The Athletic’s Peter Baugh recently shared that defender Devon Toews expressed interest in staying with the Colorado Avalanche through the end of his career. However, Toews also mentioned that he doesn’t want contract extension talks to continue into the regular season.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman weighed in on this in the recent 32 Thoughts podcast, sharing that, in his experiences, whether negotiations carry into the season or not can be a good indicator of how close the team and player are. Friedman said, “We’ll see how long they continue to try. If they don’t negotiate into the season that says to me they aren’t close.”
The Avalanche acquired Toews in a 2020 trade with the New York Islanders, sending second-round picks in the 2021 and 2022 NHL Drafts. New York kept the latter pick, drafting Calle Odelius, but traded the former selection to the Arizona Coyotes along with a slew of picks to incentivize Arizona to take Andrew Ladd. Arizona used the pick to select J.J. Moser, who has already appeared in 125 games with the NHL club.
Toews has been a stout part of Colorado’s defense since 2020, recording 138 points in 199 regular season games with the Avs. He also factored heavily into the team’s 2022 Stanley Cup run, ranking second among the team’s defensemen in scoring with 15 points in 20 games. He also averaged over 25 minutes of ice time per game during the Cup run, confidently cemented on the team’s top line.
Toews’ current cap hit is $4.1MM and, as Friedman mentions, there’s a good chance that he could make more if he were to go to the open market. Toews’ interest seems to be firm with Colorado but if contract talks stall during the season, there’s no telling where Toews may end up.
I also want DT to finish his career with the Avs. He & Makar are an awesome twosome.
Of course he wants it, you want it, I want it….
But there’s no way they can pay him market value, and he’d be foolish not to go get paid
@M34 – I think it could be done, but there’d be a whole lot of rearranging of the old deck chairs. Guys like Toews don’t grow on trees. He’s two cuts above the average shutdown D-man, in my book (if not more).
I thought i remembered Toews being a 5/6 dman but i was WAYYYYY OFF. Man a right around 0.7 points per game AND a good defender. He would be stupid not to go get 6-7.5 per some where else BUT he is happy and they give him 5-5.5 why wouldnt he stay
Blocks shots, scores 7-10 goals and 50 points a year, 30-50 +/- and 29 year old cup winner im maybe a little light on my cap hit prediction.
@Murphy NFLD – Personally, I don’t think he should be forced into much, if any, hometown discount (hence the possibly extreme rearranging of the deck chairs). The problem is the long-promised cap jack-up isn’t here, and there’s some concern the Bally Sports junk will adversely affect HRR. I’m not sure if there’s a better fit for him anywhere else in the league. He just seems like a natural there.
Yea i agree, after i looked into his stats especially the past 3 years hes been amazing and can do it all plus at 29 years old he can get some big money elsewhere. I was saying that if he amd his family are happy there and the contracts are are close he should stay. But after looking he could get paid like a number 1 somewhere else while the avs maybe stuck in the 6-6.5 area he might get 8+ somewhere else. Responsible, 50 point scoring, cup winning 29 year old dmen dont come up very often, being a rh shot would be better but i bet he would get 7.5-8.5 on the open market, even for 6 years he still has a chace at a good contract after that being 35 but teams might have to go 7 to get him
@Murphy NFLD – He reminds of those three magic words – “Worth…every…penny” If he were a few years younger, we’d suggest he take a bridge deal until the cap goes up. Err, *if* the cap goes up. ;)
Not exactly a pressing issue today, I wonder If Makar and some of the other 2018 WJC Canadian team members are holding there breath in regards to possible player suspensions?
@Wilf – One commenter cited in an article said this – “They will drag this sh*t to the next millennium”, so I wouldn’t hold your breath. They can’t decide whether 8 or 5 are already guilty, and three have locked down their social media pages (are they part of the 8 or 5?). Two weeks ago, they said they were on the verge of an announcement. Still waiting… Maybe Bettman will pre-coat himself in a mud-colored substance and have Daly hit him with a 3000-psi pressure washer from Northern Tool & Equipment. “See! Nothing sticks to me!”