Headlines

Go To MLB Trade Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Avalanche Rumors

Avalanche Sign, Loan Nikolai Kovalenko

at CDT | by 3 Comments

Jul 26: After officially signing him to a two-year entry-level contract worth $896,250 per season yesterday, CapFriendly confirms Colorado has loaned Kovalenko back to Torpedo for next season.

Jul 22: It appears that Colorado will soon be signing one of their prospects.  Torpedo of the KHL announced on their Twitter account that the Avalanche will be signing winger Nikolai Kovalenko to an entry-level contract but will loan him back to Torpedo for the upcoming season.

The 23-year-old was a sixth-round pick of the Avs back in 2018 (171st overall) and has certainly outperformed his draft stock since then.  Last season, he had a breakout year in his first season with Torpedo, notching 21 goals and 33 assists in 56 games.  For context, his previous career best in points in the KHL was 21.  That performance put him third in the league in points per game.

That performance appears to have landed Kovalenko on the NHL radar.  His contract will be a two-year agreement, meaning he’ll be able to suit up full time in North America in 2024-25 or when his KHL playoffs come to an end this season.  The KHL regular season ends in late February so it’s quite possible that Kovalenko will be available to Colorado late in the 2023-24 campaign.

If he’s able to have a repeat of his 2022-23 performance next year, Kovalenko could be an interesting addition to the Avs down the stretch this coming year, giving them a low-cost addition to their forward group where he’d likely start in their bottom six.  Regardless of whether he suits up for the Avalanche next season, his contract will count against their limit of 50.

Colorado Avalanche Re-Sign Ben Meyers

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The Colorado Avalanche have re-signed forward Ben Meyers to a one-year contract, according to a team release. In doing so, the team has locked up their last remaining RFA this offseason and has their financial picture set for 2023-24, notwithstanding any further UFA additions. Per The Athletic’s Peter Baugh, it’s a league-minimum pact with a $775K cap hit.

Meyers, 24, has already had a solid taste of NHL action, having skated in 44 regular-season games with the Avalanche over the past two seasons while tallying five goals but no assists. The young center also appeared in six of seven games in Colorado’s first-round playoff loss to the Seattle Kraken this spring.

The Delano, Minnesota product split 2022-23 evenly between the Avalanche and the AHL’s Colorado Eagles, playing at least 30 games in each league. Last year’s big fish undrafted free agent signing out of the University of Minnesota skated in 39 contests with the Avs last season, notching four of his five career goals. He fared much better offensively in the minors, posting six goals and 18 assists for 24 points in 30 games with the Eagles.

It’s impossible to talk about Meyers without discussing his incredulous senior season with the University of Minnesota in 2021-22, which saw him explode for 41 points in 34 games and earned him nods to the U.S. National Team at both the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing and the 2022 IIHF World Championship in Finland.

Next season, Meyers will look to stick with the Avs full-time. Colorado would certainly appreciate it if he could, as cost-effective pieces are increasingly crucial with another season of limited salary cap flexibility. Currently, he’s slated to take on fourth-line center responsibilities, and his ice time will likely creep higher than the 9:35 per game he received last season.

Meyers will be waiver-exempt to start the season, although it’s a designation that won’t last for long. He has just ten NHL games remaining before he loses his exempt status and will require waivers to be assigned to the Eagles.

Re-signing Meyers leaves the Avalanche with $2.025MM in projected cap space with a 21-player roster and captain Gabriel Landeskog on long-term injured reserve, per CapFriendly.

Denis Malgin Signs Long-Term In Switzerland

at CDT | by 4 Comments

Swiss forward Denis Malgin is departing the NHL for his home country for the second and likely final time. The 26-year-old unrestricted free agent signed a five-year deal with NL club ZSC Lions today, keeping him overseas through 2027-28 and through his age 31 season.

Malgin split last season with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Colorado Avalanche thanks to a mid-season trade. After recording career-highs with 13 goals and 65 games played last year, though, the Avalanche did not issue him a qualifying offer, making him a UFA.

Oddly enough, Malgin recently walked away from a multi-year commitment he signed with ZSC in 2021. After spending the 2020-21 campaign on loan to Swiss club Lausanne from the Maple Leafs, Malgin signed a four-year deal with ZSC that offseason and was one of the best players in the league in the first year of the deal, recording 52 points in 48 games. He walked away from the remaining three years to rejoin the Maple Leafs last summer, who retained his rights with a qualifying offer in 2021.

It seems unlikely he’d terminate with the same club twice, however, especially after one NHL comeback that, while successful, obviously didn’t translate to any offers on the open market that he was interested in. The fourth-round pick of the Florida Panthers in 2015 will return to ZSC on a team stacked with former NHL forwards such as Sven Andrighetto, Rudolfs Balcers, Jesper Froden, and Juho Lammikko, although he’s the biggest fish of the bunch.

If it is the end of the road for Malgin in the NHL, he wraps up his career with 41 goals, 40 assists, 81 points, and a -16 rating in 257 games split between the Panthers, Maple Leafs, and Avalanche.

Colorado Avalanche Sign Ross Colton

at CDT | by 11 Comments

Scheduled for an arbitration hearing on July 27th, the Colorado Avalanche and restricted free agent forward Ross Colton decided not to wait. Today, the team announced a four-year contract for Colton, paying him an AAV of $4MM.

To acquire Colton in the first place, the Avalanche originally traded center Alex Newhook to the Montreal Canadiens for the Panthers’ first-round selection in 2023, Montreal’s second-round selection in 2023, and defenseman Gianni Fairbrother. One day later, Colorado would trade Montreal’s second-round pick to the Tampa Bay Lightning to acquire the contractual rights to Colton.

In his past three seasons spent the NHL, the Lightning were the only team that Colton had ever known. Another example of Tampa Bay’s ability to churn out NHL talent from seemingly anywhere, Colton had spent his dues in the NCAA and AHL before finally making the jump to professional hockey.

During his time in Tampa, Colton showed the ability to score big goals, throw his body around, play intelligently on both sides of the puck, and become a reliable faceoff taker. Seemingly able to do it all when he is on the ice, the Avalanche rewarded his previous seasons with almost a $3MM raise.

Now joining an immediate Stanley Cup competitor in the Western Conference, Colton’s versatility should help stabilize Colorado’s forward core, one that was greatly lacking in overall depth last season. At the time of the trade, the General Manager of the Avalanche, Chris McFarland, said, “Ross is a hard-working, two-way center with a championship pedigree. “He has physicality to his game, is ultra competitive and his versatility will make him a valuable addition to our lineup in a lot of ways”.

Two seasons ago, Colton was competing as one of the more aggravating players against the Avalanche in the 2022 Stanley Cup Finals, and will now help the team on their quest for another ring. Already possessing top forward talent such as Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen on the team, Colton will now tie newly acquired Ryan Johansen as the fifth-highest-paid forward for Colorado.

Avalanche Name AHL Head Coach

at CDT | by 3 Comments

  • The Colorado Avalanche have announced that the head coach of their AHL affiliate the Colorado Eagles will be Aaron Schneekloth. The Calgary, Alberta native has been on the Eagles staff for a decade now and led the club to two ECHL titles in 2017 and 2018 prior to the team transitioning to the AHL. Schneekloth was retained by the Eagles after moving up a league and became an assistant coach to then-head coach Greg Cronin. With Cronin now the head coach of the Anaheim Ducks it was a natural transition for Schneekloth to take the reins of the Eagles, a club he’s coached with and played on for nearly two decades.

Colorado Avalanche Re-Sign Justus Annunen

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

The Colorado Avalanche have re-signed AHL netminder Justus Annunen to a one-year two-way deal with a $775k cap hit and a $225k minor league salary.

Annunen, 23, took a strong step forward this past season with the Colorado Eagles, improving his save percentage from an .893 in his rookie AHL campaign to a .916 in 41 games this year.

The big six-foot-four goalie was a backup goalie for two seasons with Karpat in the Finnish Liiga before joining the Avalanche’s AHL affiliate. In the AHL Annunen has acclimated himself to a far greater workload than what he received in Finland, and his form this past year is an encouraging sign for his NHL future in Colorado.

Incumbent backup netminder Pavel Francouz is 33 years old and will see his contract expire at the end of next season, so this one-year extension provides Annunen an excellent platform to make a push for an NHL number-two job in Denver.

Colorado Avalanche To Sign Jack Johnson

at CDT | by 3 Comments

Peter Baugh of The Athletic reports that the Colorado Avalanche are bringing back defenseman Jack Johnson on a one-year, $775K deal for the 2023-24 NHL season. This will mark Johnson’s third season with the team in as many years.

Despite a brief stint with the Chicago Blackhawks last year, Johnson has spent the better part of the last two seasons with Colorado, being a part of the team that won the Stanley Cup in 2022. Not the player he used to be, Johnson still has the ability to take on around 15-17 minutes of ice time per game.

His run with the Blackhawks at the beginning of last season was not great by any means, only tallying four assists in 58 games, carrying a horrid -25 rating. After a midseason trade that sent Andreas Englund back to Chicago, Johnson played considerably better with the Avalanche. Johnson replicated his point totals in about as half as many games with the Avalanche and carrying a +10 rating along the way.

 

Andrew Cogliano Re-Signs With Avalanche

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

Andrew Cogliano’s time in Colorado isn’t up just yet.  Peter Baugh of The Athletic reports (Twitter link) that the Avalanche are bringing back the veteran on a one-year contract.  In a follow-up tweet, he adds that the deal is worth $825K.

Cogliano will continue his NHL career after a tough end to the season, sustaining a neck injury on a hit from Seattle Kraken forward Jordan Eberle during the team’s first-round playoff loss. Once one of the NHL’s longest-tenured ironmen, Cogliano remains a reliable bottom-six defensive presence with some shooting acumen left in his game.

Likely slated again for a fourth-line role as a left winger, Cogliano notched 10 goals and 19 points in 79 games last season, his most in a season since scoring 35 with the Anaheim Ducks in 2018-19.

This likely won’t be Colorado’s last forward signing. With captain Gabriel Landeskog’s $7MM cap hit slated for LTIR next season, the team still has around $7.5MM in cap space to play with – nearly all of which will go toward adding to their forward corps. Expect an additional acquisition for the team’s middle-six (or two) and potentially a bottom-pairing defenseman.

Avalanche Signs Five Players To Two-Way Deals

at CDT | by Leave a Comment

Earlier today, Avalanche GM Chris MacFarland indicated that there were “a few depth deals in the hopper”.  Those deals are now in place as the team announced the signings of defensemen Jack Ahcan and Corey Schueneman, forward Riley Tufte and Chris Wagner, and goaltender Arvid Holm to two-way contracts.  Ahcan’s deal is a two-year agreement while the other four are one-year pacts.  Financial deals for most of the deals aren’t yet known but PuckPedia reports (Twitter link) that Schueneman’s deal is for $775K in the NHL, $400K in the minors, and has a guarantee of $450K. CapFriendly later reported Tufte’s deal is worth $775K in the NHL and $375K in the minors, with $425K guaranteed.

Speaking of Schueneman, he comes over to Colorado after spending the past three seasons in Montreal’s system.  Last season, the 27-year-old spent the bulk of the year with AHL Laval, picking up 23 points in 62 games.  He also got into seven games with the Canadiens, tallying an assist.  Schueneman did play in 24 games with Montreal in 2021-22 while logging over 16 minutes per game.  As a result, he’s likely to position himself to be one of the top recalls from the Eagles next season and could push for the seventh spot on the back end in training camp.

As for Ahcan, the 26-year-old picked up 36 points in 68 games with AHL Providence last season, good for second on their team among blueliners.  He has nine career NHL appearances under his belt with Boston between 2020-21 and 2021-22.  He also could push to be in the mix to be an early recall from the Eagles in 2023-24.

Up front, Tufte spent most of last year with AHL Texas, recording 19 goals and 16 assists in 63 games.  The 25-year-old also got into three games with Dallas, logging just under eight minutes per game.  Tufte has a total of 13 NHL appearances under his belt with one goal to his name.  The 6’6 winger figures to be a recall option for a fourth line spot at some point next season.

As for Wagner, the 32-year-old has spent the last five seasons in Boston’s organization with a good chunk of that time coming at the NHL level.  However, over the past two seasons, Wagner has mostly been relegated to time in the minors.  Last season, he had 19 goals and 12 assists in 62 games with Providence.  For his career, the veteran has 63 points and over 1,000 hits in 360 career NHL appearances.  While he has spent most of the last two years in the minors, at least part of that was for cap reasons as he carried a $1.35MM AAV on his last deal.  Now being at or close to the minimum, Wagner could push for a spot on the fourth line in training camp.

Holm, meanwhile, has yet to see any NHL action and has spent the past two seasons with Winnipeg’s AHL affiliate in Manitoba.  The 24-year-old had a successful season in 2022-23 with the Moose, recording a 2.67 GAA along with a .911 SV% in 35 games but was non-tendered yesterday by the Jets.  He’ll likely serve as the backup to Justus Annunen with the Eagles next season.

Colorado Avalanche Extend Bowen Byram

at CDT | by 3 Comments

The Colorado Avalanche have locked in budding defenseman Bowen Byram on a very team-friendly bridge deal, signing him to a two-year deal worth $3.85MM per season, according to The Athletic’s Peter Baugh.

Byram, a highly touted prospect from the start, has shown tremendous potential since being drafted fourth overall by the Avalanche in 2019. He’s bucked the trend for defensemen taking longer to develop, already breaking out as a true top-four threat by age 22 after recording 24 points in 42 games last year, averaging nearly 22 minutes per game. Byram’s exceptional skating ability, hockey sense, and offensive instincts make him a dynamic presence behind the team’s top unit of Cale Makar and Devon Toews.

The bridge deal does provide Colorado some more space to add to its forward group but also provides some insurance against a real possibility of Byram continuing to encounter significant injury issues. Concussions and lower-body ailments have limited him to just 91 games over the past three seasons, and while he’s excelled during that time, whether he can continue a long career in a top-flight role is not a certainty.

Byram will be an RFA again upon expiry in 2025 and will be due a $3.85MM qualifying offer.

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

Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

scroll to top