- According to a team announcement, the ECHL’s Utah Grizzlies, affiliate of the NHL’s Colorado Avalanche, have added to their forward depth with a new signing. The Grizzlies have signed former 2021 fifth-round pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Ty Voit, to a one-year contract for the 2025-26 season. Voit spent last season with the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones, scoring eight goals and 37 points in 63 games. He had an impressive final season with the OHL’s Sarnia Sting in 2022-23, scoring 24 goals and 105 points in 67 games with a +16 rating.
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Avalanche Rumors
Morning Notes: Roslovic, Bonk, Avalanche
The free agent market for centerman Jack Roslovic is growing richer by the day. In addition to garnering interest from multiple teams across the league, Roslovic has also received multiple offers from teams in Russia’s KHL, per Dylan Griffing of EliteProspects. Those offers will likely ring on deaf ears for a centerman who has spent the last nine seasons in the NHL, but they will ramp up the pressure on NHL clubs to get a deal in place.
Roslovic is certainly worth the late-summer intrigue. He’s filled the role of gritty and responsible bottom-six center through multiple stops in the league. His career began with the Winnipeg Jets, who drafted Roslovic at 25th-overall in the 2015 NHL Draft. The Jets provided a chance for Roslovic to plant his feet in the NHL, but he didn’t find a true breakout until a 2021 move to the Columbus Blue Jackets. He scored 34 points in 48 games of the shortened 2021 season with Columbus – or, an 82-game pace of 58 points – then followed it up with 45 points and 44 points in two full seasons. He’s since toured through stops with the New York Rangers and Carolina Hurricanes, and continues to offer a mix of gritty physical and near-40 points each season. That standing will make him a desirable asset for all leagues, though a stay in the NHL seems all-but-guaranteed.
Other notes from around the league:
- Philadelphia Flyers prospect Oliver Bonk shared that his sights are set high for his first professional season in a motivated interview with Jordan Hall of NBC Sports Philadelphia. He shared that his goal will, of course, be to make the Flyers lineup out of training camp – but that he’s putting equal attention towards making sure he keeps his eyes set on the ultimate goal, no matter the outcome of camp. Bonk is coming off an incredibly successful junior hockey career, capped off with a Memorial Cup win with the OHL’s London Knights. He scored 54 points in 69 games this season, and 73 points in 78 games in the 2023-24 campaign. It will be an uphill battle to jump straight to the NHL, but Bonk will have the upper hand as a 6-foot-2, 210-pound defender with speed and puck-moving ability.
- The Colorado Avalanche could be searching for depth forwards for the extent of another season. A recent breakdown of their roster by Aarif Deen of Colorado Hockey Now reveals a shortage of talent at the center position – a group that the Avalanche have long struggled to stock fully. The Avalanche will have the benefit of getting a full year out of 25-year-old center Jack Drury, who split last season between Colorado and Carolina. But in the mixed year, Drury’s 18 points in 72 games still looks meager. A lack of depth could offer Drury – or a player currently on the outside, like Ivan Ivan – a chance to show his might before the Avalanche have time to bring in another new face. Colorado currently sits with a little more than $2MM in available cap space, per Puckpedia.
Avalanche Re-Sign Joel Kiviranta
The Avalanche announced that they’ve re-signed forward Joel Kiviranta to a one-year deal. The deal is worth $1.25MM against the cap, AJ Haefele of DNVR Sports reports.
Kiviranta, 29, returns to Colorado on the heels of a career year. The winger set career highs in goals (16), assists (7), points (23), appearances (79), and average time on ice (12:31) in 2024-25. He now signs his third consecutive one-year deal with the Avs in free agency after initially joining the organization on an AHL contract in 2023.
On a per-game basis, though, that’s not too far off from his career averages. Kiviranta, who initially made the jump to North America in 2019 with the Stars as an undrafted free agent, has consistently produced at a 15-to-20-point clip per 82 games, albeit usually in lesser minutes. That increased deployment this season, getting more consistent reps while also seeing some looks in the Avs’ top nine, helps explain the boost in production. His 19.0% shooting rate, well above his career average of 10.9%, had something to do with that as well.
Nonetheless, the Finnish winger has firmly established his floor as a defensively responsible plug-and-play fourth-line piece. Despite his smallish 5’11”, 185-lb frame, he finished third on the Avs last season with 114 hits with some of the better even-strength possession impacts on the club.
While the Avs still have some holes in their middle and bottom-six forward group to fill, retaining Kiviranta is a significant step toward relaxing the strain on some inexperienced or overtaxed depth pieces who likely would have needed to shoulder regular minutes out of the gate otherwise, especially with checking winger Logan O’Connor starting the year on injured reserve. As things stand, Kiviranta could get a crack at third-line minutes on opening night if younger names like the recently acquired Daniil Gushchin or Ivan Ivan don’t command those minutes with a strong training camp performance.
Image courtesy of Sergei Belski-Imagn Images.
Avalanche Hire Mark Popovic As Skills Coach
- According to a team announcement, the Colorado Avalanche have hired Mark Popovic as their new skills coach. It’ll be Popovic’s first formal coaching position at the NHL level, although he’s been working as an informal consultant for the Avalanche for the past few years. He’s better known for his playing career at the AHL level, where he scored 36 goals and 134 points in 359 games from 2002 to 2007. He played under 100 games in the NHL with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and the Atlanta Thrashers.
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Eagles Sign Nielsen To AHL Deal
- The Avalanche’s AHL affiliate has announced the signing of forward Tristen Nielsen to a one-year deal. The 25-year-old became an unrestricted free agent after being non-tendered by Vancouver back in June. Nielsen spent last season with AHL Abbotsford and was a capable secondary scorer, notching 15 goals and 13 assists in 67 regular season games while chipping in with nine points in 24 playoff contests on the way to their Calder Cup title.
Could Girard Still Be In Play For A Trade?
While Colorado ultimately wasn’t able to re-sign defenseman Ryan Lindgren (who instead inked a four-year deal with Seattle), their efforts to do so called into question the future of Samuel Girard with the team. Aarif Deen of Colorado Hockey Now speculates that the Avalanche could be open to moving the blueliner. While he was deployed as their third defender during the regular season, his usage dropped to third-pairing minutes in the postseason and if head coach Jared Bednar feels that’s the more optimal spot for him moving forward, he’d be a pricey third-pairing player at $5MM through the next two seasons.
Although the Avs are into cap compliance after some offseason shuffling, they could still use some more flexibility on that front, especially with Martin Necas eyeing a significant extension for 2026-27. On the other hand, Girard is one of just two left-shot blueliners in the Avalanche’s top six so if they were to move him, it might be more of a player-for-player swap that would see them get another blueliner in return rather than a true cap-clearing move.
Stefan Matteau Announces Retirement, Becomes Coach
Jul. 31st: Matteau will only have to take a different pathway around the bench for the next portion of his career following his playing days on the ice. According to Aaron Portzline of The Athletic, Matteau will become the next assistant coach for AHL Cleveland. He’ll replace former coach Mark Letestu, who became the next head coach of the AHL’s Colorado Eagles this offseason.
May 12th: Longtime minor-leaguer Stefan Matteau has retired, the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters announced Monday.
Matteau, 31, had spent the last two seasons on AHL deals with the Blue Jackets’ affiliate. Injuries limited him to only four goals and 13 points in 30 games during that time, but he did dress as the team’s captain when healthy in 2024-25 and contributed seven points in 15 games.
The son of former NHLer Stephane Matteau kicked off his professional career with a bang. A versatile 6’2″, 207-lb forward with good skating and a heavy-hitting game, he went 29th overall to the Devils in the 2012 draft. His post-draft season was peculiar – he was recalled midway through the campaign from his junior team, the QMJHL’s Blainville-Boisbriand Armada. He spent two months with the Devils before finishing the campaign in juniors again. That initial stretch of three points in 17 games in New Jersey for Matteau would end up standing as one of his career’s most extended NHL stretches.
The Illinois native never spent a full season on an NHL roster and bounced between the Devils, Canadiens, Golden Knights, Avalanche, and Blue Jackets over his 13-year professional career that included seven partial seasons of NHL action. He last played with Colorado in the 2021-22 campaign and totaled a 6-5–11 scoring line in 92 appearances with a -18 rating, averaging 10:15 per game.
Matteau spent nearly all of his career on this side of the Atlantic aside from the 2022-23 campaign, which he split between Sweden’s Linköping HC and Germany’s ERC Ingolstadt. He posted 21 points in 35 regular-season games between the two overseas clubs, including 20 in just 19 games with Ingolstadt.
As for his AHL career, the power winger wraps it up with 76-93–169 in 411 games across 10 seasons with 477 PIMs. All of us at PHR wish Matteau the best in retirement.
Avalanche Sign Daniil Gushchin
It didn’t take long for the Avalanche to come to terms with their newest acquisition as PuckPedia reports that Colorado has signed winger Daniil Gushchin to a one-year, two-way deal. The agreement will pay $775K in the NHL, $150K in the minors, and has an overall guarantee of $200K.
The 23-year-old is coming off a strong year in the minors with AHL San Jose, one that saw him post 28 goals and 23 assists in 56 games, surpassing the 50-point mark for the second straight year. However, that level of success didn’t yield much in the way of an NHL opportunity as Gushchin played in just a dozen games with the Sharks in 2024-25, bringing his career total to 18.
Accordingly, Gushchin acknowledged earlier this month that he was undecided about re-signing with San Jose or if he’d be open to accepting one of the offers he was receiving from back home in Russia. It appears the two sides found a solution that worked for both sides as Gushchin wasted little time signing with his new team while the Sharks added Oskar Olausson from the Avs to likely take the spot earmarked for Gushchin with the Barracuda, pending waiver clearance.
Colorado has had a lengthy rotation of fourth liners in recent years with Jared Bednar struggling to find a few players that he’s comfortable with in that role. That played a big role in the Avalanche dressing no fewer than 30 forwards for at least two games, 11 of those logging an ATOI of under 10 minutes per game, or fourth-line minutes. They haven’t done much in the way of adding extra low-cost depth this summer so Gushchin – now waiver-eligible for the first time – should get a legitimate chance to land a spot on the fourth line at some point next season.
Sharks, Avalanche Swap Daniil Gushchin, Oskar Olausson
According to a team announcement from the San Jose Sharks, the Sharks have traded forward Daniil Gushchin to the Colorado Avalanche for forward Oskar Olausson. The former is still a restricted free agent while Olausson has one year remaining on his entry-level contract.
It’s a change-of-scenery trade for both forwards, with the beneficiaries being the two teams’ respective AHL affiliates. The only noticeable difference between the two is that Gushchin is considered more NHL-ready, but isn’t quite good enough to be an NHL regular.
The Yekaterinburg, Russia native was drafted by San Jose with the 76th overall pick of the 2020 NHL Draft. He was coming off a relatively impressive season with the USHL’s Muskegon Lumberjacks, scoring 22 goals and 47 points in 42 games with a +21 rating. After another season in Muskegon and one with the OHL’s Niagara IceDogs, Gushchin became a full-time player for the AHL’s San Jose Barracuda beginning in the 2022-23 campaign.
He has enjoyed plenty of offensive success throughout his time with the AHL’s San Jose, scoring 70 goals and 150 points in 182 games, with one goal in four postseason contests. Unfortunately, Gushchin has left much to be desired on the defensive side of the puck, owning a -48 career rating. Still, Gushchin’s ability to score will make the AHL’s Colorado Eagles that much harder to play against, given that they led the AHL in scoring last season with 250.
Unlike Gushchin, the Avalanche used a first-round selection to draft Olausson, who went 28th overall in the 2021 NHL Draft. He was a top-level talent for HV71’s U20 team, scoring 14 goals and 27 points in 16 games. Olausson transitioned to North American hockey a year later, scoring 26 goals and 49 points in 55 games split between the OHL’s Barrie Colts and Oshawa Generals. Given his success in one of the top Canadian major junior leagues, the Avalanche hoped Olausson could be a key contributor in a few years.
Unfortunately, his play with AHL Colorado has zapped much of that hope. Since joining the Eagles ahead of the 2022-23 campaign, the same year Gushchin became a full-time AHL player, Olausson has scored 33 goals and 66 points in 163 contests, with one goal and eight points in 17 playoff games.
Both players have spent limited time in the NHL since making their professional debuts. Gushchin has the edge, featuring in 18 games compared to Olausson’s four. Still, neither player should be expected to drastically improve those totals in 2025-26, unless their NHL club sustains multiple injuries to their forward core.
Ilya Nabokov Signs One-Year Deal With Metallurg Magnitogorsk
- Avalanche goaltending prospect Ilya Nabokov has officially put pen to paper on a one-year deal to keep him in Russia for 2025-26 with the KHL’s Metallurg Magnitogorsk, the league announced. Nabokov signed his entry-level contract with Colorado in May, but it was quickly reported that the Avs planned to loan him back to Metallurg for the upcoming season. While he was initially draft-eligible in 2021, he was finally selected in the second round in 2024 on the heels of a dominant postseason for Metallurg that earned him a Gagarin Cup championship, playoff MVP honors, and the KHL’s Rookie of the Year award. He’ll likely compete for the No. 2 job behind Mackenzie Blackwood when he comes to North America in 2026-27.