DENVER — The answer was shorter than the question.
“What do you need to see from your second line?” a reporter asked Colorado Avalanche coach Jared Bednar after Monday night’s game in Dallas.
“I need to see more,” Bednar said matter-of-factly after a 4-3 overtime loss to the Dallas Stars.
That No. 2 line of Brock Nelson between Jonathan Drouin and Valeri Nichushkin has yet to fully get going two games into the playoffs.
But at the heart of it, too, is the continued adjustment period for Nelson, the Team USA 4 Nations forward still finding his way after playing the first 12 years of his NHL career with the New York Islanders.
Nelson had six goals and 13 points in 19 regular-season games with the Avs after the March 6 blockbuster trade and hasn’t hit the scoresheet yet in two postseason games.
“I think it’s been a slow build,” Bednar said Sunday when asked about the 33-year-old’s game with Colorado. “I think his game is getting better as the season has gone on. I don’t think he had any problems with the adjustments when it comes to systems or anything like that, or tactical play, I think it’s just chemistry with linemates and finding ways to get more dangerous offensively. What I’ve learned about him is that he’s always in the right spots. He’s got a great skill set, obviously, but he plays with a really good conscience. He doesn’t give up quality scoring chances very often.
“On the defensive side, he’s super responsible, which I love. I still think there’s another step to his offensive game that we can’t see (now) … because you’re in the highest checking part of the season, right?”
Nelson is hardly the first player traded at the deadline who’s needed a bit of time to find his stride in a new environment. It’s been well documented that Mikko Rantanen is still finding his way across the aisle with the Stars. It’s why teams would much rather make these trades as early as possible in the season, but salary cap constraints dictate that most of these transactions always happen closer to the deadline.
Which tightens the adjustment period. One NHL scout from a rival team told The Athletic during Game 2 that he’s not worried about Nelson because he’s too intelligent a player and too talented not to find his game. He pictured Nelson having a couple of huge goals for his new team if the Avs go deep this postseason.
But in the here and now, it’s still an adjustment, especially for a player who spent his whole career with one team. That adjustment is just as much about off the ice, too.
“It’s crazy, for sure,” Nelson told The Athletic on Sunday when asked how he’s dealt with everything after the trade. “First week, it was probably tough — just a lot of emotions processing messages from people beyond the team and the organization in New York. Just people you’ve met over the years in the community via your kids or whatever it may be. We were there for so long, you never really thought of anything else. Then it happens. It’s a bit of a whirlwind. It’s pretty crazy. Obviously, a lot of logistics, still sorting through with family and kids.
“But on the hockey side of it, coming to a team that’s being talked about as a contender for a while now and having recently won, the firepower that they have, seeing that you’re immediately in the mix of that, that’s pretty exciting. Just a lot to process, but hockey-wise it’s been amazing.”
He spoke Sunday a few hours after joining in his young family’s Easter egg hunt over the phone. His wife and four children stayed based in New York, which is the tough part.
“My wife came out right away by herself for a few days, which was great,” Nelson said. “She took another trip with our oldest — our son, who’s 6, so he could check it out. He’s pretty jacked up. He’s a big Avs guy now.
“But the four kids are still in New York. That’s probably the easiest. Three of the kids are in school, so they can still have that structure and routine and keep that status quo for now. It just feels like Dad is on a long road trip. They’ll be coming out next week, which will be great.”
His wife, Karley Sylvester, a former Wisconsin hockey player, has been the MVP of this transition period.
“She’s keeping everyone in line,” Nelson said.
The trade itself was a lot to process. As a pending unrestricted free agent on July 1, Nelson knew it was a strong possibility. But having to tell then-Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello he wasn’t extending with the team, which forced the trade, wasn’t easy.
“It was a crazy process, having never been through that,” Nelson said. “That’s the business side of it. When things were shaking out the way they were … I have a great relationship with Lou. He’s a guy that gave me a great opportunity. I was fortunate to play for him for a while. He’s just a great figure in the game. And beyond the game, he takes tremendous care of his players.
“He took great care of me and my family the years I was there. I was fortunate and grateful for that. I was able to talk to him when it happened, we had a good conversation. I know at some point I’ll bump into him again. No hard feelings.”
Lamoriello, reached over the phone Monday morning, the day before the Islanders fired him, reciprocated those feelings.
“As a human being, you don’t get any better, as far as quality, family, the whole thing — he’s exemplary,” Lamoriello told The Athletic. “His wife is very supportive. She was also a heck of a player. As a player, he’s committed to being the best he can be. He will do anything that is necessary. He’s a team guy. He can play in all situations: power play, short-handed, five-on-five.
“I can’t say enough good things about him, both as a person and as a player. That comes out in him when you talk to him as a person, and it comes out in him when you watch him play. He competes.”
The reality is that Lamoriello wasn’t motivated to trade Nelson. He believed in his team’s chances to the end. Those were difficult conversations with Nelson’s agent Ben Hankinson.
“It is not something I wanted to do,” Lamoriello said. “We’ll leave it at that.”
But it was certainly something the Avs desperately wanted to get done. Their search for a No. 2 center goes back to losing Nazem Kadri to free agency after the 2022 Stanley Cup championship. Casey Mittelstadt was good last season but struggled in 2024-25, which reignited Avs general manager Chris MacFarland’s search for a 2C. Nelson was long the target, but not until the final week before the deadline was Colorado sure the Islanders would move him.
“Obviously, Brock Nelson was a hard one, I’m sure, for them to trade,” MacFarland told The Athletic last month. “While I’m not privy to what they were trying to do with the player, I’m sure it’s a guy they wanted to bring back, no different than us with Mikko. He’s a homegrown player on your team that’s a good hockey player. … Those are tough ones.
“It was a big price. The Islanders got a first-round pick and a really good player in Calum Ritchie — a guy that we were hard-pressed to give up. But I think for the timing of where we’re at, and our situation (all-in), Brock Nelson was too good to pass up. He’s a big man who skates well and scores, and he’ll touch every part of our team. We felt we needed that.”
There’s no reason to think we won’t see the best version of Nelson as these playoffs roll along. The defensive side is always there. Now, what the Avs need is a little more offense from Nelson.
“He’s an easy player to play with, to be honest,” said Drouin. “He’s a two-way player. You don’t have to worry about him defensively. He’s really good down there.”
How can the new linemates create more chemistry? Communication is part of it.
“You watch video. You watch some clips. Obviously, talking on the bench is the biggest thing for me,” Drouin said. “Coming back from a shift, you saw something. You want to make sure he saw it, that he felt the same thing you did. But yeah, he’s been awesome so far.”
After being such an important leader with the Islanders, Nelson has also adjusted to his place in his new dressing room.
“I just try to be myself and be the same person and just worry about playing the game,” Nelson said. “Not trying to be anything different. Just add to the group. I’m not the loudest of guys. I come in here, and we have a couple of guys who have been around and won. Hearing those guys speak is a testament to the culture they have here and what they’ve done and what they’re capable of and why this team is considered a contender. To be in that mix is huge. All the guys have been great trying to make me feel comfortable.”
Off the ice, there will be more big decisions coming on July 1. Will he re-sign with the Avs? Or hit the market? There’s been long-rumored interest from the Minnesota Wild in the Minnesota native.
One would imagine Colorado will put its best foot forward, given how hard it was to solve the 2C riddle.
Those things can all wait. In the here and now, chasing a Stanley Cup is all that matters.
“That’s the exciting part about coming to a contender and really having the belief that we’re capable of going all the way and doing something special,” Nelson said. “That’s first and foremost the one objective right now, and after that, everything else will sort itself out. Just worry about playing and enjoying this ride that we’re on.”
(Top photo: Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)
