Colorado Avalanche Top 25 Under 25: #4 Alex Newhook

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.

When the Colorado Avalanche drafted Alex Newhook with the 16th overall pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, they hoped he would develop quickly and provide the organization with skilled forward depth during a clear championship window. Things are officially going to plan as Newhook stuck in the NHL and found a regular role on mostly the third line after only a brief 18 games in the minors with the Colorado Eagles. He provided timely assists during a playoff run that resulted in him hosting a Stanley Cup celebration in his hometown of St. John’s, Newfoundland.

The confetti has settled on Colorado’s championship campaign, and naturally, the Avalanche will head into the 2022-23 season having endured one of the shortcomings of winning the league's most coveted prize: losing high-quality players to the open market such as Andre Burakovsky and Nazem Kadri. Alex Newhook, in turn, will have the opportunity to make up for some lost production and solidify himself as a core piece of the Avalanche further into the future, as this will be the third and final year of Newhook’s entry-level contract with Colorado.

The speedy left-shot forward from Boston College has undoubtedly secured a bottom-six role among Colorado’s forward group, but can he land a jump in minutes and production and sneak onto the second-line and/or the top PP unit? It feels like J.T. Compher has earned the first internal crack at filling the 2C role, but Newhook is waiting in the wings. He has the speed and skill required to earn plenty of opportunities in this league, but if Newhook wants to become a top-six forward, he will have to develop a bit more defensively and produce consistently.

Alex Newhook will be a key part of Colorado’s making up for lost production alongside Compher and Ben Meyers. The question remains, will an internal solution be enough to make up the aggregate?

2022 Top 25 Under 25

#5: Ben Meyers

#6: Oskar Olausson

#7: Justus Annunen

#8: Sean Behrens

#9: Jean-Luc Foudy

#10: Sampo Ranta

#11: Martin Kaut

#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