of the 2008 deadline, despite the Blue Jackets still being in the playoff race.<\/p>\n

Aaron Portzline, who covers the Blue Jackets, wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201cFoote was the Blue Jackets captain in 2008 when he orchestrated a trade out of Columbus and back to the Avalanche, even though the Blue Jackets were just five points out of the playoffs, bidding for their first-ever postseason berth. Behind the scenes, Foote and the Avalanche had conspired to get this deal done. A box full of equipment with his name and number was shipped to Calgary a week ahead of the deadline. That\u2019s where the Avs played the night of the trade deadline. Fans in Nationwide Arena felt betrayed by their captain, and they let him know every time he returned to town, both as a player and as a coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, who do you think are the biggest villains in Avalanche history? <\/p>\n

Let me know your picks, and why, in the comments below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletic recently published a story naming the biggest villain in the history of every NHL franchise, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[1223,385,99],"class_list":["post-789027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-colorado-avalanche","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789027","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=789027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}