The Colorado Avalanche, the worst team in the NHL just five years ago, dethroned the two-time champion Tampa Bay Lightning this summer to claim the Stanley Cup.
Players with roots in New England colleges helped lead the way for the Avalanche, particularly Cale Makar (Massachusetts), Devon Toews (Quinnipiac), Josh Manson (Northeastern) and Alex Newhook (Boston College).
Makar was the driving force behind Colorado’s championship. He led all blueliners during the NHL postseason with eight goals and 21 assists for 29 points, including seven points in the final, which also helped him earn the Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP. That came on the heels of his claiming the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s best defenseman — all at age 23.
"Having Cale at UMass for two years was so enjoyable for everyone in our program and our university," said UMass head coach Greg Carvel. "Watching him instantly succeed at the highest level of the sport has been equally pleasing, yet not the least bit surprising.”
Makar, drafted fourth overall by Colorado in 2017, won the Hobey Baker Award as a sophomore at UMass after posting 16-33-49 totals that season.
“I heard someone else sum up Cale extremely well, saying that he somehow matches being an elite hockey player with being an elite human being,” Carvel said, “which I totally agree with and witnessed first-hand."
Makar led the Minutemen to their first-ever NCAA title game in 2019 before turning pro, before Carvel and company won it all the following season. It was Makar, though, who helped set the table for that success, as UMass went from 5-29-2 overall the year before he arrived to 31-10-0 in his final season.
"The most satisfying part of all Cale’s success, for me, is that he has continued to stay closely connected to UMass hockey, a true and loyal member of our program in every regard," Carvel said. "Yet another example of the quality individual that he is.”
He also again expressed pride in Makar the person, as much as the player.
“Cale’s play on the ice is nothing short of electric," Carvel said. "I used to enjoy watching Colorado play because Nathan MacKinnon is one of the few players in the NHL that you can’t take your eyes off of when he has the puck. Cale quickly catapulted himself into this stratosphere, but as a defenseman.
“Beyond his extraordinary ability on the ice, his humility is equally recognizable, and it is this quality that makes him unique and singular to me.”
Toews also provided steady two-way play for Colorado throughout the playoffs, after a regular season in which he and Makar combined for a plus-minus rating above 100.
Toews’ coach at Quinnipiac, Rand Pecknold, recalled that the defenseman had been a fast study after he arrived on campus in Hamden, Conn., in 2013.
“He was a quick learner, and just kept getting better defensively,” Pecknold told The Abbotsford News when the Avalanche were just two wins away from the Cup. “He also kept getting bigger and stronger, but he was very good as a freshman for us and kept improving.”
Toews went on to play three seasons at Quinnipiac and was drafted 108th overall by the Islanders after his freshman campaign. He concluded his college career with 12 goals and 55 assists for 67 points in 108 games, while helping the Bobcats to three ECAC Hockey titles and three NCAA tournament berths, including a national runner-up finish in 2016.
Toews registered 13 goals and 57 points in 66 regular-season games with the Avalanche this season, then added 15 points in 20 playoff contests, including two assists in the final, in becoming the first former Bobcat to lift Lord Stanley’s prize.
“I give him a lot of credit,” said Pecknold. “He works hard, he’s very committed and is very coachable. We’ve had a lot of good ones here, but he’s one of the best we’ve had.”
Also assisting Colorado's cause on defense was Manson, son of former NHL player Dave Manson, now an assistant coach with the Edmonton Oilers, whom Colorado swept in the Western Conference final.
Born in Illinois but raised in Canada, Manson skated three seasons at Northeastern, contributing six goals, 15 assists and 158 penalty minutes in 99 appearances between 2011 and 2014. As a junior, he helped the Huskies to a 19-14-4 mark, their first of nine straight winning seasons.
“Josh was the first guy that really started to change our culture,” said Northeastern head coach Jerry Keefe, an assistant during Manson's tenure at the school. “He had such a presence to him, and he was so well-respected that guys followed. Josh’s leadership paved the way for the success we’ve had as a program.”
Manson, 30, drafted 160th overall by Anaheim in 2011 just prior to enrolling at NU, spent seven seasons with the Ducks before being dealt to Colorado last spring for Boston College defenseman Drew Helleson and a second-round draft choice in 2023. He tallied two goals and seven points in 22 regular-season outings with the Avs, then topped himself with three goals and eight points in 20 playoff games.
Manson also stopped a shot headed for an empty Colorado net in the clinching sixth contest vs. St. Louis in the second round. That came five games after he won the series opener in overtime with his first career NHL playoff goal.
Newhook, 21, is the 21st skater from Boston College to win the Cup as a player. A former first-round draft choice (16th overall) by the Avalanche in 2019, the St. John’s, Newfoundland, forward tallied 26 goals and 58 points over two seasons with the Eagles before turning pro in 2021. He notched 13 goals and 33 points for the Avalanche during the regular season before adding four assists in 12 playoff games.
"It was everything I dreamed of and more," Newhook told the CBC shortly after winning the Cup. “I'm very thankful and grateful to be on such a great team and be a part of a winning club."
His sister, Abby, who stars for BC’s women’s team, was in Tampa for Game 6, and joined her brother in the championship celebration.
Another individual with New England ties who earned a Stanley Cup ring with Colorado was amateur scout and former BC forward Neal Shea. The Quincy, Mass., native registered 93 points with the Eagles from 1982 to 1986 before later becoming an NHL scout, first with Pittsburgh in 1999 and then with Colorado in 2006.
Newhook, the third player ever from Newfoundland to win the Stanley Cup, summed it up best: "The only word I can think of that comes to my head is crazy," he admitted. "It's something I've dreamed of."
A dream that’s now very much a reality.
