Nathan MacKinnon Could Make Avalanche History Again With 2 Major Milestones In Sight

Nathan MacKinnon is not the kind of player who needs a milestone to validate what he already is. But heading into the 2026-27 season, the Colorado Avalanche superstar has another chance to write his name into franchise history, and the numbers suggest it could happen sooner than most expect. He posted 127 points and led the NHL with 53 goals last season. For a team still chasing a Stanley Cup, MacKinnon's individual story is shaping up to be one of the most compelling subplots of the year.

What milestones is Nathan MacKinnon chasing in the 2026-27 season?

MacKinnon enters the new campaign with 950 regular-season games played and 1,142 career points, fresh off a 2025-26 season that was his fourth consecutive 100-point campaign. He is not slowing down, and the records sitting in front of him this season reflect exactly that.

He needs just 50 games to reach his 1,000th career appearance. Given his durability and the fact that he has spent all 13 of his NHL seasons in Colorado since being drafted first overall in 2013, that landmark should arrive well before midseason. Then comes the bigger chase. MacKinnon sits 58 points away from 1,200 career points, a number that would make him only the second player in Avalanche history to reach it, joining Hockey Hall of Famer Joe Sakic. Last season, he hit 100 points in just 59 games, setting a franchise record for the fewest games needed to get there. Fifty-eight points at his current pace is not a stretch. It is a matter of weeks.

How does MacKinnon compare to Joe Sakic in Avalanche history?

Sakic's 1,641 career points remain the gold standard in this franchise, a number that sits comfortably out of reach for now. But MacKinnon has already made his mark in that conversation. He passed Sakic for the most points in the Colorado era during the opening game of the 2025-26 season, a moment that carried real weight in a city where Sakic's legacy borders on untouchable.

Reaching 1,200 points would plant MacKinnon firmly in territory that only one player in the franchise's entire history, stretching back to its Quebec Nordiques days, has ever occupied. That is the kind of context that does not need overstating.

The Avalanche are coming off a season in which they recorded a franchise-record 121 points before advancing to the Western Conference Final. Championship ambitions remain intact. MacKinnon's personal pursuit runs parallel to all of that, giving fans two storylines to follow once the puck drops this fall. At 30 years old and still producing at this level, the more interesting question is not how many milestones he reaches. It is how close he eventually gets to Sakic's 1,641.