Avs will welcome Val Nichushkin back, but open arms lead to broken hearts

Open arms lead to broken hearts.

The Avs held their media day Wednesday and if their power play is as on point as their messaging, the city should start planning a downtown parade in June.

Val Nichushkin’s availability continues to hold this proud franchise hostage. When coach Jared Bednar and teammates addressed Nichushkin’s suspension in Stage 3 of the player assistance program, I wanted to ask them to blink twice to make sure they weren’t reading off a teleprompter.

“We welcome him back with open arms,” Bednar said.

“We welcome him back with open arms,” defenseman Devon Toews said.

“We will welcome him back with the best of our abilities,” star Cale Makar said.

So you are saying he’s welcome back?

The Avs know they are a better team with Nichushkin. And if given truth serum, they would admit they cannot win the Stanley Cup, the only measuring stick for this franchise, without him. He has been described by Toews as a “one of one” player. The only one like him is Gabe Landeskog, and there is no timeline for his return. So, the Avs are stuck. They had Two of One. Now they have None of One.

If the Avs knew that Landeskog would play in October and throw out 10 goals in 20 games, it would be much easier to move on from Nichushkin if he returns in mid-November — or at least strongly consider it. The problem is that when the captain comes back, it is unclear who he will be. Is he a star who needs a few squirts of WD-40 to knock off the rust, or will he devolve into a third-line grinder?

There is no question about Nichushkin’s ability. He is a top player in the league when he is eligible to participate. If he were not, those open arms would be locked across every person in the organization’s chest. That’s the nature of professional sports. The better you are the more chances you get.

Let’s get the obvious part out of the way. We all value the person over the player. We want Nichuskin to be, as Toews said, “happy, healthy and strong.”

But do you really want him on your team? I would not. The betrayal has been too stark, too devastating. Nichushkin torpedoed back-to-back postseasons. It wasn’t like the Avs lost him for a home-and-home against Columbus in January. He missed the final five games of the Seattle series after the team doctor found an intoxicated woman in his hotel room. Nichushkin said it was a mutual decision between him and the organization for him to leave the team.

It was the league’s decision to remove him an hour before the puck dropped in Game 4 against the Dallas Stars last May, admitting him into the assistance program. The Stars smoked the Avs. And players were heated. If a poll was taken after they were eliminated, my guess is they would have voted to close the door on him rejoining the organization.

“I am sure Val is going to have some things he wants to say to the group,” Bednar explained. “It’s what a team is. It is a family and you have to roll with the punches sometimes. There’s also got to be some forgiveness there.”

With winning a title the motivation, the Avs see no other option. They are strangled by the salary cap, their captain remains in limbo, and they are reloading, not rebooting.

They could attempt to trade Nichushkin, but that market will be limited because few teams will want to take on a five-year contract for a player who is one mistake away from a potential lifetime ban. But the Avs do have a choice. They don’t have to play him. They don’t have to trust him.