The Colorado Avalanche are a team built on speed and skill, but I think it’s fair to say that one of the concerns among the fanbase is that when the playoffs roll around, they roster might be a little too small.

This new ranking, which ranks all the NHL teams by average weight and has been making the rounds on social media, might not change the minds of the people who believe that.

Up at the top, you’ve got the Boston Bruins. I can’t imagine any other fanbase that would be more proud ranking first something like this. When you add Nikita Zadorov to your team, who is currently listed at 248 pounds on the Bruins site, you probably jump up a list like this pretty quickly.

“Way” down at the bottom? The Colorado Avalanche, all by their lonesome at 192 pounds. On paper, it makes sense. I don’t know about being the smallest team in the league, but I could have easily guessed they’d be in the bottom 1/3. Colorado’s additions this summer came in the form of a lot of smaller guys like Erik Brannstrom and Oliver Kylington. Even before adding those guys, this wasn’t exactly a big team, especially on defense.

There’s a few things I’d like to point out in regard to this list. One, the Avalanche are listed at 192 pounds. The 12th heaviest team in the league is listed at 198 pounds. That means there’s a lot of teams just kind of jumbled together in the bottom 2/3 of the list, and there’s really not that much of a difference between them. Heck, the Panthers, who I would consider a pretty difficult team to play against, are in the bottom five with the Avalanche.

Second, I’m not sure how often these sites are updated with accurate heights and weights of the players. If you compare what you see on Elite Prospects (the site this data was pulled from) and the official NHL site, there are discrepancies with players. I know Zadorov is a big guy, but I think he might even dispute that he’s 248 pounds. It’s also not clear if the data for the Avalanche includes both Landeskog and Nichushkin, or really who it includes at all. We don’t even know what the final roster will look like.

How much of a difference can size make in the playoffs? I think it’s fair to say it can make a pretty big difference, but you also can’t ignore skill. The Avalanche eliminated the Jets pretty easily in the first round this past season, and the Jets are certainly a bigger team. We already know the reason the Avalanche weren’t interested in moving a guy like Josh Manson this summer is because he brings a unique skillset to this team, so I do think the organization is aware that they’re lacking a bit in the size department.

Weight can also be a little bit deceiving. Artturi Lehkonen is probably one of the lightest players on the roster, but I’d take him over a lot of guys way bigger than him when the playoffs roll around. On the flip side, you have big guys who don’t exactly take advantage of their size. It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

The size (or lack thereof) of this team has been a hot topic for many this summer, and probably will continue to be as we get closer and closer to the playoffs.