Colorado Avalanche Top 25 Under 25: No. 5 Alex Newhook

The Top 25 Under 25 is a collaboration by members of the Mile High Hockey community. Eight writers have ranked players under the age of 25 as of August 1, 2021 in the Colorado Avalanche organization. Each participant used their own metric of current ability and production against future projection to rank each player. Now, we’ll count down each of the 25 players ranked.

The Colorado Avalanche’s new star has burst onto the scene. Somewhat similar to our very own Cale Makar, Alex Newhook made his debut in the late stages of the regular season and into the postseason, where he saw success throughout his young campaign up to date.

Newhook spent the 2020/21 season playing at three different levels and excelling in all three of them. A quick transition to the Colorado Eagles was calling after finishing his solid season at Boston College. Averaging over a point a game in both squads, he earned a call up to the Avs, first on the taxi squad and eventually to the first team.

Newhook did not disappoint in his first 14 games in burgundy. Despite being on the fourth line, he registered three assists in the last few games of the regular season to help the Avs clinch the Presidents Trophy. He only continued upwards in the playoffs.

It saw him have a magical night in St. Louis for Game 3, where he scored his first career NHL goal. As I said in the postgame recap, he is yet another up-and-coming Avalanche star to score his first career goal in Game 3 of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

He tacked on another assist in the Vegas series where he was generally outmuscled and outplayed. His true, raw self was shown then. Thus, this is the danger with Newhook: he is still incredibly young and has a lot to learn this upcoming season to be up to NHL-caliber.

Jared Bednar will have a much bigger role for Newhook to play in his squad for this upcoming season. With key departures this offseason, Newhook will not be spending much time on the fourth line anymore.

More likely than not, he’ll be pushed up to the third line. Depending on how the season flows, he could maybe flirt with a second line pairing later on in the season.

His explosive skating makes him seem like a young Nathan MacKinnon, flying down the ice at points. Not only this, but his hands and agility with the puck is what makes him dangerous. Despite being only 20 years old, there is a reason why Bednar wanted him in his squad during the playoffs last season.

Newhook has a lot of growth ahead of him coming into his first full season as an Avalanche member. He may experience a lot of growing pains, or pass with flying colors like Makar and MacKinnon did their rookie campaigns.

As long as he can corral all of his talent, there is no question that Newhook should be competing for the Calder Trophy as the leagues top rookie this upcoming season.

T25U25

#6 Tyson Jost

#7 Justin Barron

#8 Sampo Ranta

#9 Martin Kaut

t10 Jean-Luc Foudy

t10 Logan O’Connor

#12 Justus Annunen

#13: Oskar Olausson

#14: Shane Bowers

#15: Drew Helleson

#16: Sean Behrens

#17: Mikhail Maltsev

#18: Alex Beaucage

#19: Trent Miner

#20: Colby Ambrosio

#21: Dennis Gilbert

#22: Daniil Zhuravlyov

#23: Tyler Weiss

#24: Nikolai Kovalenko

#25: Nick Henry