Denver junior defenseman Sean Behrens has signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche beginning in 2024-25.
He will spend the remainder of the 2023-24 campaign with the AHL’s Colorado Eagles on an amateur tryout.
Behrens recorded career highs this past season with four goals and 27 assists for 31 points while appearing in all 44 games. He tallied the first two game-winning goals of his career during the campaign and finished third among DU defensemen in both assists and points.
A two-time national champion, Behrens helped the Pioneers win the NCAA title in 2022 as a freshman and the program’s record-breaking 10th trophy last week as a junior.
The 2023-24 NCHC defensive defenseman of the year and an all-NCHC honorable mention for a second consecutive season, Behrens paced the Pioneers with 70 blocked shots — the most by a Denver player since Will Butcher had 82 and Adam Plant had 80 in 2016-17. He also finished second on the squad with 53 penalty minutes and was second with a plus-25 plus-minus rating.
The Barrington, Ill., native went on career-long seven-game assist streak (10 assists) early in the season from Oct. 8-Nov. 4, which fell one shy of matching his personal-best point run. He tied a career high with three assists/points to start the stretch on Oct. 8 at Alaska. Behrens had seven multi-point outings during the campaign.
Behrens appeared in his 100th career game on Feb. 24 against Miami and contributed a pair of assists in the contest. He scored his first career game-winner on March 2 at St. Cloud State and also tallied the game-decided marker while also adding a helper and a plus-3 rating in Game 2 of the NCHC quarterfinals on March 16 vs. Minnesota Duluth.
The rearguard was named to the 2024 NCAA Frozen Four all-tournament team after registering an assist in each contest, including in the overtime-winning goal against Boston University in the national semifinals on April 11. In the national championship game, he added another assist and had a career-best five blocked shots against Boston College — the second-highest scoring team in the nation this season. Throughout the year, he blocked four shots in a game six times.
Behrens finishes his collegiate career with 81 points in 112 games. He buried 10 goals while his 71 assists rank tied for 11th all-time by a DU defenseman in school history.
One of four Pioneers named to the NCHC all-rookie team in 2021-22, Behrens opened his collegiate career with a five-game assist/point streak (seven assists) from Oct. 8-22, 2021. We went on a career-long eight-game point streak from Jan. 15-Feb. 5, 2022 (two goals, 10 assists), which at the time was the longest by a freshman defenseman in NCHC history and tied for the longest by any blueliner in conference history with Minnesota Duluth’s Andy Welinski in 2013-14 (surpassed by DU’s Zeev Buium in 2023-24).
He finished his freshman campaign with 29 points (three goals, 26 assists) in 37 games and added 21 points (three goals, 18 assists) in 31 contests as a sophomore. He was named to the United States roster for both the 2022 and 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship and helped the Americans win a bronze medal as a sophomore in 2023 in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, Canada.
Behrens was selected by the Colorado Avalanche prior to his freshman season at DU in the second round (61st overall) of the 2021 NHL Draft.
