The free agent period is now less than two weeks away from opening up. Several prominent players are set to hit the open market and many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign. Here is a breakdown of the Colorado Avalanche’s free agent situation.
Key Restricted Free Agents: F Mikhail Grigorenko. Grigorenko headlines a very weak RFA class for Colorado. His 10G and 13A in 75 games tops all Colorado RFAs, and he performed well relative to his $1.3MM one-year contract. The 23 year-old Russian is arbitration-eligible this offseason, but his limited production doesn’t foreshadow any prolonged negotiations. The former 12th overall pick is still young enough to turn things around, but the Avalanche will proceed with business as usual until they see something more from Grigorenko.
Other RFA’s: D Nikita Zadorov, F Sven Andrighetto, F Matt Nieto, D Patrick Wiercioch, F Rocco Grimaldi, D Eric Gelinas, F Turner Elson, F Samuel Henley, F Gabriel Bourque, D Duncan Siemens.
Key Unrestricted Free Agents: Fedor Tyutin. Tyutin came to Colorado after being bought out by the Columbus Blue Jackets. In his first season with the Avalanche Tyutin scored 1G and 12A in 69 games, and spent the majority of time on Colorado’s bottom defensive pairing. The Russian defenseman is firmly in veteran defense territory, and may be a useful piece for a playoff team looking for defensive depth. Tyutin may seek employment elsewhere while still collecting his buyout money from the Blue Jackets, who pay him $1.458MM a year until 2020.
Other UFA’s: F Rene Bourque, C John Mitchell, D Cody Goloubef, G Jeremy Smith, F Brendan Ranford, D Mat Clark, F Jim O’Brien, F Mike Sislo.
Projected Cap Space: The Avalanche will have approximately $21.5MM in cap space next season, and no big UFAs or RFAs to sign. Theoretically, this means that GM Joe Sakic could load up on premium UFAs to improve his basement-dwelling team. In reality, however, Sakic may trade in more skilled players for draft picks, prospects, and young players with potential. The Avalanche are not immediately ready to compete, so signing big name UFAs is not in the team’s best interest. They may sign a backup goaltender to replace Calvin Pickard, and could target UFAs for one-year contracts that the team can then flip at the deadline for picks.
All that cap space means nothing if you front office doesn’t properly utilize it. Salic was a great player, but out of his league as a GM. He needs to go.
I think the Avs give Sakic at least one more season to see what he can do to reverse the team’s downward spiral.
But sadly they can’t afford that. He has some huge decisions to make with trading pieces like Duchene and Barrie and they can’t survive him screwing it up.
He won’t. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. It’s too bad that it has come down to Duchene being traded.