Brock Nelson
Brock Nelson is a second-line center on a deep Colorado team. He also has a secondary power-play role and a penalty-kill role, so his usage is steady, but he is not the main offensive driver.
Role
ESPN's Avalanche line-combo page, fetched 2 November, has him at 2C between Gabriel Landeskog and Nicolas Roy, behind Nathan MacKinnon's line. The same page puts him on PP2 with Jaden Schwartz and Artturi Lehkonen, and on PK1 with Parker Kelly. The Inside the Rink preview for the 31 October Flames game shows the same second line, with Nelson on the second power-play unit and the second penalty-kill unit. Dobber's last-game page for the 28 October game against New Jersey shows Landeskog-Nelson-Roy getting the most 5-on-5 time of his combinations. It also shows brief shifts with other wingers. Nazem Kadri is on PP1 and the third line, so he is the main center competing for power-play time. I did not find a time-on-ice figure for this season. I did not read Daily Faceoff's page or a beat-writer report, so the line and unit details come from ESPN and Inside the Rink.
He holds the 2C job on a team that also has MacKinnon and Necas. He gets power-play time and kills penalties, and last season he had a shooter's volume of 27 shots in 14 games. SI's preseason piece said he still has a shooter's mentality and remains effective down the middle.
He is on PP2 behind a PP1 that is built around Necas, Kadri and Hughes, with MacKinnon and Makar also listed there in the sources I read. His 5-on-5 line looks more defensive than offensive. Last April the Gazette described his line as the one tasked with shutting down the opponent's top line. He is 35, and last season's 14 games produced 9 points. I do not hold a full-season record for him.
Where analysts split
broad agreement
Research confidence: thin. Outlooks are grounded in web search over current reporting and refreshed through the season.
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