Jared Bednar actually has options to start the 2025-26 season.

You’d best believe he’s going to take advantage of them.

With a healthy Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Necas, Artturi Lehkonen, Brock Nelson, Gabriel Landeskog and Valeri Nichushkin, the Avalanche are flush with top six forwards. Even the likes of Ross Colton and Victor Olofsson, currently skating on the third line, could see time in the top six as the preseason rolls forward.

It’s a far cry from what Bednar was dealing with this time last year when rookies Nikolai Kovalenko and Calum Ritchie began the season on the second line with Casey Mittelstadt.

Then again, one year ago, Bednar had Mikko Rantanen flanking MacKinnon, as money of a duo as you could find in the league over the last decade. He doesn’t have that luxury now and we sure as heck aren’t going to analyze that trade again (for now), but he does have the ability to put Necas back with MacKinnon, something we’ve seen for the majority of training camp thus far.

There’s a reason why those two are back together again; their numbers last year were downright dominant.

In nearly 300 minutes of ice-time together at 5-on-5, the Avalanche controlled 64% of the shot attempts and 66% of the scoring chances with MacKinnon and Necas on the ice, while outscoring the opposition 16-9. MacKinnon and Rantanen’s numbers together were also spectacular, as they controlled 57% of the shot attempts and 59% of the scoring chances on the ice in a much larger sample size.

Incredible numbers that goes to show the potency of the Necas-MacKinnon pairing after the trade.

“If they’re good together, then I’d like to keep (Necas) there,” Bednar said on Tuesday after practice.

A moment passed and the next question began to be asked, but not before Bednar stepped in. He wanted to expand.

“Let’s be clear,” he said. “Having the puck and playing with the puck is great. That’s not the end goal of the game, though. We’re trying to score goals. Activity is not accomplishment, right? We’re not playing keep away. If it was keep away, it’d be the best line in the league, so you got to score goals.”

Well then.

That duo did score goals — both in the regular season and in the playoffs when they outscored the Stars 6-3 while they were on the ice. The point is that it appears, at least at the moment, Bednar is going to take advantage of the talent the team has up front. That means occasionally splitting up Necas and MacKinnon, especially if the puck isn’t regularly going in the back of the net.

Which wouldn’t be a bad idea.

The Avalanche are in a unique position. They now have two of the best forwards in the world at driving the play forward in MacKinnon and Necas. Yes, they work very well together, but it seems like a bit of a waste to commit fully to having those two on a line at all times.

Before arriving in Colorado, Necas was scoring at over a point-per-game rate with the Hurricanes last season. With no context at all, you’d think he was putting up those numbers playing with All-Stars like Sebastian Aho and Seth Jarvis. That’s not the case.

His two most common linemates on the Hurricanes were Eric Robinson and Jesperi Kotkaniemi. Not bad players by any means, but considering the two finished the season with a combined 65 points, it’s fair to say Necas did most of the heavy lifting when they were together.

If Necas can score at a point-per-game rate and drive the play while skating with two bottom six forwards, why not see what he can do over an extended period of time playing with Brock Nelson? Necas is a fantastic puck distributor and at times it looks like he’s able to do whatever he wants when he’s on the ice. That’s been his M.O. so far in training camp, and that’s what it looked like in Sunday night’s preseason game when he picked up three points.

Put Necas with Nelson, a shoot-first center who has scored 133 goals over the last four seasons, and it would probably work if given the time to settle in. That leaves MacKinnon, who is more than capable of driving his own line, running one trio while Necas runs the other.

And it could make the Avalanche even more difficult to deal with.

“You got to get to the paint, you got to do all those things,” Bednar said. “We’re a possession team. We prides ourselves on being a good possession team, but there’s more to it than just having the puck.”

That’s where the likes of Lehkonen, Nichushkin and, especially, a healthy Landeskog come into play. Those three are known for doing the dirty work, whether it’s digging the puck out along the boards or getting to the front of the net. Separating Necas and MacKinnon, two players who love to have the puck on their stick and float everywhere in the offensive zone, gives each line in the top six a dynamic puck control player combined with some guys who will get their nose dirty.

Sounds like a recipe that could work. They just need a little time to cook up some chemistry.

That’s the advantage of an 82-game season.