Makar, MacKinnon, Rantanen Lead List Of Avs Who Made Colorado's Quarter-Century Teams

The NHL has been releasing team-by-team choices to be on the Quarter-Century lineups for every franchise. And on Monday, it was the Colorado Avalanche's turn -- and four current Avs star players were on either the first or second-quarter century squad.

On the Avs' first quarter-century team, superstar center Nathan MacKinnon and superstar defenseman Cale Makar made the cut, while on the second quarter-century team, star winger Mikko Rantanen and captain Gabriel Landeskog were honored. But the Avalanche's litany of elite players over the past 25 years were named to the two teams.

On the first quarter-century team, the Avalanche honored icons Patrick Roy, Peter Forsberg, Joe Sakic and Adam Foote. While on the second team, defenseman Rob Blake, winger Milan Hejduk, blueliner Erik Johnson and Semyon Varlamov made the cut.

Varlamov was the only player on the two teams who didn't win at least one Stanley Cup in their time in Denver. Varlamov may have been a surprise given netminder Darcy Kuemper has a Cup championship to his name, but Varlamov spent eight seasons in Colorado, so that familiarity was what likely put him over the top in voting for the quarter-century honors.

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Otherwise, it was a who's-who of Avs icons that comprised quarter-century team voting. The Avalanche have done their share of winning championships since the turn of the century, so it came as no surprise to see leviathans including Forsberg, Sakic, MacKinnon, Makar and Rantanen being named to the teams. And to be sure, if a half-century team is voted on 25 years from now, most, if not all of Colorado's current stars will be on it.