Happy 2023, Avalanche fans.

There’s plenty to be excited about in Colorado. The Avs have remained a contender even while missing limbs and vital organs from their roster.

But if you’re feeling melancholy about another year over, that’s normal. After all, 2022 was one of the greatest years in franchise history. To appease your nostalgia, we’ve tried to condense it into 10 moments.

Stick around for five 2023 predictions.

10. Finnish homecoming hat trick for “The Moose” — Nov. 4

The only moment of the ongoing 2022-23 season to make the cut. (The rest of the list is a bit crowded with, you know….) Mikko Rantanen’s fourth career hat trick was his most sentimental — a loving performance for his home country of Finland during the NHL Global Series. Rantanen was off to a roaring start in what might end up a career season.

9. Comeback to reach the Cup — June 6

Sure, the series felt over by Game 4 in Edmonton, but the Avalanche’s comeback to clinch the Campbell Bowl was an apt amalgamation of the team’s biggest names delivering big moments. Cale Makar, Devon Toews, Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and Rantanen all scored in regulation as the Avs overcame 3-1 and 4-2 deficits.

8. Cale Makar’s greatest goal (so far) — Jan. 4

What a way to ring in the new year. Overtime in Chicago provided the signature highlight of Makar’s season. He came to a screeching halt with the puck and spun toward goal, caused Chicago’s Kirby Dach to lose balance, then Makar deked esteemed goalie Marc-Andre Fleury with a forehand-backhand move to deposit a game-winner.

7. A trade deadline to remember — March 21

General manager Joe Sakic put the finishing touches on a championship roster with a series of trades leading up to the 2022 deadline. The Avs acquired Artturi Lehkonen (Montreal), Josh Manson (Anaheim), Andrew Cogliano (San Jose) and Nico Sturm (Minnesota).

6. Nazem Kadri’s revenge — May 23

The spicy setup was after Colorado’s Game 3 win in St. Louis when Nazem Kadri was involved in a collision that removed Blues goalie Jordan Binnington from the second-round series. Binnington then went hockey-viral for throwing a water bottle at Kadri during Kadri’s TNT interview.

Bad blood had been brewing between the Blues and Kadri since the previous year’s playoffs. It was reaching a boiling point now. How did Kadri respond? With a Game 4 hat trick to give the Avalanche a 3-1 series lead. His shushing gesture toward the St. Louis crowd is one of the enduring images of Colorado’s Cup run.

5. Nathan MacKinnon signs 8-year extension — Sept. 20

A moment that will reverberate for years. Weeks before the title defense started, MacKinnon and the Avalanche eliminated the looming distraction of unfinished contract negotiations. His eight-year, $100.8 million deal through 2030-31 will make him the highest-paid player in the NHL.

4. Makar wins Norris and Conn Smythe trophies — June 21, June 26

Ushering in an era of high-flying, offensively gifted defensemen, Makar won the Avalanche’s first-ever Norris Trophy, which goes to the league’s best blueliner. His age-23 regular season was astonishing: 28 goals, 86 points, plus-48.

His postseason was arguably better. Five days later, Makar added the Conn Smythe to his shelf, becoming the third player in NHL history to win both awards in the same season. (He joined Nicklas Lidstrom and Bobby Orr.) The Stanley Cup playoff MVP compiled a team-leading 29 points in 20 games.

3. Kadri, Andre Burakovsky OT winners in Stanley Cup Final — June 15, June 22

The Avs went 5-1 in playoff overtime games. Their six-game Stanley Cup Final series hinged on two sudden-death situations. Burakovsky and Kadri rose to the occasion in Games 1 and 4, respectively.

The game-winners turned out to be their bittersweet last hoorahs with the Avalanche. Burakovsky signed with Seattle in the offseason, and Kadri with Calgary.

2. Darren Helm’s curse-defying buzzer beater — May 27

Maybe this moment should belong to MacKinnon for his coast-to-coast goal that almost won the series in Game 5. But the Avs blew 3-0 and 4-3 leads at home, forcing them back to St. Louis for their toughest adversary in a mostly spotless postseason. Down 2-1 in the third period of Game 6, J.T. Compher tied it with 9:42 left.

Then Helm (seven regular-season goals) played the unlikely hero. His slap shot with 5.6 seconds remaining exorcised the Avalanche’s second-round demons and resonated as the landmark hurdle of the Stanley Cup run.

1. Hoisting the Stanley Cup — June 26

What else? The Avs played a fittingly dominant third period to protect a 2-1 lead in Game 6 at Tampa, and Landeskog joined Sakic in the club of Avalanche captains to initiate the celebration by lifting Lord Stanley. Soon the party returned home for a parade. Six months later, Denver is still celebrating: The city has dubbed itself Hockey Capital U.S.A.

Avalanche 2023 predictions

1. MacKinnon will get his elusive 100-point season. Even after missing double-digit games. If he returns to the pace he was at before his injury, it’ll come down to the wire.

2. Rantanen will reach 50 goals, but not 60. He has never eclipsed 40 in a season. His current pace is 58, but that will drop as the Avs get healthier.

3. Colorado’s playoff second-line center is not currently on the roster. Won’t linger on this. Plenty of trade talk on the horizon. Let’s not wear ourselves out yet.

4. The Avs will return to the Stanley Cup Final. And it will be an exhausting time for The Denver Post sports staff with the Nuggets playing in the NBA Finals simultaneously.

5. Free agency will be costly again for the Avalanche. It’ll be difficult for the Avs to keep J.T. Compher and Evan Rodrigues next season, as well as they are both playing in contract years. Cogliano, Erik Johnson and Helm will also be UFAs.