The Colorado Avalanche spent months positioning themselves for another deep Stanley Cup run.

Then, when the moment arrived, everything unraveled at once.

A Presidents’ Trophy-winning regular season ended with a Western Conference Final sweep at the hands of the Vegas Golden Knights, leaving Colorado with an offseason to figure out how a team that looked so dominant for much of the year suddenly ran out of answers.

For Cale Makar, the explanation isn’t complicated.

But that doesn’t make it any easier to accept.

“It was just a tough way to end,” Makar told Bailey Curtis of DNVR during a fan meet-and-greet Sunday at the new Dick’s House of Sport in Thornton. “I think a lot of things just went wrong for us at the wrong time.”

Perhaps that is the most telling assessment Makar could offer.

There were no excuses. No finger-pointing. No suggestion that Colorado needs to tear everything down.

Instead, Makar described a team that simply couldn’t get enough things going its way when the margin for error became razor-thin.

“Everything’s got to be going right in order to win,” Makar said. “We just kind of ran into a little bit of a wall and had a little bit of tough circumstances for some guys.”

Colorado knows how unforgiving that wall can be.

After dominating the regular season, sweeping the Los Angeles Kings and getting past the Minnesota Wild, the Avalanche entered the Western Conference Final with legitimate championship expectations.

Vegas ended those expectations in four games.

Now Colorado has to make sure the loss actually means something.

“You regroup and you try and build up,” Makar said.

A Different Avalanche Is Taking Shape

The Avalanche will have plenty to build around, but the team taking the ice in 2026-27 won’t look exactly like the one that lifted the Presidents’ Trophy.

Colorado has already made significant changes to its forward group.

Ross Colton was traded to Nashville on June 16. Eight days later, the Avalanche made another deal with the Predators, sending Jack Drury, Chase Bradley and a 2029 third-round pick to Nashville for Fedor Svechkov and Zachary L’Heureux.

Colorado also acquired Fabian Lysell from Boston for Ivan Ivan and added veterans Jaden Schwartz, Noah Juulsen and Vinnie Hinostroza in free agency.

For Makar, those departures mean more than simply replacing goals and assists.

“We’re losing some key guys and some guys that were big parts of our team,” Makar said. “Not just on ice, but off ice as well.”

That is where Colorado’s biggest challenge could come.

Talent can be replaced.

Leadership has to develop.

Makar knows the Avalanche are going to look different, but he doesn’t view that as an automatic step backward.

“It’s going to be different, obviously,” Makar said. “It’s new bodies, new faces.”

Makar has stayed in contact with some of Colorado’s newcomers during the offseason, although he has mostly let everyone enjoy their summer before training camp begins.

Once camp opens, however, the expectations return.

And Makar remains confident in what the Avalanche can become.

“I feel confident that we’re in a good spot right now and we’re going to continue to get better as the season progresses, like we always did,” he said.

That confidence matters.

Because despite all the roster movement, Colorado’s standard hasn’t changed.

The Avalanche still expect to contend for the Stanley Cup.

Makar Isn’t Worried About The Power Play

One area that will inevitably receive scrutiny after the disappointing playoff exit is Colorado’s power play.

Makar, however, doesn’t sound like someone who believes the Avalanche need to reinvent themselves.

Instead, he sees a foundation worth building on.

“I felt confident in how we ended the regular season and then playoffs as well,” Makar said. “I felt like we can just build up a little bit of that momentum.”

That mindset may be important for Colorado moving forward.

The Western Conference Final sweep doesn’t erase what the Avalanche accomplished during the regular season. It simply exposed how quickly things can change once the playoffs become a battle of inches.

Colorado doesn’t need to start over.

It needs to find a way to finish.

Makar said he is feeling good heading toward training camp after spending part of his summer back in Calgary and recovering from another demanding NHL season.

That is obviously important.

But Colorado needs more than Makar being Makar.

Lysell will have an opportunity to establish himself in Colorado, while L’Heureux and Svechkov will be expected to grow into larger roles.

L’Heureux, in particular, could bring an element of physicality the Avalanche will need. His willingness to throw big hits and play with an edge would give Colorado a different dimension, especially in a playoff environment where games can become increasingly physical.

The veteran additions, particularly Schwartz, will also have to help stabilize a locker room that lost some important voices.

And for the returning core, the challenge is simple: make sure what happened against Vegas becomes a lesson rather than another missed opportunity.

The Avalanche were good enough to dominate the regular season.

They weren’t good enough when things went wrong in the playoffs.

That is the gap Colorado has to close.

The Vegas sweep is still part of the story.

It just doesn’t have to be the ending.

Colorado ran into a wall.

Now, with a new-look roster and another championship opportunity ahead, it has to figure out how to break through it.