It’s the middle of August, and while the Colorado Avalanche have actually given us some things to talk about in the last week, it’s still the quietest time of the year.

With a little over a month until training camp gets underway, I decided to take a look back at some of the numbers from last year. It wasn’t all good, and maybe we’ll save that for another day, but there were a few positive things that really caught my eye.

Here are three encouraging stats from last year that are good signs heading into a new season.

Miles Wood Was A Demon On The Penalty Kill

While playing for the Devils, Miles Wood never got a real opportunity to play on the penalty kill. Some of that might have had to do with him being in the penalty box a fair bit, but he was still one of those rare bottom six guys that wasn’t used while down a man. The Avalanche felt that was something he might be able to do when they signed him to a six-year deal.

If last year was any indication, they might be right.

Wood played 92 minutes while the Avalanche were down a man last year, and in those 92 minutes, Colorado only surrendered 5 goals against. 5! That comes out to a very low 3.25 goals against-per-60, which was far and away the lowest on the team. Now, the penalty kill isn’t just about one guy, as everyone on the ice has to work together as a unit, but that’s pretty darn good for someone who was relatively new to the role. The Avalanche scored 2 shorthanded goals with Wood on the ice, so their goal differential was just a -3 with him on the ice over the course of the full season. That’s wild.

With Andrew Cogliano retiring, Wood might have an even bigger role on the penalty kill this upcoming season, so we’ll see if he can keep it up. Everything went pretty well that first season, though.

Casey Mittelstadt’s 5-on-5 Production

I was invited on a radio show up in Edmonton recently, and you can listen to my segment here, but all they wanted to talk about were the situations surrounding Valeri Nichushkin and Gabriel Landeskog. Can you blame them? Heck, it feels like that’s all we’ve been talking about as well. With all “drama” surrounding those two, it’s easy to forget that the Avalanche went out and got a legit 2C at the end of last season.

He’s not flashy, and he might not end up on the highlight reels a ton, but Casey Mittelstadt is really good.

Last year, his production rates with both the Avalanche and Sabres were pretty much identical, and those rates were up with some elite players in the NHL. At 5-on-5, Mittelstadt produced 2.27 points-per-60. That puts him just outside of the top 50 when looking at players that played over 500 minutes. Some players that sit below him include Matthew Tkachuk, Nazem Kadri, Sebastian Aho, and Jason Robertson, just to name a few.

His assist rates are even more encouraging. Again, looking at players that played more than 500 minutes over the course of the season, he was 16th in the league with 1.58 assists-per-60. These numbers aren’t all that different from what he did the season prior, so it appears as though it might be sustainable.

The Avalanche now have another center who can help feed Mikko Rantanen if they decide to separate their two stars up front. That should help when it comes to matchups.

Drouin Did Just Fine Without MacKinnon

Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin were attached at the hip for a large majority of the final half of last season, so it’s tough to get a clear picture of just how well Drouin would do without the MVP next to him. However, his numbers during the times he was away from MacKinnon would seem to indicate he should be just fine.

With MacKinnon and Drouin on the ice together (633 minutes), the Avalanche controlled 56.79% of the shot attempts. Pretty good, right? While it’s not nearly as large a sample size, Drouin’s numbers playing with the other centers that will be on the team are pretty solid as well.

In 144 minutes with Ross Colton and Drouin together, the Avalanche controlled 53.55% of the shot attempts. That’s not dominant, but still good, especially when you consider the Hart Trophy winner was removed from the equation. Drouin’s brief time with Casey Mittelstadt is what is really intriguing for this coming season.

With Drouin and Mittelstadt together on the ice for 63 minutes, the Avalanche owned almost 60% of the shot attempts, and Drouin himself averaged 2.85 points-per-60. The sample size is very small, so you have to keep that in mind, but it does show that Drouin can take care of himself if he and MacKinnon need to be separated.