Before his first game against the Sabers since the March trade that sent him to the Avs for Bowen Byram, Mittlestadt said he went to dinner with several Sabers here Monday night, just as trade partner Byram planned to do with his old friends from Colorado .

Mittelstadt and Sabers captain Ramsus Dahlin lived together in a downtown condo for three years, essentially the entirety of their entry-level contracts, and were particularly close.

When asked who might score first in Tuesday’s game, Dahlin replied with a smile: “Me,” without needing further explanation.

When Mittelstadt learned of the prediction and was asked to respond, he grinned and said, “I won’t be surprised. He’s dirty.” And then he added, “Hopefully that means I have the puck.”

The game between the two was always fast and furious – especially once Dahlin mastered the English that Mittelstadt taught him when he came to Buffalo from Sweden as an 18-year-old. The games of Fortnite and the NHL series from EA Sports pass the time for former first-round picks during many Buffalo winters.

“We’ve been chatting here for the last few days. We are close friends,” Dahlin said. “He’s having a great time there, he’s enjoying playing there in Colorado and I’m really happy for him.

“We have so many memories together. We spent so much time together, really good friends. There is so much to say about him, honestly, I don’t have enough time. He’s just an unreal person.”

Mittelstadt, Buffalo’s first-round pick in 2017, was dealt after a morning skate in Toronto and only the timing was a surprise. The Sabers were clearly hesitant to give a third center a big deal after Tage Thompson and Dylan Cozens both signed for more than $7 million per season, and Mittelstadt said he had a feeling something was going to happen.

There was a feeling around the league that Mittelstadt was more of a summer trade project, but teams found agreement and completed the deal at the March deadline instead.

“It was a little hectic,” he said. “But I think I probably had a feeling that something was coming at some point. Did I expect it to be right then and there? No, but that’s just how it is. And I think it worked out for both sides. I enjoyed my time in Buffalo and it was probably a good time in my career for a new chapter.”

Mittelstadt scored four goals and six assists in 18 games with the Avalanche after the trade, then added three goals and six assists in 11 games in his first opportunity in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

“It was great fun. “Of course I didn’t know exactly what to expect,” said Mittelstadt. “My first game was in Winnipeg and the ‘Whiteout’ (the fans wore white), so I think I was probably close to peaking. It was great.”

Avs star Nathan MacKinnon raved about Mittelstadt’s play in the postseason games against Winnipeg and Dallas when I asked him about it during the NHL Awards Show in Las Vegas in June, even calling Mittelstadt the Avs’ best player for a majority of the wins the Jets in five games.

The Avs then signed Mittelstadt to a three-year, $17.25 million contract over the summer and he started this season like gangbusters, scoring in the first three games and posting a record of 6-7-13 in the first 10 games.

Since then, however, things have been quiet about him. We saw a lot of great plays from Mittelstadt in Buffalo, but we also saw some of these stretches. Entering Tuesday, he had just one goal and five points in his last 15 games. No points in his last six games. And his rating had dropped to a team-worst minus-15.

Their second-line center, with a $5.75 million cap hit, can’t be a non-starter offensively. That’s what the Sabers have been through a lot of with the Cozens this year, too.

“Honestly, as you know, I’ve had periods like that in my career,” Mittelstadt said. “Just keep working hard and try to get better every day…try to work through it quicker than maybe in the past.”

Colorado coach Jared Bednar said he needed Mittelstadt to stay moving and not stand still, making him easy to control on the ice.

“If he runs and is a shooting or passing threat, I think he is extremely dangerous,” Bednar said. “And it seems to me like he’s trying a little too hard to submit to his teammates at the moment, so he kind of takes away a threat and then he’s easier to check. We talked to him not only about skating, but also about his attacking mentality.”

Bednar also noted that the Avs’ forward group has been in flux all year due to injuries and the recent return of Valeri Nichushkin from a suspension. Mittelstadt’s linemates were a mess, but he has since settled in with Nichushkin and 25-year-old rookie Nikolai Kovalenko, who has played the last six years in the KHL.

Due to injuries, poor goaltending and equally poor penalty killing, the Avs are in the playoff bubble for now, not where the 2022 Stanley Cup champions were thought to be. Nevertheless, Mittelstadt hopes for another chance at the playoffs.

“I think I can learn a lot from the guys here,” he said. “Obviously a lot of them have won before and we have some really, really, really talented players here. It’s a chance for me to grow, especially as a hockey player. I was definitely sad to leave (Buffalo), but I think I was excited to some extent too.”