Headlines

  • Cole Caufield Out For The Season With A Shoulder Injury
  • Vancouver Canucks Extend Andrei Kuzmenko
  • Vancouver Canucks Hire Rick Tocchet
  • Minnesota Wild Extend Matt Boldy
  • Boston Bruins Extend Pavel Zacha
  • Dallas Stars Extend Joe Pavelski
  • Previous
  • Next
Register
Login
  • MLB Trade Rumors
  • Hoops Rumors
  • Pro Football Rumors

Pro Hockey Rumors

  • Home
  • Teams
    • Atlantic
      • Boston Bruins
      • Buffalo Sabres
      • Detroit Red Wings
      • Florida Panthers
      • Montreal Canadiens
      • Ottawa Senators
      • Tampa Bay Lightning
      • Toronto Maple Leafs
    • Central
      • Arizona Coyotes
      • Chicago Blackhawks
      • Colorado Avalanche
      • Dallas Stars
      • Minnesota Wild
      • Nashville Predators
      • St. Louis Blues
      • Winnipeg Jets
    • Metropolitan
      • Carolina Hurricanes
      • Columbus Blue Jackets
      • New Jersey Devils
      • New York Islanders
      • New York Rangers
      • Philadelphia Flyers
      • Pittsburgh Penguins
      • Washington Capitals
    • Pacific
      • Anaheim Ducks
      • Calgary Flames
      • Edmonton Oilers
      • Los Angeles Kings
      • San Jose Sharks
      • Seattle Kraken
      • Vancouver Canucks
      • Vegas Golden Knights
  • About
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Partners
    • MLB Trade Rumors
    • Hoops Rumors
    • Pro Football Rumors
Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Free Agent Focus: Colorado Avalanche

June 10, 2018 at 1:59 pm CDT | by Holger Stolzenberg Leave a Comment

Free agency is now a little less than a month away from opening up and there are quite a few prominent players set to hit the open market while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign.  Here is a breakdown of Colorado’s free agent situation.

Key Restricted Free Agents: F Matthew Nieto — The 25-year-old, who was picked up off of waivers from the San Jose Sharks has found a home in Colorado after the team rewarded him a year ago with a $1MM contract as a restricted free agent, posting a career high in goals with 15 and forcing his way to some second-line action. Primarily used as a fourth-line defensive option, Nieto has started to show his potential.

One key to Nieto’s success has been getting regular playing time. After playing in a career-low 59 games between two teams last year, he got into 74 games and averaged almost 15 minutes a game. Now with his game improving and the potential to earn a second or third-line role with the team next year, Nieto looks to get a raise from his deal a year ago.

D Patrik Nemeth — After years of not being able to find a full-time role with the Dallas Stars, Nemeth, like Nieto, seems to have found a home with the Avalanche. The 26-year-old blueliner was claimed off waivers at the beginning of the season and immediately made an impact on the Avalanche’s defense. Often teamed with Tyson Barrie on the first line, Nemeth has developed into a solid shutdown defender, although he doesn’t provide much offense (3 goals, 15 points in 68 games). After signing at $945K last season, Nemeth should get himself a significant raise as well.

Other RFA’s: D Mason Geersten, F Felix Girard, D Jesse Graham, D Ryan Graves, G Spencer Martin, F Reid Petryk, D Duncan Siemens, F Nail Yakupov.

Key Unrestricted Free Agents: G Jonathan Bernier — The Avalanche goaltending combination of Semyon Varlamov and Bernier was just OK, but the combination was good enough to vault the team to the playoff for the first time in years. Bernier, who finished the season with a 19-13-3 record with a 2.85 GAA and a .913 save percentage in 37 starts, had moments where he dazzled, including a stretch of nine consecutive wins between Dec. 31 and Jan. 22. Due to a Varlamov injury, Bernier was forced to start in all playoff games and struggled against a good Nashville team, allowing 14 goals in four games as well as being pulled once.

The team must decide whether Bernier is the answer to their goaltending problems as the team needs a backup who can fill in long-term for the injury-prone Varlamov. The team could opt to look at a Carter Hutton, but that might cost the team too much, while the team’s top goaltending prospects are still a year or two away, although the team could turn to streaky UFA Andrew Hammond, who performed well in the playoffs against Nashville in three appearances.

F Blake Comeau — The 32-year-old veteran continues to produce in a bottom-line role for the Avalanche and after another solid season which puts him at 13 goals and 34 points, Comeau is another key veteran who provides a young Colorado team with that leadership the team needs. He has had quite an effect on players like Nieto and J.T. Compher and after finishing up a three-year, $7.2MM deal at $2.4MM AAV, he may want a similar deal to finish out his career.

Other UFA’s: G Joe Cannata, F Joe Colborne, F Rocco Grimaldi, G Andrew Hammond, F Trent Vogelhuber.

Projected Cap Space: With more than $22MM in cap space to work with, depending where the upper limit lands. That should give the team the possibility of going after a free agent or two, but with the team still developing its team through youth, Colorado hasn’t been a major talking point, yet anyway, for unrestricted free agents. However, the idea of the team going after James van Riemsdyk and placing him next to Nathan MacKinnon wouldn’t be a bad look either.

Regardless, the team also must use some of that cap space toward possible extension as the team may want to lock up promising star Mikko Rantanen as soon as possible, which he can do on July 1.

Share 0 Retweet 0 Send via email

Andrew Hammond| Blake Comeau| Carter Hutton| Colorado Avalanche| Felix Girard| Free Agency| Free Agent Focus 2018| J.T. Compher| James van Riemsdyk| Jonathan Bernier| Mikko Rantanen| Nail Yakupov| Patrik Nemeth| RFA

Western Notes: Canucks Defense, Blues, Voynov
Main
Erik Karlsson Not Likely To Get Moved To Vegas
View Comments (0)

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Please login to leave a reply.
Log in Register

    Top Stories

    Cole Caufield Out For The Season With A Shoulder Injury

    Vancouver Canucks Extend Andrei Kuzmenko

    Vancouver Canucks Hire Rick Tocchet

    Minnesota Wild Extend Matt Boldy

    Boston Bruins Extend Pavel Zacha

    Dallas Stars Extend Joe Pavelski

    Ottawa Senators Extend Artem Zub

    Edmonton Oilers Sign Jason Demers

    Los Angeles Kings Place Cal Petersen On Waivers

    Dallas Stars Extend Roope Hintz

    Recent

    Rangers Searching For Defensive Depth Upgrade

    Tampa Bay Lightning Place Rudolfs Balcers On Waivers

    Snapshots: Motte, Tarasenko, Guzda

    Toronto Maple Leafs Make Several Roster Moves

    Seattle Kraken Re-Assign John Hayden, Max McCormick To AHL

    Chicago Blackhawks Send Three To Minors

    Poll: Will The Buffalo Sabres Make The Playoffs?

    New York Islanders Assign Aatu Raty, Others To AHL

    Pittsburgh Penguins Send Two Players To AHL

    Minor Transactions: 01/28/23

    Rumors By Team

    Rumors By Team

    • Avalanche Rumors
    • Blackhawks Rumors
    • Blue Jackets Rumors
    • Blues Rumors
    • Bruins Rumors
    • Canadiens Rumors
    • Canucks Rumors
    • Capitals Rumors
    • Coyotes Rumors
    • Devils Rumors
    • Ducks Rumors
    • Flames Rumors
    • Flyers Rumors
    • Golden Knights Rumors
    • Hurricanes Rumors
    • Islanders Rumors
    • Jets Rumors
    • Kings Rumors
    • Kraken Rumors
    • Lightning Rumors
    • Maple Leafs Rumors
    • Oilers Rumors
    • Panthers Rumors
    • Penguins Rumors
    • Predators Rumors
    • Rangers Rumors
    • Red Wings Rumors
    • Sabres Rumors
    • Senators Rumors
    • Sharks Rumors
    • Stars Rumors
    • Wild Rumors

    Navigation

    • Sitemap
    • Archives

    PHR Info

    • About
    • Privacy Policy

    Connect

    • Contact Us
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS Feed

    Pro Hockey Rumors is not affiliated with National Hockey League, NHL or NHL.com

    scroll to top
    Close

    Desktop Version | Switch To Mobile Version