Wednesday: The team has officially announced the contracts for both players. Grimaldi will earn $750K in the NHL, while just $170K during his time in the minor leagues.
Tuesday: The Colorado Avalanche are closing in on having all of their restricted free agents re-signed. Only big defenseman Nikita Zadorov will be left without a deal once the Avs finalize a new extension with young center Rocco Grimaldi. BSN Denver’s Adrian Dater reports that the one-year, two-way agreement should be made official soon.
Grimaldi, 24, is an extremely talented forward who has found much success at the NCAA and AHL levels, but has yet to put it together in the NHL. A second-round selection of the Florida Panthers in 2011 out of the U.S. National Development Program, Grimaldi went on to star at the University of North Dakota before turning pro in 2014. In his first AHL season with the Panthers’ then-affiliate, the San Antonio Rampage, Grimaldi recorded an impressive 42 points in 64 games. Yet, when called up to Florida, his scoring dropped off to just one point in seven games. Given a longer big league look in 2015-16, the results were the same: Grimaldi netted just five points in 20 games, whereas in the AHL he recorded 33 in 52. Fortunate enough to have ample young, talented center depth, the Panthers did not have to wait for Grimaldi to develop an NHL edge, choosing instead to trade him to the Avalanche last summer for goaltender Reto Berra. Grimaldi returned to San Antonio in 2016-17, now affiliated with Colorado, and was again a force to reckon with in the AHL, finishing third in the league in goal scoring with 31 tallies to go along with 24 assists in 72 games. However, when the Avs recalled Grimaldi for four games at the end of the season, desperately looking for a glimmer of hope after a dreadful year, he could only manage one assist.
Grimaldi may have NHL-caliber offensive talent, but he lacks the one trait you can’t teach: size. At just 5’6″, 180 lbs., Grimaldi is one of the smallest players in the league. He does not have much of two-game, essentially due to a lack of leverage in puck battles and at the face-off dot, and simply can’t skate around the competition in the NHL like he has elsewhere. Yet, the Avalanche have not lost hope. Grimaldi is not the first undersized player to try his hand at the NHL, and he won’t be the last. Similar in size to prolific players like Theo Fleury and Brian Gionta, Grimaldi may be able to make his lack of size work, especially given his considerable offensive ability. GM Joe Sakic must think so too, as he protected Grimaldi in June’s Expansion Draft, showing his commitment to the young scorer. A two-way deal is reasonable, given his lack of success in the NHL thus far, but look for Grimaldi to get a much longer look in Colorado in 2017-18.
In addition to re-upping Grimaldi, the Avalanche also made an outside hire today, signing defenseman Jesse Graham. TVA’s Renaud Lavoie reports that it is a one-year, two-way deal between Graham and Colorado, one which will pay him the league minimum of $650K at the NHL level. A sixth-round pick of the Islanders in 2012 from the Niagara Ice Dogs of the OHL, Graham has struggled to make his junior scoring ability translate to the pro game over his first three season. New York declined to tender a qualifying offer to Graham, making the 23-year-old an unrestricted free agent this off-season. Graham has yet to make his NHL debut and has spent almost as much time in the ECHL over the past few years as he has in the AHL. However, Colorado is the land of opportunity for young defenseman; the team has just three blue liners signed to one-way contracts for 2017-18: Erik Johnson, Tyson Barrie, and Mark Barberio. The aforementioned Zadorov is likely to join that group soon, but (if the roster remains the same) that still leaves at least three spots up for grabs in camp and a good shot at seeing ice time over the course of the season. With 2017 top pick Cale Makar committed to UMass for at least the next season, Graham faces competition only from the likes of Chris Bigras, Andrei Mironov, Anton Lindholm, Duncan Siemens, David Warsofsky, and (if the Avs are lucky) maybe Will Butcher. It’s not the most inspiring list of options for the NHL’s worst team last season, but it could be the perfect scenario for a player like Graham in need of career boost.
Oh boy Stanley Cup here we come :/