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Last year, 18 NHL first-round picks played college hockey, the most ever.
This year, there are 30.

That's more than the entirety of the 1990s.
College hockey has been reshaped significantly since it lifted the ban on Tier-I Canadian junior hockey players a little more than a year ago.

NHL prospects have flowed into college hockey like never before.

Two years ago, 233 NHL Draft picks played college hockey. Last year, college hockey set a record with 258.

This season, there are 326.

"I'm not sure on the exact percentage," UND coach Dane Jackson said, "but I think college hockey is one-third better, the level, than it was just a few years ago. The depth, the high-end, the overall competition is outstanding."

Rosters across the country are so loaded, one coach theorized that more than a dozen teams will enter the season believing this is the best squad they've ever had.

"It's going to make the margins even tighter and increase attention to detail, coaching, how certain players rise or fall in big moments," Denver coach David Carle said.
Schools with all sorts of different profiles are benefiting.

Michigan State, a Big Ten program with a massive athletic department, has nine NHL first-round draft picks on its roster, the most of any team in college hockey history.

Colorado College, a tradition-rich National Collegiate Hockey Conference program with a Division-III athletic department, has the highest number of NHL picks on its roster in program history (11).

The most recent NCAA national champions — Denver, Western Michigan and Quinnipiac — also have a program-record number of NHL picks on their rosters.

Lake Superior State, a Central Collegiate Hockey Association program with a small, Division-II athletic department, is bringing in five NHL picks this season — the highest number for an incoming class in program history.

"It's not just the blue bloods," said Sean Hogan, the executive director of College Hockey Inc. "It's across the board. Every team has gotten better. That's a good thing."

Forty-six programs have at least one NHL pick on their roster.

"As the Serratore brothers told us in Florida, if the CHL rule change occurs, it's going to give everybody a deeper access to players," Carle said, referring to Bemidji State coach Tom Serratore and Air Force coach Frank Serratore. "Parity is going to go up."

Carle pointed to last year's NCAA tournament, when Dartmouth made its first appearance since 1980 as a No. 2 seed while traditional powerhouse programs Minnesota, Boston University and Boston College missed the tournament.

"You're going to see more of that going into Years 2, 3 and 4," Carle said.

Recruiting the CHL

NCAA teams were more aggressive in recruiting Canadian Hockey League players in Year 2.
In 2025, 33.9% of the freshman class came from one of the three Canadian major junior leagues that make up the CHL — the Western Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League.

This fall, 46.8% of the freshman class is from the CHL.

NCAA schools pulled in more NHL prospects, too.

A year ago, 46 NHL picks went from the CHL to the NCAA. This fall, that number ballooned to 76.

"The natural path to the NHL is now through college hockey," Hogan said. "It makes sense based on what's offered. The athletes are older, bigger, stronger, faster. There are world-class coaches, world-class facilities. The student-athlete experience is like nothing in the world. There's no place like it."

NCAA teams also recruited younger players this summer.

Last year, 13.2% of the incoming CHL players had multiple years of junior hockey left. This year, 22.8% did.

The CHL boom has led to fewer American players in college hockey.

Americans make up 51.9% of Division-I men's rosters this season. It's the lowest number since 1973-74, around the time when the NCAA began phasing out Tier-I Canadian players.

There are several notable examples.
Omaha has just one American-born player on its roster.
Boston University has an all-Canadian freshman class for the first time in school history.
Bowling Green has as many Europeans as Americans.

"Everyone's trying to find their niche in this world," Minnesota Duluth coach Scott Sandelin said. "For our school, I don't think we're changing a whole lot. We're still in the process of trying to recruit kids who really want to play here, that really fit into what we're doing here."

Denver’s tax revenue is projected to grow in 2027 under a forecast that — if accurate — could begin to turn around years of belt-tightening, according to the city budget proposal released Thursday by Mayor Mike Johnston.

The projected growth — about a 1.1% increase compared to this year — is expected to come in part from more people spending money downtown in areas like the 16th Street mall, Johnston wrote in a letter to the City Council.
“We’ve driven economic recovery through a clear, three-step plan: resolve unsheltered homelessness, bring down crime, and reinvest in downtown — an economic engine for all of Denver,” the letter says. “That strategy is paying off.”

Sales taxes, which account for more than half of the city’s annual revenue, are expected to grow by about 5% compared to 2025. On 16th Street, sales tax revenue during a one-month period was up 18% in June compared to the same month last year. But the city’s overall revenue growth is expected to be offset by decreases in property taxes and state marijuana share-back revenue.

Under Johnston’s proposed budget for 2027, which still must go through the council review process, the city would maintain most agencies’ budgets while also partly replenishing its reserve fund, which had slipped below the recommended minimum level in recent years.

Johnston’s team does want to spend some of the increased income on things like parks and recreation, pedestrian infrastructure, homelessness, affordable housing, behavioral health and the Denver Sheriff and Fire departments, according to the letter.

Among the proposals, the city would spend:

• $140 million for the full Denver Parks and Recreation budget, which includes added dollars to operate the new Westwood Recreation Center and to install drought-tolerant landscaping citywide.

• $10.4 million on a 2% merit raise for “eligible employees” in 2027.

• $84.5 million to address homelessness, including a pilot for a new family homeless shelter.

• $51 million on new affordable housing units.
Budget hearings with the City Council will begin the week of Sept. 21. The City Council must pass a budget by Nov. 9.

#Rockies  President of Baseball Operations Paul DePodesta on Hunter Goodman, Mickey Moniak, and Jake McCarthy:

“I don’t think we got particularly close on any of those players.” Says they had a set price in mind, says we have a lot of good players, have a foundation of something that has a chance to be pretty good, so with that it was going to take a lot.”

Thinks Mason Adams has a chance to be in the rotation, whether that’s this year, the start of the next season, or sometime next season, he couldn’t say.

“Mickey is an important part of what we’re doing here.”

No update on Kris Bryant contract

All updates from Eli Whitney video on X

A historic apartment building boom means metro Denver renters are getting some of the best deals in the country — for now.
Why it matters: A flood of new apartments in 2024 has lowered rents and produced what industry analysts say are the nation's biggest rental concessions. But that window could close quickly as construction slows and vacant units fill.

What they're saying:

“We have the biggest concessions … of anywhere in the country," Apartment Appraisers & Consultants president Scott Rathbun told reporters Monday, citing feedback from national operators.

Rathbun said record demand has been fueled by the combination of steep discounts and a housing market that's priced out many would-be buyers.

By the numbers: More than 8,300 apartments were filled in the second quarter of this year — a record pace that quickly ate into vacant inventory — compared with just 3,300 new units added.

$175: The average monthly concession renters are receiving — nearly 10% off rent, or roughly four to five weeks free over the course of a year.

3%: Average rents are down from a year ago, holding around $1,800.

What we're watching: The development pipeline has shrunk dramatically, from roughly 120,000 proposed apartments at its peak to about 54,000 today, per the Apartment Association of Metro Denver.

Industry leaders say the decline reflects increasingly difficult financing, with developers battling higher construction costs and local housing policies that have made some projects harder to pencil out.

What's next: If apartment construction continues to slow while demand stays strong, today's deep discounts could disappear as soon as 2027, industry analysts say.

Curious whether Blucifer’s lived up to the hype and how Year 1 of new-UMS went.

A pair of major, local-music festivals are descending upon Denver the weekend of July 24-26, a mere four miles apart and each featuring hundreds of local bands.

But you can only go to one of them.

That’s not just because music fans may only be able to afford one or the other. Rather, one is already sold out, and the other is counting on last-minute ticket sales to shore up its revenue. Each includes a dozen or so official venues, in a walkable neighborhood format, and are expecting thousands of attendees.

But music fans would be forgiven for wondering why the festivals are taking place on the exact same weekend.

“A year ago we thought The Underground Music Showcase was going away forever,” said Mike Young, co-lead organizer of the new Blucifer’s First Rodeo festival.

He’s talking about The UMS’s formerly uncertain fate after its owners said they were pausing the festival, leading many to believe The UMS had shuttered permanently. “It was a sad day, and it was disappointing,” said Young. “But it’s this summer music holiday people have gotten used to, and it’s too important for the scene, so it felt like the decision of when to do it was out of our hands.”

Instead, the UMS, which has run on South Broadway for the last 20 years, was revived and will take place this year in the River North Art District. Organizers expect about 10,000 people per day to crawl the district’s venues, boutiques, craft breweries, and restaurants. And that’s entirely to the benefit of music fans, said Terry Madeksza, executive director of the RiNo Business Improvement District, which spent $250,000 to buy a 50% stake in The UMS.

We have 60, 70 businesses asking to be a part of this and investing in it, and that’s meaningful,” she said. “It says a lot for how far this district has come.”

Back on South Broadway, however, the upstart Blucifer’s First Rodeo (which begins Thursday, July 23) has already sold out its full-fest and day passes — about 2,200 in individual tickets, and another 800 complementary passes for artists.
The narrative that the two events are competing is false and unhelpful, organizers from both said, especially given the slight overlap of performers. But with about 20 Denver acts playing both, thanks to the lack of contracts that guarantee exclusive performances (also known as radius clauses) and valuable, grassroots community programming at both, the weekend may be an unfortunate, zero-sum game for two otherwise worthy events, said UMS co-founder John Moore.

It’s just inconsiderate to core local music fans who might naturally want to attend both,” he said. “Blucifer’s really seems to be tapping into the spirit of the original UMS. But I do think strategically they’re making a mistake. Why wouldn’t you want everybody at your festival, and what’s the point of sticking it to The UMS? Nothing good can come out of them happening at the same time.”

Multi-stage music fests often produce feelings of FOMO (fear of missing out), as music fans rush from one stage to the next so as not to miss their favorite or want-to-see acts. But it’s hard to fault a band for playing both events, since they need to get paid, and community-centric organizers and bookers are hoping the fests will be complementary.

“The UMS has been a part of my professional life for a decade. Let’s see what this next iteration looks like,” said Alicia “Bruce” Trujillo, a talent buyer for The UMS for the last four years, in describing her thought process for returning to the rebooted event. “I myself had reservations after seeing the Westword Music Showcase and others flicker out in (RiNo) because it’s so sprawling, but I do think that the festival map will keep things tight.”

Trujillo programmed showcases and parties for both festivals, in fact, featuring women and queer artists. That includes UMS events and a Blucifer’s kickoff promoted by her own Manos Sagrados nonprofit in Aurora. Having a hand in both supports her mission, which extends to an all-women UMS show that will feature the Girls Rock Denver and Book More Women nonprofits.

“I really like the (UMS) lineup for the Babes at Beacon (Saturday, July 25), which has a lot of different genres represented,” she said. “Both organizations (Girls Rock Denver and Book More Women) emphasize that creation from women, femmes, trans and non-binary music isn’t contained to one musical type, even if Girls Rock sprouted out of the Riot Grrrl movement, their Camp explores a lot of sounds,” she said.

The UMS has gotten far more diverse over the years from its dude-rock-heavy lineups, but adding some sense of accountability in the booking process helps local music fests in general, said Heather Goodrich, Girls Rock Denver storytelling and engagement director.

Combining at this event with Book More Women is a huge moment for us,” Goodrich said. “That’s because Girls Rock Denver’s mission is to turn up the volume on confidence to empower girls and trans kids and gender expansive youth with the tools to make friends — and lots and lots of noise.”
“You can’t always quantify the impact of being part of these events,” added Book More Women founder Abbey Carbonneau. “Partnering with Girls Rock Denver is important for us because we need these smaller festival spaces, and they’ve been leading that work.”

Blucifer’s also has grassroots, nonprofit partners and a diverse lineup. But because it’s artist- and volunteer-run, and not reliant on profit, attendees and musicians get to feel like they’re part of a big, collective art project, said Gillian Pasley, co-lead organizer of Blucifer’s.
“I’m surprised by the bravery of hundreds of people being willing to step up and try something new,” she said.
Whatever the result, a post-mortem may discover that the best thing for both fests is to take place on separate weekends, provided they both survive.
“This is about music discovery and supporting local artists and exploring neighborhoods,” UMS director Stoner said. “After the dust settles, I’d like to talk to the Blucifer’s folks and see how we all did. It may be that we move weekends. But I can’t deny that I wish it was on a different weekend.”

When Denver Water looked back at the historically abysmal snowpack, and ahead to a historically scorching summer, the crucial agency for 1.5 million Coloradans set a target of 20% water use cuts to help solve challenges from the ongoing drought. 

It’s not working.

At roughly the midpoint of the high season for lawn watering, which accounts for about half of Denver Water home use, customers have cut only about 2% of the five-year system average. Officials fear that after a weekend of 100-degree temps forecast for the Front Range, they’ll see even worse results as customers reel from a searing streak of daily highs and defend their lawns with amped irrigation. 

“We are seeking a 20% reduction off the five-year average, and yes we are far behind on that goal,” Denver Water spokesperson Todd Hartman said, in email responses to questions. By mid-July, Denver Water wanted to see 10,300 acre-feet less water used than the long-term average of about 51,000 acre-feet. So far, customers have trimmed use by 1,300 acre-feet. An acre-foot covers a football-field size piece of ground in 12 inches of water, and can serve two to four households in a normal year. 

“At this point in the summer, we have saved only about 10% of what we had hoped to save, as the hot and dry weather has taken a significant toll,” Hartman said. “It’s critical that all customers adhere to our watering restrictions or we are definitely looking at more drastic restrictions down the road.”

Aurora Water said its customers have so far met the goal of a 20% cut from outdoor use in 2025. But they are concerned about accelerating reservoir losses. The system for 380,000 residents has seen reservoirs drop to 52% of capacity, spokesperson Shonnie Cline said. 

The drop is because of hot weather demand, Cline said, but also because of an eye-opening loss of mountain stream flow into the reservoirs and losses along the way from extremely dry ground and evaporation.

At this date in a normal year, Cline said, Aurora Water would measure 260 cubic feet per second of water helping to fill Spinney Mountain Reservoir. On July 17, that flow was 3 cubic feet per second. Upstream 12 miles, a gauge measured 45 cubic feet per second, she said, demonstrating “how much water the ground is sucking up.”

Hartman said Denver does not have current plans to further restrict customer water use, but later stages of emergency drought planning call for a switch to once-a-week lawn watering if higher use would threaten reservoir levels for future years. 

System reservoirs were about 78% full on July 13, compared with the usual high-90s percentages in July after winters with better snowpack and runoff. “Levels are dropping as summer watering hits full stride,” the utility said in a blog post. 

Early-season lawn customers did better, seeming to follow Denver Water’s pleas not to turn on their systems full force until late May or even into June. But when the 90-degree streak hit, usage bounced back to the five-year average, the agency said. 

Denver is throwing shade to the suburbs in this intensifying battle. “We want to emphasize we really need more from our suburban customers with larger yards right now,” Hartman said. Denver Water serves major suburbs including Littleton, Wheat Ridge, Lakewood, portions of Centennial and others. 

“The average drought surcharge in June in the suburbs was about double the average in the city,” Hartman said. “If our suburban customers with larger yards really lock in and follow watering restrictions during these hot summer months, it will help them reduce their bills and help us stretch our supplies as we manage our way through this extreme drought.”

DENVER — A 14-story apartment building in Denver's Golden Triangle neighborhood sold for $30 million at the end of June, less than half of the $63 million it sold for in 2021, as the city's apartment vacancy rate hits a 16-year high.

According to city of Denver property records, Civic Lofts, located at 360 W. 13th Ave., changed hands in late June. The Apartment Association of Metro Denver said vacancy across the Denver metro area is at 7.6%, the highest level in 16 years.

Teo Nicolais, with the Apartment Association of Metro Denver, said the decrease in the building's value comes down to supply and demand. AAMD said 71,000 apartment units have been added to the Denver metro area since 2021, accounting for 20% of the city's total apartment stock over the past five years. 

"When you have that much inventory added, you're going to see a couple of things, you're going to see vacancies way up, you're going to see rents go down," Nicolais said. "In a situation like this, it's not surprising that the values are impacted."

Nicolais said average rents in the Denver metro area are just over $1,700, the same level they were at four years ago. AAMD data reflects that rents have fallen year over year for six straight quarters, including a 5% year-over-year drop in September 2025.

The Denver Business Journal reports Civic Lofts was completed in 2017 and offers studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments in a 14-story building.

Civic Lofts is currently offering 8 weeks of free rent and up to $1,000 of other concessions for those who sign leases within 48 hours. Civic Lofts has 176 units and is 88% occupied.

Denver leaders on Monday night are set to consider drastic changes in how city judges punish municipal-level criminal offenders.
The City Council drafted the proposal in light of a Colorado Supreme Court ruling that prohibits cities from handing down sentences that are harsher than the state’s penalties for the same offense. But the proposed ordinance, brought by the council’s three most progressive lawmakers, goes beyond what the ruling mandates by also changing the sentences for low-level, municipal-only crimes in an effort to decriminalize what they call “crimes of poverty.”

The proposal has gone through more than a dozen iterations as the sponsors have worked with Mayor Mike Johnston’s office to find compromises over how to reduce some of those sentences without risking public safety.
In a letter to the council, Johnston said he was no longer opposed to the legislation after the most recent round of changes.

“As a result of the dialogue between my office and the ordinance’s sponsors, we were able to resolve every single concern we had with the legislation,” Johnston wrote in the June 24 letter.

His administration called out specific municipal-only crimes that officials prioritized for keeping a more severe sentence, including some that often intersect with domestic violence, like threats to property and flourishing a weapon.

Other local crimes, such as indecent exposure and wrongs to minors, will also remain in a higher sentencing tier.

The proposed ordinance — which is set to have its final vote Monday unless a majority of the council votes to postpone it — would lay out a new 5-tiered sentencing structure and align the city’s maximum punishments with state statutes for similar offenses.
The new municipal sentencing scheme would break down offenses in five buckets:

• Class 1, which deals with the most serious offenses, such as assault or domestic violence, would stay the same. Those penalties cannot exceed 364 days in jail and a $999 fine.

• Class 2 would now equate to a Class 1 misdemeanor offense under state law. These crimes — such as threats, trespassing and harassment — would be punishable by up to 300 days in jail and a $999 fine.

• Class 3, which includes prostitution, resisting arrest and shoplifting, would line up with Class 2 misdemeanor offenses under state law. People convicted under this tier would face up to 120 days in jail and as much as $750 in fines.

• Class 4 would encompass crimes considered petty offenses under state law, such as public urination, panhandling and public indecency. They would be punishable by up to 10 days in jail and not more than a $300 fine.

• Class 5 would concern civil infractions under state law and could not carry jail time.

The council sponsors initially wanted to classify all municipal offenses that don’t have a state counterpart as Class 4 violations — meaning judges could impose a maximum of only 10 days in jail. They pointed to data showing that the vast majority of people charged in Denver’s municipal court — at least 75% — are at or below the federal poverty level.

About 12,000 municipal-only offenses are prosecuted each year, and between September 2023 and September 2025, 600 people were sentenced to more than 10 days in jail for municipal-only offenses, according to the sponsors’ presentation.

Johnston’s administration and several council members opposed that change, saying it would hinder the city’s ability to enforce fire and licensing codes for things like landlord regulations.

In response to the pushback, the sponsors decided to leave the majority of the city’s code at the general penalty (300 days in jail and a $999 fine).

Blucifer’s First Rodeo will work like this: On June 24 and 25, dozens of bands will play venues along Broadway, like Bar 404, Hi-Dive and Skylark

Tickets to obtain wristbands to get into thoseshows have sold out. However, there may be limited opportunities to get tickets to Broadway shows through giveaways from radio stations like Indie 102.3 and The Colorado Sound. Organizers also said some tickets may be released after volunteers are assigned their shifts and given day passes. 

Blucifer’s First Rodeo will also be throwing an all-ages“DIY Fest” featuring over two dozen local bands on Thursday, July 23 and Saturday, July 25. Those venues, like D3 Arts in Westwood and Squirm Gallery in Five Points, are off the festival’s main track. 

On Sunday, June 28, the festival organized a series of house shows across the Baker neighborhood.

Tickets to all three days of the DIY satellite and house shows are available for $39. 
In total, organizers expect about 3,000 people to turn out.