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Devon Toews: Avalanche Defenseman's Whirlwind Journey To Colorado And Becoming A Superstar

DENVER (CBS4)- "When you get to play with a guy like this every night, you don't take it for granted, that's for sure," said the Colorado Avalanche's Cale Makar.

Nashville Predators v Colorado Avalanche - Game One
DENVER, COLORADO - MAY 03: Devon Toews #7 of the Colorado Avalanche celebrates a goal against the Nashville Predators in Game One of the First Round of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Ball Arena on May 3, 2022 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Michael Martin/NHLI via Getty Images)

Devon Toews is the Robin to Cale Makar's Batman. Toews might get less national attention than Makar, but he's a superstar in his own right.

"He plays every situation for us. Whether we're up a goal or down a goal, he's now the guy we lean on," Jared Bednar said of Toews.

There's no shortage of love being Toews and Makar. Their chemistry is palpable and it makes them an unstoppable force on the ice.

"Cale makes it easy a lot of times. He's such a dynamic player. I think our friendship off the ice helps a lot. We have a lot of rapport. We don't fight, we don't bicker. If something happens on the ice, we talk it about and move on. We view the game the same and have the same mindset," Toews said

"I feel like Devon just does everything well. It always feels like if one of us is up, the other is back. Whether its just reading off each other or finding different ways to go up the ice together and expose their forecheck, I just feel in that aspect we work well together," Makar said.

Nashville Predators v Colorado Avalanche - Game One
DENVER, COLORADO - MAY 03: Mikko Rantanen #96 joins teammates Nathan MacKinnon #29 and Valeri Nichushkin #13 of the Colorado Avalanche to celebrate a goal by Devon Toews #7 against the Nashville Predators in Game One of the First Round of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Ball Arena on May 3, 2022 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Michael Martin/NHLI via Getty Images)

Through the first round of the playoffs, Toews and Makar are tied for the most goals by a defenseman. That's impressive on its own. Even more when you consider they're on the ice with one of the best scoring top lines in the league.

"It helps when they defend so well too. The five of us defend so well and it allows us to play offense freely and creatively. It's tough to read off those guys too sometimes. They're so creative and have such good hockey minds. I've learned a lot from them, how they like us to play and how they like us to jump the rush," Toews said.

For Toews, it's all about one thing:

"Consistency. I think that's something always been something I've keyed in on. If I can just be consistently good at what I'm doing and consistently be a contributor every night. It's been since college that I really started to hone in on that part of my game."

Toews is now a staple on the Avalanche, but his journey to get to this point was no easy task. It started as an unbelievable whirlwind. On October 10, 2020, Devon married his wife, Kerry with plans to build their life on the east coast. Two days later he was traded to Colorado.

"I think we were still on the wedding high, still going through wedding cards. To get that call was a little bit shocking. Probably took a week for that to settle in and to understand it was an exciting place for us to go. It was nothing against Colorado, we just loved our set up out there and felt like that was home for us at that point in our lives. It was a lot of life moving fast for us."

Devon Toews
(Credit: CBS)

Packing up and moving at a moment's notice is tough at any time. But Devon and Kerry had to do it at perhaps the toughest time - in the height of the pandemic, when ingratiating themselves into a new community was nearly impossible. But the Avs came through.

"It speaks to how great the hockey community is that we were able to move here and have no one and feel like we did have a lot of people behind us, helping us."

Just a couple years after the crazy move, the Toews have built a life in Colorado, on and off the ice.

"It's a business and there are always things that happen - case and point us getting traded from New York. But if we have the opportunity to spent the rest of my career and the rest of our lives together, we would love that."

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