Colorado Avalanche Top 25 Under 25: #24 Andrei Buyalsky

The Top 25 Under 25 is a Mile High Hockey staff collaboration. Five writers have ranked players under 25 as of July 1, 2023, in the Colorado Avalanche organization. Now, we’ll count down each of the 25 players ranked.

Andrei Buyalsky comes in 24th on our list this year, regressing some to where he had been in the previous seasons of our Top 25 Under 25. The soon-to-be 23-year-old (his birthday is on August 18) continued his reign at the University of Vermont last season, playing in 34 games with only five goals and 13 assists. This was an improvement over an injury shortened three-game freshman season, however.

It is certainly a regression from his time with the USHL’s Dubuque Fighting Saints last season before joining his current NCAA program, where he recorded 15 goals and 17 assists in just 36 games. If you do the math, he got just over half of the points he recorded with the Saints in his second year at Vermont.

It’s not an ideal first two years for the Kahzakhstan native up in Burlington, and even more so after his 26-goal year for the Yunost Karaganda U18 Kazakhstan team back in 2018. Perhaps his transition to the US style of play has come across some difficulties for the third-round pick from the 2021 NHL Draft.

The former 2021 third round pick is still unsigned by the Avalanche, heading his junior year looking for a big year. Buyalsky may need it if he has any chance of breaking into the Avs organization with the ECHLs Utah Grizzlies, let alone the Colorado Eagles. Does he have any shot at doing so? How do you see his junior year at the University of Vermont going? Let us know in the comments below!