The Avalanche have signed pending UFA center Brock Nelson to a three-year extension, per a team announcement. The deal carries a $7.5MM cap hit for a total value of $22.5MM, reports Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet.
In doing so, Colorado takes one of the top pivots off this summer’s open market. They paid a steep price to acquire the longtime Islander from New York at the trade deadline, surrendering their 2026 first-round pick along with center Calum Ritchie, their No. 1 prospect, along with some smaller assets to land him. Losing him for nothing, especially after the Avalanche suffered a first-round playoff loss to the Stars, would have been quite the blow.
Instead, they’ll get parts of four seasons out of the 33-year-old, assuming he plays out the rest of his deal. It’s an eye-popping price tag, especially since he’s coming off somewhat of a down season with 26 goals and 56 points in 80 games split between Denver and Long Island, and a noticeable raise over his previous $6MM cap hit. Nonetheless, he’ll be the solution to fill the second-line center gap for the next few years after searching for a consistent producer following Nazem Kadri’s departure in free agency in 2022.
Nelson’s point production this season didn’t shift considerably from team to team. He posted 43 points in 61 games for the Islanders (0.70 per game) before logging 13 in 19 for Colorado down the stretch (0.68 per game). Nelson added four assists and a plus-two rating in seven playoff games for the Avs, averaging a shade under 17 minutes per game in the postseason.
Notably, the contract he signed with the Avalanche is the same one offered to him by the Islanders before they opted to trade him, Stefen Rosner of The Hockey News reports. Amid a retool with new general manager Mathieu Darche at the helm, New York is likely still happy with the move to jumpstart what was one of the worst prospect pools in the league.
Nelson’s contract will be an important comparable as other top pending UFA centers like Sam Bennett and John Tavares continue to pursue extensions with their current clubs. The deal he ended up signing came in a fair amount above the roughly $7MM AAV projected for him on a three-year deal on the open market, according to AFP Analytics.
Avalanche GM Chris MacFarland now has his center group of Nathan MacKinnon, Nelson, Charlie Coyle, and Jack Drury all under contract through next season. Coyle and Drury will become eligible to sign extensions on July 1.
Still, the premium they paid to keep Nelson from testing free agency will cause some cap headaches for MacFarland to deal with this summer. They’re down to just $1.2MM in cap space for 2025-26, according to PuckPedia. While they have a mostly full roster, they still have four open spots between them and a cap-compliant 23-man roster.
Barring a significant cap-clearing trade, their notable pending UFAs, winger Jonathan Drouin and defenseman Ryan Lindgren, are not returning. Even if they only signed players to league-minimum deals, they’d only be able to ice a bare-minimum 20-player roster out of the gate with no flexibility for a recall.
Nelson’s deal runs through the 2027-28 season, after which he’ll be able to test unrestricted free agency if he so chooses at age 36. The 2010 first-round pick could play his 1,000th game late next season if he stays healthy. He’s at 920 entering the offseason.
Image courtesy of Talia Sprague-Imagn Images.
When your team gives up as much as they did for you as a rental? That’s leverage.
They had no choice with what they gave up
Colorado needed to sign Brock Nelson for several reasons, one because they needed a C2 but also because of what they gave up. Is Nelson worth $7.5M AAV? That’s quite questionable based on his point percentage as his actual value is more around $5 to $5.5M. But this could be a strong indicator that FAs will be getting paid more than their actual value this offseason primarily because of the cap increase. It’s going to be a pricey offseason for teams.
That’s a $1m per overpay but he’d have got it or pretty close in this weak FA market. So who gets traded out? Necas?
Probably one of Ross Colton, Josh Manson, or Samuel Girard. Miles Wood is an option, too, if they can incentivize a team to take him.
You just called it an overpay then provided a reason why it is not an overpay. Make up your mind. If the Av’s thought they could have signed him for less, they would have. Seems like you just made up the $1m number.
Good work by Nelson’s agent!
That centre lineup is deadly. Holy heck. I don’t know much about Colorado’s roster, but that part of the lineup is mint.
Nelson without a doubt would have received close to if not more in the open market. With an increased cap means over pay for most veteran UFA’s. This is a prime example of what’s to come in this off season.
I think this is a great move for Colorado. Sure, they’ve got 1.2 million in available cap space, but they’re one full-season together from winning a Stanley Cup.
Next year, they’ll have a full season of Brock Nelson, Charlie Coyle, Jack Drury, and Gabriel Landeskog – all healthy, and ready to contribute from the top down.
We’ll probably make a deal or two get some more depth pieces on the Blue Line, but we’re locked in long-term with our Goaltending and our forward group is healthy – physically and mentally.
That seems like an overpay but reportedly the Islanders were going to pay him the same thing. Hope it works out for Brock.
Colorado was in a damned if you do/don’t situation here. With what they gave up, they better get more than a couple dozen games out of him. I don’t think it’s an overpay… just not a long-term solution for 2C. He’d get similar to this on the open market, but he knew he had Sakic by the brass ones.
What this really proves is that many teams in this league don’t even have a better option at 2C than a guy like Nelson. The talent pool has truly been drained.
Just wait until we expand to 34 teams…
Yeah, I’m hoping that doesn’t happen for a long time.