Devon Toews isn't just underrated anymore — he's legitimately elite

The Colorado Avalanche are rolling once again. They've started the new year going 8-0-1, outscoring their opponents 39-24 along the way. If you stretch it back to before the holiday break, they're now 14-1-1 in their last 16 games. The only two losses came on the road in Nashville, with the lone regulation defeat coming in a game that probably shouldn't have happened considering how many COVID-related absences there were.

There's no shortage of reasons for their success because they're absolutely loaded with firepower. Right near the top of that list has been the play of Devon Toews this season, even if he isn't necessarily the first name to kind to mind when thinking about the Avalanche. That's because he typically tends to get overshadowed by his big-named teammates, who are more visibly dominant in the way they impact the game. 

When watching hockey, that kind of flash is what our eyes seem to gravitate towards and what we wind up remembering after the fact. His style is far more subtle and the way he operates takes more viewings to fully register. It takes a closer examination to really begin to appreciate the way he controls the flow of the action while he's on the ice.

So that's exactly what we're going to do here. Let's break Toews' play down into more digestible segments, and shine a brighter light on the details that allow him to keep churning out results that compare favourably with the very best in the league.