Minor Transactions: 08/31/23
It’s a big day in the wider world of professional hockey, as some of the top clubs in Europe are set to do battle in the first matchday of the Champions Hockey League. Highlights include Finnish champions Tappara Tampere taking on the Aalborg Pirates (Danish Champions) and the Liiga silver medalists, Lahti Pelicans, against the SHL champion Växjö Lakers HC. Clubs outside the Champions League as well as North American teams are still making moves to add players, so as always we’ll keep track of those transactions here.
- Former Cornell University defenseman Cody Haiskanen had an exceptional rookie season in pro hockey, leading the ECHL in plus-minus with a +53 rating, the second-highest single-season rating in ECHL history. The rangy six-foot-four blueliner scored five goals and 29 points in 61 games, and played 19 playoff games en route to the Kelly Cup Finals. Today, he signed a one-year contract extension with the Idaho Steelheads to remain with the club for this upcoming season.
- 21-year-old winger Pavel Tyutnev signed a contract with Admiral Vladivostok of the KHL today, committing his services to the club for the next two seasons. The Russian winger was ranked 49th among European skaters by NHL Central Scouting in 2020, but ended up going undrafted. He scored 17 points in 23 games at the junior level for Lokomotiv Yaroslavl last season and got into 5 games with the senior club, scoring his first KHL goal in the process. Now with this two year deal Tyutnev heads to Vladivostok with the hope of making a push for a full-time KHL job.
- Matt Tugnutt, the son of former NHL netminder Ron Tugnutt, is returning to North America after playing last season overseas in France’s Ligue Magnus. Tugnutt, 27, spent last year with Chamonix, scoring 13 goals and 29 points in 37 games. He’s signing with the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays, re-joining the league he played 2021-22 in. He has 25 career ECHL points in 53 career games, and has played in South Carolina before as he’s skated four games for the Greenville Swamp Rabbits.
- Former Los Angeles Kings winger Nikolay Prokhorkin has signed a one-year contract with the KHL’s Sibir Novosibirsk. Prokhorkin, 29, has 43 NHL games on his resume and has, as a 2012 fourth-round pick, attempted to break into the North American game on two occasions. Both occasions ended with his departure to the KHL, the league he’s settled into as a capable scorer. Prokhorkin’s best season came in 2018-19, when he scored 41 points in 41 games for SKA St. Petersburg. Prokhorkin is a KHL All-Star, Gagarin Cup Champion, and Olympic gold medalist, but only managed to play in three KHL games last season. Novosibirsk is where he’ll look to construct a bounce-back season on this one-year deal.
- Former Anaheim Ducks prospect Jack Badini, the 91st overall pick at the 2017 NHL draft, has signed with Stjernen Hockey, a club in the top division of Norwegian hockey. The 25-year-old American forward spent most of last season with the ECHL’s Newfoundland Growlers, scoring 16 points in 31 regular-season games. He earned nine games at the AHL level with the Toronto Marlies and has 78 career games at the AHL level, where he’s scored eight points. Badini was a solid prospect in his days in the USHL and at Harvard, but he hasn’t been able to put together a strong resume in the North American pro game, prompting this signing overseas.
This page may be updated throughout the day.
Seattle Kraken Sign Devin Shore
The Seattle Kraken announced they’ve signed forward Devin Shore to a one-year, two-way contract today. The deal will carry the league minimum cap hit of $775K. PuckPedia reports his minor-league salary is $250K.
Shore will now look to crack a deep Kraken forward group that has remained largely unchanged since the end of last season. It’s a group that boasted multiple 20-goal scorers up and down the lineup and earned them their first playoff series victory in franchise history.
Shore’s played in nine NHL seasons dating back to a three-game stint with the Dallas Stars in 2015-16. He would then play in all 82 games for the Stars the following two seasons before making short stops with the Anaheim Ducks and Columbus Blue Jackets prior to COVID-19 pausing league operations in 2020. He would then sign as a free agent with the Edmonton Oilers shortly before the 2020-21 campaign began, where he spent the last three seasons.
He opened his full-time NHL career with back-to-back 30-point seasons in 2017 and 2018 but has since slipped out of an everyday role in the lineup. He’s gone on to post 50 goals and 135 points in 422 career games, but he scored just once and added eight assists for nine points in 47 games with the Oilers last season. As a result, he was assigned to the minors for a five-game stint with AHL Bakersfield for the first time in seven years.
A winger who can chip in at the bottom of the lineup, Shore will be hard-pressed to make the Kraken out of camp. The edge on any spots will likely go to 2022 fourth-overall pick Shane Wright and veteran utility forward Pierre-Édouard Bellemare, whom the team signed to a one-year, one-way deal earlier this summer. If he’s placed on waivers and clears, he’ll likely suit up for the majority of 2023-24 with the AHL’s Coachella Valley Firebirds.
Anaheim Ducks Sign Zack Kassian To PTO
The Anaheim Ducks have signed veteran winger Zack Kassian to a professional tryout, per a team post on X. The 32-year-old Canadian will now attempt to land a roster spot in Southern California after spending last season in a limited role with the Arizona Coyotes.
As outlined in our extensive breakdown of Kassian’s free agency last week, 2022-23 was a campaign to forget in the desert for the physical winger. He recorded just two goals (and no assists) in 51 contests and a -18 rating despite playing just 9:09 per game. As such, he was arguably the worst full-time player in the league last season – no other player with more than 41 games played in the previous year had less than four points, and no other player who averaged less than 10 minutes per game recorded a plus-minus rating worse than -10.
That culminated in the Coyotes buying out Kassian in June with one season left on his contract. The Coyotes acquired Kassian and his $3.2MM cap hit from the Edmonton Oilers at the 2022 NHL Draft.
Kassian had spent the previous seven seasons in Edmonton, playing 412 games in an Oilers jersey. He bounced up and down the lineup, at times even playing a complementary role alongside Connor McDavid when the Oilers were in the early days of building out their secondary scoring around their superstar. In 2019-20, Kassian posted a career-high 15 goals and 34 points despite playing in just 59 games, by far the best point-producing pace of his career.
Since the Buffalo Sabres took him 13th overall in the 2009 NHL Draft (he’ll be up soon in our ongoing Take Two series), Kassian has 92 goals, 111 assists, 203 points, and 913 penalty minutes in 661 NHL games with the Oilers, Sabres, Coyotes, and Vancouver Canucks.
This could very well be a move for the Ducks to hit the veteran minimum during a handful of preseason games. It’s hard to make an argument for Kassian to win a roster spot over younger players in a similar role, such as Brett Leason or Pavol Regenda, and the Ducks would surely instead give any potential in-season call-ups to a bevy of younger forward prospects like Nathan Gaucher, Benoit-Olivier Groulx and Nikita Nesterenko.
Kassian is the second player invited to the Ducks’ training camp on a tryout basis. The team inked defenseman Scott Harrington to a PTO earlier this month.
Morning Notes: Super 16, Blackhawks, Whynot
NHL.com’s writers have released their Super 16 pre-training camp power rankings, and the defending champion Vegas Golden Knights sit atop the list. Despite a lack of a clear-cut starting goalie and depth concerns, the league website’s voters still consider the Golden Knights the team to beat, with NHL.com’s senior editorial director Shawn P. Roarke claiming there’s “no reason they can’t overcome [those issues] again.” The Carolina Hurricanes come in at number two as the top Eastern Conference team after reaching the Conference Finals last season and bolstering their roster with several key free-agent signings, such as Michael Bunting and Dmitry Orlov. A pair of Central Division powerhouses in the Dallas Stars and Colorado Avalanche round out the top four, while the New Jersey Devils land at number five after their young core broke out to lead the team to a 112-point performance in the 2022-23 season. Two non-playoff teams from last season broke into their rankings, both in the Eastern Conference: the Buffalo Sabres at 16 and the Pittsburgh Penguins at 14. The New York Islanders and Winnipeg Jets didn’t make the cut after earning wild-card berths in their respective conferences last season.
Elsewhere from around the hockey world this morning:
- According to The Athletic’s Scott Powers, the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs have hired Matt Smith as their goalie development coach. At 33 years old, Smith has already had coaching stints with the Soo Greyhounds and Guelph Storm of the OHL, but he hasn’t been on any team’s staff since the 2017-18 season with Guelph. Nonetheless, the Blackhawks will look to Smith to play a crucial role in developing a pair of promising goalies within the Blackhawks organization slated to form Rockford’s tandem next season: Drew Commesso and Jaxson Stauber.
- After the Calgary Flames conceded the exclusive signing rights to defense prospect Cameron Whynot, the 20-year-old will now suit up for Acadia University in Canada instead of turning pro, according to SaltWire’s Willy Palov. The Flames opted not to sign the 2021 third-round pick to an entry-level contract earlier this summer after a pair of disappointing post-draft seasons with the QMJHL’s Halifax Mooseheads, during which he failed to eclipse the 0.68 points per game and the +13 rating he posted during his draft year. It’ll be at least another summer before Whynot attempts to make the jump to pro hockey, likely by signing an AHL or ECHL contract (or heading overseas).
Offseason Notes: Peters, Pacioretty, Voronkov
In a surprising turn of events, controversial head coach, Bill Peters, has landed a new coaching role in North America. Making his way back to the Western Hockey League, Peters will find himself manning the bench of the Lethbridge Hurricanes for the 2023-24 WHL season. Peters had spent the last several years coaching the Avtomobilist Yekaterinburg of the KHL after an unceremonious end to his time with the Calgary Flames in 2019.
As a reminder, back during the 2019-20 season, former player Akim Aliu, accused Peters of anti-Black racism when the two had been together in 2010 with the Rockford IceHogs of the AHL. More specifically, Aliu lambasted Peters’ usage of the ‘N’-word, as well as writing letters to Chicago Blackhawks management tarnishing Aliu’s future career. The NHL did execute an investigation into the matter, but those results have not been released to the public up to this point.
Salim Valji of TSN reported that a current coach, who remained nameless, had attempted to broker a conversation between himself and Peters, but Aliu declined. With the negative stories now associated with his coaching career, it is more than unlikely that Peters will ever coach in the NHL again, even in spite of the shocking development that he was been hired for a role in the WHL.
Other notes:
- Far be it from a confirmation, but the going notion is that new forward for the Washington Capitals, Max Pacioretty, will not be ready for opening night according to Jason Chen of The Hockey News. Even after suffering another Achilles tendon tear in January, Pacioretty was still able to land a one-year, $2MM contract from Washington this summer. If he is able to rebound in any meaningful way, he would certainly become a solid secondary scoring option for the Capitals down the stretch.
- Although he spent his last four professional seasons in the KHL, a prospect for the Columbus Blue Jackets, Dmitry Voronkov, will report to the team for training camp in September (X Link). Originally the 114th selection in the 2019 NHL Draft for Columbus, Voronkov became quite the goal scorer in the KHL last year. In 54 games played, the young forward would have 18 goals and 13 assists, showing that he is ready to continue his professional career in North America next season.
Poll: Which Team Had The Worst Offseason?
During this time of year, some organizations have plenty of excitement surrounding their clubs, as fans are eager to see new players wear the jerseys of their favorite teams headed into training camp. Whether picking up exciting players through the draft, free agency, or trades, there are plenty of teams that significantly improved their rosters heading into next season. However, there are some teams that have been unable to improve or have even seen the talent on their roster take a substantial decrease this summer.
One of the most important teams that factors into this conversation, is the defending President Trophy champions, Boston Bruins. This summer, the Bruins have had to deal with the untimely retirements of franchise legends Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci, while also watching Dmitry Orlov, Tyler Bertuzzi, Nick Foligno, Taylor Hall, as well as several others join separate organizations for the 2023-24 season. Seeing their name pop up in plenty of trade conversations lately, their cap situation has halted Boston from replacing any of these players on their team. The team still features top-end talent such as David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand, but in arguably the strongest division in the NHL, their competitive window may take a brief hiatus.
Unlike the Bruins, one team who had been projected to be competitive last season, but ultimately failed short of the playoffs at season’s end, was the Calgary Flames. The organization is only a season away from seeing quite a few players hit unrestricted free agency, but with an open wild-card situation in the Western Conference, the team did not do much to improve their chances next year. The organization may be banking on a serious change in direction from new head coach, Ryan Huska, but after trading away Tyler Toffoli to the New Jersey Devils early in the summer, the team only brought in Yegor Sharangovich, Dryden Hunt, and Jordan Oesterle. Time will tell if Huska truly has the ability to move the needle for the Flames behind the bench, but the acquired players this summer do not generate much confidence in that happening.
Lastly, for another straight summer, the New York Islanders did very little to address their lack of goal-scoring. The team did hand long-term deals to both Pierre Engvall and Scott Mayfield but failed to bring in any players such as Jason Zucker or Vladimir Tarasenko, who could have provided an extra boost to their offense. They may benefit from a full season from center Bo Horvat, but even after deploying him for over 35% of the season last year, still finished 22nd in the league in Goals For. The team is limited by the way of salary cap space and does typically put much more emphasis on keeping the puck out of their net, but the lack of additional goal-scoring is severely limiting this team in their quest for success.
There are other teams that may be in contention for the worst offseason, and now it’s time for a vote.
Which Team Had The Worst Offseason?
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Boston Bruins 55% (790)
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Calgary Flames 18% (262)
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New York Islanders 16% (226)
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Anaheim Ducks 6% (84)
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Other (Comment Below) 6% (84)
Total votes: 1,446
Snapshots: Kuznetsov, Tocchet, Bochek
In his ongoing series throughout the summer, Adam Proteau of The Hockey News touched on Washington Capitals center Evgeny Kuznetsov and explained that he is on the hottest seat for the Capitals entering into the upcoming season. Although Washington and Kuznetsov seem intent on starting the 2023-24 season together, the Russian forward has not officially rescinded his trade request from last summer.
Following up on one of the most disappointing seasons of his career, Kuznetsov has a lot to prove this year. Last season, playing in 81 games, Kuznetsov scored 12 goals and 43 assists with a -26 rating, not quite living up to his $7.8MM salary. If the Capitals hope to move Kuznetsov for something substantive, or even hope to make the playoffs in a loaded Metropolitan division, they will need Kuznetsov to find his old form in the top six.
Washington might be best served in transferring Kuznetsov to the wing and allowing Nicklas Backstrom and Dylan Strome to take the top two center positions on the roster. Both Backstrom and Strome play significantly better defensively, and Kuznetsov would likely fit in nicely on the second-line left-wing role. Nevertheless, new head coach Spencer Carbery and the entire organization will have to do much better in getting the maximum potential out of Kuznetsov next year.
Other snapshots:
- In an interview with Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet, head coach of the Vancouver Canucks, Rick Tocchet, touched on several topics, including the pending restricted free agency of Elias Pettersson, and the ceiling of the Canucks headed into next season. Tocchet notes that if Vancouver can’t make the playoffs next year, the organization will need to “check most of the boxes” to entice him to stay, such as improvements from the coaching & development staff, as well as team cohesion throughout the season. Tocchet also said that the team is “capable of success”, but would not elaborate entirely on his use of the word ‘success’.
- General Manager of the Arizona Coyotes, Bill Armstrong, announced a multi-year contract extension with Development Skills Coach, Kyle Bochek. It is unclear how long the contract will be for, but Bochek will be entering his third season in the Coyotes organization, having worked with both NHL and AHL talent. Arizona must have some trust in Bochek, as the team has graduated players such as Matias Maccelli and Dylan Guenther under his watch.
Carl Hagelin Announces Retirement
Two-time Stanley Cup champion winger Carl Hagelin announced his retirement today via an Instagram post. Now 35 years old, Hagelin missed the 2022-23 season due to severe eye and hip injuries.
“It’s been an amazing ride, but it ends here,” Hagelin said. “Unfortunately, my eye injury is too severe to keep playing the game I love.” He told reporters at the beginning of the offseason that he hoped to return to NHL play for the 2023-24 campaign, but unfortunately, that won’t be the case. His four-year, $11MM extension he’d signed with Washington in 2019 expired on July 1.
Picked in the sixth round of the 2007 NHL Draft by the New York Rangers out of Södertälje SK’s junior program in Sweden, Hagelin took a somewhat unconventional path for European prospects and immediately came over to North America, embarking on a four-year collegiate career with the University of Michigan. It was undoubtedly the right choice, however – by his senior year, he was named team captain and produced over a point per game over his last two seasons.
Aside from a few games in the minors in 2011-12, Hagelin made the jump to the NHL immediately from college, recording 38 points in 64 games during his rookie season with the Rangers, along with a +24 rating. That placed him fifth in Calder Trophy voting and even earned him a few votes for the Selke Trophy.
He would continue consistently producing in the 30-40 point range over his four-year tenure with the Rangers but never really built on that rookie campaign. That’s not a knock on Hagelin at all, however. He was a quintessential two-way middle-six secondary scoring forward with a good amount of speed to his game. That’s even more impressive in relation to his sixth-round selection, given he went on to play over 700 NHL games.
His tenure in New York ended somewhat unceremoniously. A restricted free agent at the end of 2014-15, he couldn’t agree to a new deal with the Rangers and his signing rights were dealt to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for depth forward Emerson Etem (along with some draft picks changing hands, but nothing of significance). Anaheim compensated him nicely by signing him to the richest contract of his career (four years, $16MM), but Hagelin couldn’t really find his game in Southern California. He recorded just 12 points in 43 games to begin 2015-16 before Anaheim moved him to the Pittsburgh Penguins for David Perron, who was similarly underperforming in Pittsburgh.
It would turn out to be one of the most underrated transactions in Penguins history. Down the stretch, Hagelin would complete the famed third line with Nick Bonino and Phil Kessel that played such a crucial role in Pittsburgh winning their first of back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2016. Hagelin exploded for 27 points in 37 games after the trade and added 16 points in 24 playoff games en route to the championship.
Again, he couldn’t quite recapture that performance the following season. While he would win another championship in 2017, he scored just two goals in 15 games during that playoff run. Fast forward to 2018-19, and Hagelin had scored only one goal and two assists through the first 16 games of the season. A move to the Los Angeles Kings in November didn’t do much for him, either – he recorded just five points in 22 games there. It was near the 2018-19 deadline that the Kings moved him to Washington, where he notched 11 points in the final 20 games of the season, appearing rejuvenated and earning himself the final four-year extension.
Hagelin would wrap up his career by scoring 20 goals and 66 points throughout 187 games in a Capitals uniform, posting solid numbers for a bottom-six scoring winger. Unfortunately, it was a freak eye injury in a practice in March of 2022 that would end his career.
PHR extends our best wishes to Hagelin in his continued recovery from both injuries and congratulates him on a championship-caliber career.
East Notes: Östlund, Reinbacher, Gomez, Bochner
The Buffalo Sabres confirmed today they’ll be loaning 2022 first-round pick Noah Östlund to the Växjö Lakers of the Swedish Hockey League. It’s unclear what the delay was in Buffalo announcing the move – Växjö confirmed it in early June. Regardless, it presents a step up for Östlund, as the 19-year-old center spent last season in the second-tier Allsvenskan with Djurgårdens IF, where he recorded a respectable 26 points in 37 games. He’ll aim to carve out a top-nine (potentially even top-six) role in Växjö, who is coming off two SHL championships in the span of three years. This is expected to be his last season in Sweden before coming to North America to play for either the Sabres or AHL’s Rochester Americans in 2024-25.
Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference:
- In some other loan news, CapFriendly reports the Montreal Canadiens have recalled 2023 fifth-overall pick David Reinbacher from EHC Kloten of the Swiss National League ahead of rookie camp next month. Reinbacher will not suit up for them this season, however – they’re expected to return him to Switzerland when training camp is over, and he’ll lace up the skates in a top-four role for Kloten. The 6-foot-2, 194-pound right-shot Austrian defender could see full-time NHL action as soon as the 2024-25 season.
- Former New Jersey Devils forward Scott Gomez has found a new post-hockey home with the BCHL’s Surrey Eagles, the junior A club with which he posted 124 points in just 56 games with during the 1996-97 season. Gomez, a Calder Trophy winner and two-time Stanley Cup champion with New Jersey, will be an assistant coach next season. Gomez has not worked behind a bench in nearly five years, last serving as an assistant coach with the New York Islanders from 2017 to 2019.
- The Carolina Hurricanes have hired Daniel Bochner as a development coach, according to a team release. The 38-year-old has spent the last five seasons on staff with the KHL’s SKA St. Petersburg in a player development role, graduating to an assistant coach job in 2020-21. Born in Toronto, the former pro defenseman carries Israeli nationality and represented them at multiple low-level World Championship tournaments throughout the 2000s.
Summer Synopsis: Colorado Avalanche
Last season, the Colorado Avalanche finished atop the Central Division as most expected. That’s despite missing captain Gabriel Landeskog and other core pieces such as Bowen Byram, Josh Manson and Valeri Nichushkin missing significant amounts of time. The 2022 Stanley Cup champions couldn’t find the magic for two seasons in a row, however, instead making history in another way by becoming the first team to lose to the Seattle Kraken in a playoff series, albeit in a hard-fought seven-game battle. That series loss was largely due to a lack of depth scoring, something GM Chris MacFarland addressed in a targeted manner this summer. Was it enough to return the Avs to 2022’s glory, however?
Draft
1-27: F Calum Ritchie, Oshawa (OHL)
1-31: D Mikhail Gulyayev, Omsk (MHL)
5-155: D Nikita Ishimnikov, Yekaterinburg (MHL)
6-187: D Jeremy Hanzel, Seattle (WHL)
7-219: F Maros Jedlicka, Zvolen (Slovakia)
While the Avalanche didn’t transform a weak prospect pool, they did make a shrewd move the day before the draft by trading Alex Newhook to the Montreal Canadiens, acquiring a second first-round pick in the process. Their two top selections, Gulyayev and Ritchie, were rather spectacular value moves for where they were taken – some public scouts had both ranked within the top 15 prospects available.
Ritchie is the closest to NHL-ready and could potentially see some time with the Avs as soon as 2024-25, but he’ll still need to be returned to juniors then if he’s not NHL-ready. All five players the Avalanche drafted are expected to return to the clubs listed above for the 2023-24 season, with the exception of Gulyayev, who is expected to join Omsk’s KHL team full-time.
Trade Acquisitions
F Ross Colton (from Tampa Bay)
D Gianni Fairbrother (from Montreal)
F Ryan Johansen (from Nashville)
F Fredrik Olofsson (from Dallas)
Colton has developed into the type of middle-six point-producing forward that the Lightning have relied upon so much over the past handful of seasons, but they simply couldn’t afford to keep him as he was a restricted free agent this summer in need of a new contract. Colorado, who had some additional flexibility with Landeskog slated to go on LTIR for a second straight season, swooped in and acquired the 26-year-old, who for now is projected to center the third line after scoring 16 goals and 16 assists for 32 points in 81 games last season. His defensive reputation becomes a bit inflated publically once you dig deeper into his possession metrics, but he has maintained a role as an excellent play-driver with an accurate shot – something the Avalanche desperately needed to add to their second and third lines.
Johansen is projected to slot in just above Colton on the Avs’ center depth chart, but he’s more of a reclamation project than the former, and the two could easily swap roles if things don’t go as planned. The 31-year-old has a previous first-line center pedigree but has been wildly inconsistent over the past few campaigns, scoring just 28 points in 55 games last season after notching 26 goals and 63 points in 79 games with the Predators the year before. The Avalanche are hoping that by sticking likely one of Artturi Lehkonen or Nichushkin on his wing, they can help unlock some of the offense that’s been missing and re-elevate him to the 60-point range.
Fairbrother came from Montreal as part of the return for Newhook and will spend next year in the AHL with the Colorado Eagles. Olofsson, whose signing rights were acquired from the Stars, was immediately signed to an extension after the trade and will be one of many names looking to lock down a roster spot and contribute on the team’s fourth line.
Key UFA Signings
F Andrew Cogliano (one year, $825K)
F Jonathan Drouin (one year, $825K)
D Jack Johnson (one year, $775K)
F Fredrik Olofsson (one year, $775K)*
F Chris Wagner (one year, $775K)*
F Miles Wood (six years, $15MM)
*-denotes two-way contract
Most of their key boosts to their forward core came via trade in Colton and Johansen, but the Avs did dish out some money to fill out bottom-six spots via unrestricted free agency. While he may not play the highest in the lineup, their biggest move (and perhaps one of the more surprising contracts of the entire summer) was Wood, earning a lengthy commitment to play a bottom-six checking role in Denver. The 27-year-old missed all but three games in the 2021-22 season with injury but suited up for a full campaign last year, scoring 13 goals and adding 14 assists for 27 points in 76 games whilst playing a fourth-line role for the New Jersey Devils. His reputation as defensively responsible did take a hit last year after the rather serious hip injury, raising some concerns about the rather extravagant length of the deal.
Another player who could end up playing quite a large role is Drouin, who, for now, projects to slide into the team’s top-six on the cheap to hopefully revitalize the former third-overall pick’s point production. If they opt to spread out the wealth and play wingers like Lehkonen and Nichushkin on the second line, they could match Drouin alongside former Halifax Mooseheads teammate Nathan MacKinnon and hope for him to reach the 40-50-point ceiling he showed earlier in his career with the Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning. He scored just two goals last season in 58 games and hasn’t played close to a full 82 games since the 2018-19 campaign.
A handful of re-signings, including Cogliano, Johnson and Olofsson, aim to play fourth-line or third-pair roles. Wagner, who spent most of the last two seasons in the minors, does have a history of full-time NHL play and will aim to regain such a role on the team’s fourth line.
Key RFA Re-Signings
D Bowen Byram (two years, $7.7MM)
F Ross Colton (four years, $16MM)
F Ben Meyers (one year, $775K)
We covered Colton’s acquisition in the trade section of this piece, but Byram’s two-year bridge warrants some analysis. Despite his development being derailed multiple times by serious injuries and concussion concerns remain, the 2019 fourth-overall pick is a bonafide top-four defender among one of the highest-powered defense corps in the league. He recorded a career-high 24 points in 40 games last season (a 49-point pace) and shouldered nearly 22 minutes per game – a significant workload for such a young, developing defender. Posting better defensive results than his defense partner, Samuel Girard, he could be in line for even more ice time next season and will likely exceed the value of his new deal.
Meyers, on the other hand, takes a league-minimum deal after failing to elevate himself in the Avs’ lineup in his first full pro season. The highly-touted college free agent signing out of the University of Minnesota last season skated in 39 games with Colorado at the NHL level, collecting four goals. He’ll likely get a crack at the fourth-line center spot out of camp but needs to show strides in order to avoid another demotion to the minors.
Key Departures
F J.T. Compher (Detroit, five years, $25.5MM)
F Lars Eller (Pittsburgh, two years, $4.9MM)
G Jonas Johansson (Tampa Bay, two years, $1.55MM)
D Erik Johnson (Buffalo, one year, $3.25MM)
F Denis Malgin (Switzerland’s ZSC Lions, five years)
F Alex Newhook (trade with Montreal)
F Matthew Nieto (Pittsburgh, two years, $1.8MM)
F Evan Rodrigues (Florida, four years, $12MM)
Compher played the biggest role in Colorado last season out of anyone on this list, claiming the second-line center spot by default after Newhook failed to capture it in the opening weeks of the season. He would average over 20 minutes per game and record a career-high 52 points, not something that he should be expected to replicate in Detroit (even though they paid him as such). In fact, Johansen could very well be seen as an upgrade on Compher, given his track record, so despite the gargantuan minutes he covered last season, the Avalanche likely won’t feel his absence too much after their other offseason moves.
Rodrigues was a solid two-way middle-six forward for the Avs in his lone season there, as he has been for the past few seasons. He recorded 39 points in 69 games (a 46-point pace), something they’ll likely look for Drouin to replace, although he provides no guarantee.
Eller and Nieto found roles in Pittsburgh under new GM Kyle Dubas after they were both late-season trade acquisitions by the Avs who had a marginal impact on their record. Perhaps the biggest supplementary loss here is Johnson, who was the longest-tenured member of the Avalanche roster and had logged over 700 games with the team and was still a reliable defensive presence, albeit a declining one. His leadership will be missed, undoubtedly.
Malgin was a bit of an intriguing depth scorer last season, notching 11 goals in 42 games in an Avalanche jersey, but he’s opted to return home to Switzerland to play out the prime of his pro career.
Salary Cap Outlook
With Landeskog again expected to miss the entire season due to an additional knee surgery, the Avalanche are in a better salary cap situation than many other contenders. The team still has a fair amount of wiggle room and is expected to be cap-compliant by around $2.025MM once Landeskog is placed on LTIR, per CapFriendly. They have no dead money on their books: no retained salary transactions, buyouts, or projected buried salaries in the minors. It still leaves room for them to make one more marginal addition from the free-agent market if they choose.
Key Questions
Can Georgiev Repeat?: 27-year-old Bulgaria-born Alexandar Georgiev was a revelation in the crease last season. Coming over after a handful of inconsistent years in a backup role with the New York Rangers, the Avalanche caught lightning in a bottle with Georgiev, who churned out true starting-caliber numbers with a .919 save percentage and 2.52 goals-against average with a heavy workload – 62 games played, by far a career-high. He had just a .898 with the Rangers in 33 games the year before, however. While goalies often hit their primes closer to age 30 like Georgiev, the Avalanche will need another strong season from him with diminished defense depth in front of him.
Do They Have A Second-Line Answer?: One of Johansen or Colton commanding second-line minutes will be a must for Colorado to fix last season’s Achilles heel. If they can do so enough to give the team a legitimate secondary scoring option behind MacKinnon, much like Nazem Kadri did before his departure in 2022, it could very well keep them atop the Central. If not, they’ll need full health and full power from their stars to avoid slipping down the standings in a tight division headlined by improved Dallas Stars and Winnipeg Jets teams.
What To Do With Devon Toews?: He’s not-so-quietly transformed into a top-flight defender who would be the best defenseman on about half the teams in the league. However, he’s entering the final season of a contract paying just $4.1MM per season and is hurtling toward unrestricted free agency next summer. If they aren’t close to an extension by the time the deadline rolls around, will the Avalanche keep him around as a self-rental or aim to flip him for an asset with more control?
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