Colorado Avalanche Top 25 Under 25: #11 Martin Kaut

The Top 25 Under 25 is a collaboration by members of the Mile High Hockey staff. Eight writers have ranked players under the age of 25 as of August 1, 2022 in the Colorado Avalanche organization. Each participant used their own metric of value to rank each player. Now, we’ll count down each of the 25 players ranked.

It’s been an interesting road for Martin Kaut in his time with the Colorado Avalanche organization. Since the Avalanche drafted Martin Kaut 16th overall in 2018, the Czech forward has spent time with both the Avalanche and their AHL affiliate, the Colorado Eagles, but has struggled to find himself as a consistent role on the NHL roster.

In February of 2020, Kaut made his NHL debut with the Avalanche against the New York Islanders while Colorado was dealing with a rash of injuries. He would play eight more games with the team after making his debut, which allowed Kaut to show a lot of promise at the NHL level. In his nine games with the team, Kaut tallied two goals and an assist and showed well but the season went on pause before Kaut could potentially get in a rhythm, and then he was not invited to the bubble in Edmonton for the 2020 playoff run.

After those nine games, the Avalanche have failed to give Kaut any sort of meaningful opportunity in the NHL, despite thriving at the AHL level. Since his nine games with the Avalanche, Kaut has played just eleven games and has failed to register any points with the NHL squad across two seasons. He has still shown flashes of promise but he has rarely received much ice time to truly prove himself and that per-game average declined to 7:04 last season.

Martin Kaut has made his name known in the American Hockey League as a physical two-way forward. The biggest draw to Kaut’s game is his play in his own end and being a hard forechecking forward, two things the Avalanche greatly value. However, Kaut does have some upside on the other side of the puck. His shot is his biggest strength offensively and he knows how to get to the dirty areas of the ice, two things that have led him to potting 42 goals in his AHL career. This past season was by far Kaut’s best in North America. In 46 regular season games, he potted 19 goals and got 12 helpers for the Colorado Eagles and his production continued to be solid in the postseason with five points in nine games.

If Kaut is going to be a consistent member of the Colorado Avalanche it’s going to be in the bottom six. Given his style of play and his strengths, he could slot in well in Colorado’s quick bottom six and potentially add a bit more of a scoring touch to an otherwise scoring-challenged group. But for Kaut to have a chance to take a spot in the Avalanche bottom six he’s going to have to get the opportunity to. Unfortunately given the depth of this current Avalanche squad his best chance at getting said opportunity is likely to come due to injury.

This is likely the last year that there is truly hope for Martin Kaut to find a spot with the Colorado Avalanche because his Entry Level Contract has one year left. However, Kaut is already waivers eligible and could just as easily get claimed and find the opportunity elsewhere. The tools are there, he just has to be given an opportunity and take advantage of it.

2022 Top 25 Under 25

#12: Alex Beaucage

#13: Mikhail Maltsev

#14: Shane Bowers

#15: Colby Ambrosio

#16: Danila Zhuravlyov

#17: Andrei Buyalsky

#18: Matthew Steinburg

#19: Nikolai Kovalenko

#20: Trent Miner

#21: Keaton Middleton

#21: Wyatt Aamodt

#23: Taylor Makar

#24: Nathan Clurman

#25: Ivan Zhigalov