- Colorado winger Valeri Nichushkin will return to the team next season, a team spokesman confirmed to Kyle Frederickson of The Denver Gazette. The 28-year-old left the Avalanche during their first-round series against Colorado for what the team called personal reasons following an incident where a severely intoxicated woman was found in his hotel room. He did not return during the rest of the series. Nichushkin is not under police investigation for the incident. After the season, GM Chris MacFarland indicated that he hoped that Nichushkin would be “a very important part of our team in the future” and with seven years remaining on his contract, they’ll be expecting him to be a core piece moving forward after picking up 99 points in 115 games over the last two seasons.
Avalanche Rumors
Colorado Avalanche Acquire, Extend Fredrik Olofsson
The Dallas Stars have dealt the rights to pending unrestricted free agent forward Fredrik Olofsson to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for future considerations, the team announced today. The Avalanche then immediately announced a one-year extension for Olofsson, with CapFriendly reporting a two-way deal worth $775,000 in the NHL and $300,000 in the AHL with $350,000 guaranteed.
Olofsson’s 2022-23 campaign was his first in North America after he signed with Dallas as a free agent. He wasn’t undrafted, though – the Chicago Blackhawks selected him with the 98th overall pick in 2014 but never signed him to an entry-level contract.
He showed flashes of solid fundamentals at points with the Stars but never made much of an impact at the scoresheet, even at the AHL level, where he recorded 14 points in 37 games with the Texas Stars. That low production was likely influenced by an extreme lack of stability, however. Olofsson was one of Dallas’ top call-up options throughout the year and was sent up and down more than 20 times, given he didn’t need to clear waivers to head up and down between leagues. After one season under contract, though, he will now require waivers if Colorado wants to send him to the AHL Eagles.
Olofsson, 27, is a marginal but much-needed depth add for the Avalanche, whose bottom six looks absolutely barren right now with many veterans on expiring deals. Depth scoring was easily the team’s biggest weakness last season, and they’ll likely need a by-committee approach to fix it in 2023-24. Olofsson will likely come in as a cost-effective option with more NHL (and professional experience) than others looking for NHL time in the organization.
Offseason Checklist: Colorado Avalanche
The offseason has arrived for all but the two teams that still have a shot at winning the Stanley Cup. It’s time to examine what those eliminated squads will need to accomplish over the coming months. Next up is a look at Colorado.
After winning the Stanley Cup last year, expectations were high for the Avalanche heading into this season. However, lingering injury issues for Gabriel Landeskog left them without a top winger for the entire year and they ultimately came up short in the first round, falling to Seattle. Now, GM Chris MacFarland will be tasked with making some moves to try to get them heading toward what they hope will be a deep playoff run once again.
Add Second Center
With Nathan MacKinnon locked up for the long haul on his record-setting eight-year, $100.8MM contract, Colorado doesn’t have to worry about finding a top-line center anytime soon. However, they will need to address the vacancy at that position on the second line.
It’s a spot that the club largely tried to fill internally this season following the departure of Nazem Kadri to Calgary last summer. The results were mixed as both Alex Newhook and J.T. Compher getting chances with varying degrees of success with newcomer Evan Rodrigues briefly getting a look as well. Compher responded with a career year, notching 52 points. However, he’s set to hit unrestricted free agency this summer for the first time and coming off the year he had and a marketplace where he is one of the top middlemen out there, a return doesn’t seem likely. Newhook still likely isn’t ready for the role and Rodrigues will also hit the open market next month.
That means that MacFarland will need to look outside the organization to fill that spot. On the surface, this feels like a spot where Landeskog’s LTIR could be used; the captain has already been ruled out for the entire 2023-24 campaign, giving the Avs his full $7MM contract to use, boosting their cap space to a little over $20MM, per CapFriendly. (They do, however, have as many as eleven players to sign with that room.)
However, given the uncertainty surrounding Landeskog’s long-term availability, acquiring someone on a multi-year contract with that money would carry some risk, especially knowing that there’s another big-ticket contract coming down the pipeline soon with Mikko Rantanen two years away from unrestricted free agency. As a result, their preference might be to look at someone on an expiring contract (which could have them turning to a certain division rival), allowing them to fill that spot while maintaining some longer-term flexibility. Either way, it’s an area that will need to be addressed as they won’t have the luxury of filling it from within next season.
Re-Sign Key RFAs
Colorado has two prominent restricted free agents this summer and what they do with both of them will go a long way toward determining how aggressive they can be in trying to fill out the roster. Bridge deals for Newhook and defenseman Bowen Byram are certainly defensible with how things have gone so far although, in a salary cap environment that is expected to be higher in the next couple of years, they’d be setting themselves up for less flexibility down the road in exchange for more flexibility now.
Newhook wasn’t able to grab a full-time top-six spot but it wasn’t all bad as the 22-year-old reached the 30-point mark for the second straight year while setting a new benchmark in goals with 14. On top of that, he showed some improvement at the faceoff circle, beating his rookie season performance by nearly 7% although there is still a lot of work to do on that front. The development might be slower than they hoped for but he should still factor into their future plans. It would be a gamble to give him a pricier long-term agreement unless they were convinced that a big jump in production is on the horizon. The safer bet is a back-loaded two-year bridge contract around the $2.25MM to $2.5MM mark that buys both sides more time.
As for Byram, his case is a little less clear. When he has been healthy, he has been a key part of their top four and has shown considerable improvement. The soon-to-be 22-year-old logged nearly 22 minutes per game in both the regular season and the series against Seattle despite seeing limited time on special teams. It stands to reason there’s another jump or two coming in his development. However, he has a lengthy stretch of concussion concerns to the point where he briefly thought his career might have been over back in 2021.
If they lock him up on a long-term deal now, there’s a chance it become a very team-friendly one down the road but if he doesn’t stay healthy, it could be a problem for them fairly quickly. With just 91 career regular season games under his belt, a bridge contract shouldn’t break the bank too much and should fall somewhere within the $3MM range. Meanwhile, a long-term agreement that buys out multiple UFA years could double that bridge amount. With no arbitration eligibility, this could drag on but getting a contract done sooner than later would certainly help Colorado determine what else they can do in free agency this summer.
Toews Extension Talks
To say that Colorado has done quite well with the acquisition of Devon Toews would be an understatement. When then-GM Joe Sakic acquired him from the Islanders for two second-round picks, it seemed like a low price to pay. He then signed Toews to a four-year contract that carries a $4.1MM AAV. Suffice it to say, it was already a team-friendly agreement heading into this season where all the 29-year-old did was put up 50 points and log over 25 minutes per game for the second straight year. Now, it’s arguably one of the best-value contracts in the league. Toews has one year left on that contract which means that he’s eligible to sign an extension as of July 1st.
How much will that new contract cost? It seems fair to suggest that they won’t want to go past Cale Makar’s $9MM AAV but if Toews has a third year like this one, his price tag could come pretty close to that number.
Can they afford that price point? Potentially, especially depending on which route they go with Byram. If both get long-term contracts, the price of their back end (which also includes Josh Manson for three more years at a $4.5MM cap charge) is going to balloon in a hurry. That’s not ideal for a team that is already top-heavy up front.
To that end, it wouldn’t be surprising to see the Avs try to work out something early with Toews. If they can get an extension in place in early July, it’s possible that they turn around and try to find a trade for Samuel Girard, who has four years left at $5MM. That’s not a bad contract by any stretch – it’s arguable that it’s a below-market one – but they can’t afford to see their back end cost approach the $30MM mark and with the injury trouble Manson had this season, it’s quite unlikely he moves which makes Girard the potential trade casualty. In a free agent market that isn’t the deepest, Colorado could net a strong return for Girard’s services. But they can’t really shop him too aggressively until they know that Toews is signed so in a perfect world, that domino falls rather quickly.
Upgrade Forward Depth
Colorado’s bottom-six group struggled as a unit this season. For a lot of the time, the Avs were rarely playing their fourth line and when they weren’t on the ice, they weren’t able to get much going. The end result was a frequent shuffling of low-cost personnel in the hopes that one or two of them would stick. Eventually, they had to turn to the trade market, picking up Denis Malgin and Matthew Nieto, both of which at least stabilized things a little bit.
The majority of that unit is poised to turn over. Veterans Darren Helm (who was injured most of the year), Andrew Cogliano, Nieto, and deadline acquisition Lars Eller are all unrestricted free agents. Malgin is currently an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent but is a non-tender candidate just to avoid the possibility of going to a hearing. Several of the recalls from the minors that got a chance during the season are also pending UFAs. There is going to be considerable turnover in this group.
This year, finding capable low-cost options wasn’t easy in-season. Now, there’s at least a chance to try to build a more complementary bottom six in the summer, albeit with similar financial restrictions as by the time they find a center and re-sign Newhook and Byram, a big chunk of their cap room will be gone. They will need to find the right mixture of veterans and under-the-radar depth pieces (with perhaps a waiver claim or two in training camp) to give head coach Jared Bednar a shot at running four lines with some regularity in 2023-24. The options will be plentiful but with so many teams needing players at or near the league minimum, demand for some of these players is going to be high as well.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Jonas Johansson Terminates SHL Deal
- Earlier in the offseason, SHL club Färjestad BK announced they had signed pending Colorado Avalanche UFA netminder Jonas Johansson, bringing him back to his home country. Less than a month later, however, they’ve already terminated the deal, citing Johansson’s belief he could get another NHL opportunity before 2023-24 begins. While the road has been rocky for the 27-year-old Swede, Johansson had his best pro season to date in 2022-23, playing a career-high 26 AHL games after bouncing up and down between leagues and recording a .920 save percentage.
Colorado Avalanche Extend Wyatt Aamodt
The Colorado Avalanche have announced that defenseman Wyatt Aamodt has been signed to a one-year contract extension. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed in the team announcement.
Aamodt was set to become an arbitration-eligible restricted free agent as his one-year entry-level contract was about to expire. Now, with this extension, he’ll avoid any lengthy offseason negotiations and secure his spot in the Avalanche’s plans for next season.
Aamodt will turn 26 early next season and is entering his second full season as a professional hockey player. He’s an undrafted player who spent four seasons with Minnesota State University, playing on some highly successful teams and earning the right to captain the squad in his senior season.
There isn’t a ton of offense in Aamodt’s game, but the five-foot-eleven left-shot blueliner capably handled a regular role on the AHL’s Colorado Eagles’ defense. His strong two-way game kept him in the Eagles’ lineup and earned the trust of head coach Greg Cronin, who recently took the job as the head coach of the Anaheim Ducks.
Late in the season, Aamodt was partnered with rookie NCAA signing Sam Malinski and Aamodt’s steady, reliable play helped Malinski make an instant offensive impact in the AHL, as he scored 10 points in his first 14 games as a professional.
This one-year extension is Aamodt’s reward for a quality campaign in the AHL, and next season he’ll be relied upon once again as a regular in the Eagles lineup, and Aamodt will likely hope to take a step forward in his play and make a push to potentially earn an NHL call-up.
Nichushkin Eligible To Play Next Season
- Early in the 2023 NHL Playoffs, it was reported that forward Valeri Nichushkin of the Colorado Avalanche would be sent home for the remainder of the playoffs. Asked about this during their press conference, especially in light of the police body came footage being released, Daly reports that Nichushkin is not under investigation, and is free to play during the 2023-24 NHL season (Tweet Link). Although it was never reported otherwise, it is positive news for Colorado, after recently receiving news that captain Gabriel Landeskog would miss the entirety of next season.
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Colorado Avalanche Extend Nate Clurman
The Colorado Avalanche got some offseason business out of the way today, re-signing pending restricted free agent defenseman Nate Clurman to a one-year contract extension. Per CapFriendly, the deal pays Clurman $775,000 at the NHL level and $100,000 at the AHL level.
Clurman, 25, is one of the few hometown players in the organization, hailing from Boulder, Colorado. Standing at 6-foot-2 and 205 pounds, Clurman’s strength and transitional game are the hallmarks of his style, which he’s spent the past few seasons honing within the minor ranks of the Avalanche organization.
Drafted in the sixth round of the 2016 NHL Draft directly out of high school, Clurman is one of the rare prospects to have high school hockey on his résumé after being drafted into the league. He played the 2016-17 campaign with the Culver Military Academy prep program before transferring to junior hockey the following year, splitting the season between three USHL teams.
Clurman then made the jump to college play, logging three seasons at the University of Notre Dame before turning pro and signing with the Avs. In his junior year, he served as the program’s captain and scored four goals after not lighting the lamp once throughout his first and second seasons.
His offense has actually taken a sizable jump since turning pro, as extended time with the ECHL’s Utah Grizzlies in 2021-22 did him well. It prepped him for a solid 2022-23 season, where he played in 57 regular-season games with the AHL’s Colorado Eagles, registering 15 points (three goals, 12 assists) and a +11 rating.
A full-time NHL career is likely out of the cards for Clurman at this point, given his age, but another improved season in the minors could warrant another extension next offseason and potential NHL call-ups if injuries strike.
Free Agent Focus: Colorado Avalanche
Free agency is now a little more than a month away and teams are looking ahead to when it opens up. There will be several impact players set to hit the open market in July while many teams have key restricted free agents to re-sign as well. We continue our look around the NHL with an overview of the free agent situation for the Colorado Avalanche.
Key Restricted Free Agents
D Bowen Byram – Although injuries once again took a large bite out of Byram’s games played total this season, a solid sophomore campaign cemented the 2019 fourth-overall pick as the third-best defenseman on perhaps the most dynamic ’D’ corps in the league. The 21-year-old bested defense partner Samuel Girard in points per game, average time on ice, and plus-minus this season, although more advanced metrics weren’t kind to either Girard’s or Byram’s defensive impacts this year. With Byram still just 21 years old, a long-term deal seems appetizing to keep his cap hit lower as the Upper Limit rises over the years. However, with a significant injury list that includes multiple concussions, Colorado could very well opt for a two or three-year deal to lower long-term risk. He would again be a restricted free agent upon expiry. While cap space won’t be a huge immediate concern for Colorado with captain Gabriel Landeskog’s injury, they’d still like to have money to spend in free agency to improve their scoring depth. Expect a cap hit in the $4-5MM range on Byram’s next deal, likely around three seasons.
F Alex Newhook – Newhook didn’t meet the lofty expectations set for him in 2022-23 after he was slated as the team’s second-line center heading into opening night. He was quickly surpassed on the depth chart by a player who we’ll mention later on in this piece, and he recorded a marginal 30 points whilst playing in all 82 games this season. The 22-year-old is still showing flashes of his 16th overall billing, so it’s not time to give up hope on him reaching that stage in 2023-24. However, it shouldn’t be an assumption for the second straight season – Colorado is likely to fill out the second-line center spot in free agency, and Newhook’s next cap hit will likely reflect that of bottom-six expectations. Given where Newhook’s at in his development, he’ll likely petition for a short-term deal, setting himself up for a payday from the team once he does reach his ceiling.
F Denis Malgin – Malgin wasn’t anyone you’d expect to see described as a key player at the beginning of this season, but after an early-season move from the Toronto Maple Leafs, he was a capable bottom-six scorer on a team sorely needing offensive acumen at the lower end of their lineup. Scoring 11 goals in just 42 games with Colorado, he finished ninth on the team in goals despite not arriving until close to Christmas. He’s been around the block, playing over 250 NHL games (including a stint in Switzerland that kept him out of the league for two seasons), and is in his final season of RFA eligibility. There likely isn’t much room for growth in Malgin’s game, but Colorado would do well to keep him around on an affordable two-year deal to give themselves some options when building out their third and fourth lines.
Other RFAs: D Wyatt Aamodt, G Justus Annunen, D Nate Clurman, D Ryan Merkley, F Ben Meyers, F Sampo Ranta
Key Unrestricted Free Agents
F J.T. Compher – Arguably the savior of Colorado’s season, Compher broke out in a big way in 2022-23. He’ll be one of the most desirable free-agent centers in a weak market after playing over 20 minutes a night, recording 17 goals and 52 points in 82 games. The 28-year-old did shift to center almost full-time this year but is still proficient enough on the wing, so if Colorado goes out and signs a Ryan O’Reilly type to sit on the depth chart behind Nathan MacKinnon, it’s not an exclusionary factor to bringing Compher back. He’ll be earning a significant increase on his $3.5MM cap hit, however, likely to the tune of $1MM or $2MM.
F Evan Rodrigues – Another possible returnee, Rodrigues had his best offensive campaign to date in 2022-23. He would’ve set career highs had he played in all 82 games, posting 0.57 points per game (39 in 69). Entrusted with top-six minutes, the 29-year-old gave Colorado stellar value on his one-year, $2MM ’show me’ deal signed last September. He could very easily double his cap hit this offseason, especially if another team pries his services away.
F Lars Eller – Now 34, Eller’s still got what it takes to be the ideal archetype of a veteran bottom-six center. Acquired at the trade deadline from the Washington Capitals, the Dane is on track to hit 1,000 games next season. He’s never been a terribly consistent offensive talent from season to season, but his 23 points in 84 games this year were his lowest total in a full season since 2010-11. He’s best suited for a fourth-line role at this point, a spot Colorado may want to keep open for a younger player in their system. Finances shouldn’t be an issue if they do want to retain him, as he shouldn’t command much more than $1MM this offseason.
D Erik Johnson – The longest-tenured member of the Avalanche organization likely won’t be signing anywhere else this offseason. The 2006 first-overall pick waited until the playoffs to score his first goal of the season, recording just eight assists in 63 regular-season games, but Johnson has become one of the most-loved leaders in the Avs room and has stuck through the ups and downs of the franchise over the past decade-plus. After wrapping up a seven-year, $42MM contract, he could be brought back at league minimum.
Other UFAs: F Andrew Cogliano, F Alex Galchenyuk, F Darren Helm, F Charles Hudon, D Josh Jacobs, D Jack Johnson, G Keith Kinkaid, F Mikhail Maltsev (Group VI UFA), F Matt Nieto
Projected Cap Space
One thing’s for sure – general manager Chris MacFarland will have some room to play, although not for a great reason. Landeskog’s continuing knee issues will keep him out for 2023-24, and while they won’t have their captain on the ice, they’ll be able to repurpose his $7MM cap hit via LTIR. CapFriendly has Colorado slated for just over $20MM in projected pre-season cap space, meaning they’ll have an eight-digit figure to throw around in unrestricted free agency after locking Byram, Newhook, and Malgin up to their deals.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images. Contract information courtesy of CapFriendly.
Sampo Ranta Signs In Sweden
Pending Colorado Avalanche restricted free agent forward Sampo Ranta has signed a two-year contract with the newly-promoted MoDo Hockey of the SHL, as announced by the team Thursday.
Colorado can still issue a qualifying offer to Ranta, which would keep him on the organization’s reserve list when his SHL deal expires in 2025. The Avalanche would maintain his rights at that point if he wanted to make an NHL return.
The 22-year-old Finn was a third-round selection of the Avalanche in 2018, but his promising collegiate numbers haven’t yet translated to the pro level. Over the past two-and-a-half seasons with the AHL’s Colorado Eagles, Ranta has registered 22 goals and 43 points in 110 games. It’s not awful, but after a point-per-game junior campaign with the University of Minnesota in 2020-21, the organization was expecting a bit more.
Ranta did get multiple NHL looks, accumulating 16 regular-season games and two playoff games, but he failed to register a single point. For an Avalanche team that relies heavily on its top-six forward group, there weren’t many ice time opportunities for Ranta even when in the NHL lineup.
It’s likely why he’s opted to head overseas to a hungry MoDo team looking to stay in Sweden’s top league after earning promotion from the Allsvenskan this past season. He’ll have plenty of opportunity there and should be among the team’s scoring leaders at season’s end.
Born in Naantali, Finland, this will be Ranta’s first time playing in a European league since junior action with the Red Bull Hockey Academy in Austria in 2015-16.
Potential Contract Comparables For Bowen Byram
The Colorado Avalanche are in for a tumultuous offseason. The team has just five forwards on the NHL roster under contract for 2023-24, and most of their pending free agents are unrestricted.