Peter Baugh of The Athletic is reporting that the Colorado Avalanche have dipped their toes into the PTO waters once again as they have signed forward Joel Kiviranta to a professional tryout. The 27-year-old spent last season with the Dallas Stars where he registered eight goals and one assist in 70 games while playing 12:09 a night. Kiviranta joins Peter Holland who also signed a PTO with the Avalanche last week and will be looking to crack the team’s bottom six forward group and earn an NHL contract.
The native of Vantaa, Finland was signed by the Stars as an undrafted free agent back in May 2019 after he helped Finland earn a gold medal at the 2019 World Championship. He dressed in 11 NHL games the following season scoring just a single goal before dressing in 26 games in 2020-21 where he scored a career high 11 points.
The next two seasons would see Kiviranta become an NHL regular, albeit one who couldn’t regularly crack the score sheet. In 126 games over the past two seasons, Kiviranta has posted a total of nine goals and seven assists while going -15. Obviously, his offensive numbers leave a lot to be desired but on the defensive side of the puck Kiviranta has posted 214 hits over the past two years, and last season posted terrific takeaway numbers with 29 takeaways and just 13 giveaways.
Kiviranta is unlikely to develop into much more than a 13th forward at this point in his career, but for a team starving for some sandpaper and depth, it makes sense for the Avalanche to take a free look at Kiviranta and see if he can help them out.
He should get a 1 year deal for sure. Cupboards are pretty bare in colorado
He’s better than Meyers, I think Chris Wagner could out shine Kiviranta though.