Lukas Sedlak Placed On Waivers; Anders Bjork Clears
Despite no clear timeline on Gabriel Landeskog and Darren Helm, the Colorado Avalanche appear to be clearing some room on the roster. The team has placed Lukas Sedlak on waivers, according to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. Anders Bjork of the Buffalo Sabres has cleared and will be assigned to the AHL.
Sedlak, 29, has played in all three of the team’s games so far this season, seeing fewer than nine minutes in each. During last night’s match against the Minnesota wild, he played just nine shifts and lost all four of the faceoffs he took. Helm, who would normally slot into that fourth-line center role, was on the ice today at Colorado’s option skate but was still wearing a non-contact sweater and does not appear ready to return at this point.
While they don’t need to recall someone else now that they are headed home from a road trip, the team is already at a roster of 20, meaning they can’t re-assign Sedlak without calling someone else up or activating one of their injured players. That player might be Jacob MacDonald, who has been skating as a forward with the club for the last few days after starting the year on season-opening injured reserve.
Sedlak meanwhile is an interesting waiver case, given his recent history. The sixth-round pick has starred in the KHL the last three seasons, and signed a one-year, two-way contract to return to North America this summer. His deal includes a massive $500K AHL salary, meaning he will still be making a good buck if he ends up playing with the Colorado Eagles.
The Avalanche have also sent Ben Meyers to the minor leagues, another sign that there may be changes coming to the fourth line. Meyers does not require waivers and can be recalled as soon as Sedlak is sent down, if needed.
Colorado Avalanche Extend Alexandar Georgiev, Jacob MacDonald
The Colorado Avalanche announced via Twitter that they have extended goaltender Alexandar Georgiev for three years. TSN’s Chris Johnston reports that the deal is expected to carry a $3.4MM AAV and Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reports the salary breakdown to be $3.6MM in year one, $3.7MM in year two, and $2.9MM in year three. Colorado had acquired the goaltender on Thursday in exchange for a 2022 third-round pick, a 2022 fifth-round pick, and a 2023 third-round pick. The trade, and now this extension, seems to put a close to Darcy Kuemper‘s time in Colorado, as he is set to hit the free agent market on Wednesday.
Just after the Georgiev announcement, the team also announced via Twitter and their website that they have extended defenseman Jacob MacDonald for two years. The news was first broke by The Athletic’s Peter Baugh. MacDonald’s contract is two-way, with a $450K salary in the minors and carries a cap hit of $762.5K each season (link).
Georgiev, 26, was an arbitration-eligible RFA who was due a $2.65MM qualifying offer, one the Rangers likely couldn’t afford, especially as a backup to Vezina Trophy winner Igor Shesterkin. With speculation that the team could let Georgiev walk in free agency, the team was able to secure a return by sending him to Colorado for the above draft picks. Colorado appeared set to try and work out an extension with Kuemper, the incumbent goaltender, but with several other UFAs on the docket and a goalie market with seemingly much higher demand than supply, Georgiev became the more attractive option.
The reigning Stanley Cup Champion Avalanche now boast a duo of Georgiev and Pavel Francouz in net, which will cost a combined $5.4MM over each of the next two seasons before Francouz becomes a UFA after 2023-24. The cost for both goaltenders is surely attractive for Colorado, given it is less than some teams pay for just their starter, however it doesn’t come without some questions as to performance. In 33 games last season, Georgiev played to just an .898 save-percentage, the worst mark of his career, and a 2.92 goals-against average. Francouz played to a far better .916 save-percentage and 2.55 goals-against average in 21 regular season games, as well as a .906 save-percentage and 2.81 goals-against average in seven playoff games, filling in for an injured Kuemper. Though Francouz’s numbers are relatively good, the Avalanche have made clear his role is as the backup. This may not necessarily hold true over the remainder of his contract, and could formulate strong competition between the two for playing time.
Switching gears and turning back to MacDonald, the 29-year-old is a veteran of 43 NHL games, including eight in 2021-22 for the Avalanche, his most significant time however, coming in 2020-21, where he played in 33 games. Having just two goals and eight assists in his NHL career to date, the defenseman has been a prolific point-producer at the AHL level, hitting the 40-point mark three times, including one 55 point season. This season, MacDonald tallied 10 goals and 15 assists in a mere 33 AHL games. The Cornell University alum could be a candidate to push for more playing time with the Avalanche this year, having shown his ability to play at the NHL level, his affordability, and with questions regarding other Avalanche defensemen, including pending UFAs Josh Manson, Jack Johnson, and Ryan Murray, as well as Samuel Girard, who broke his sternum in Colorado’s second-round series against the St. Louis Blues.
Central Notes: Kubalik, Blues, MacDonald
Blackhawks winger Dominik Kubalik is one of the more interesting wingers that currently is in trade speculation. He’s only two years removed from a 30-goal campaign and still has another year of team control remaining through arbitration. However, he isn’t having a particularly strong year and that qualifying offer stands at $4MM, a high price for someone whose production is on pace for a 31-point season. Accordingly, Mark Lazerus of The Athletic pegs (subscription link) the 26-year-old as a deadline enigma. If Kubalik has his way, he’d like to stick around with Chicago and not be moved:
Chicago gave me an opportunity to be in the NHL and I love it there. So I’d love to stay.
The question for Blackhawks interim GM Kyle Davidson will be figuring out where the line is between opting for what would probably be an underwhelming trade return (relative to how he played a couple of years ago as a rookie) and where the smarter play would be to keep and qualify him this summer to give him one more chance. In the meantime, Kubalik will have another month to try to up his value both on the trade and contract front.
More from the Central Division:
- Blues defenseman Marco Scandella traveled with the team on their road trip and could play at some point in this four-game stretch, notes Tom Timmermann of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The veteran is dealing with a lower-body injury and missed his first game of the season over the weekend. Meanwhile, the same can’t be said for fellow blueliner Scott Perunovich as Timmermann notes the youngster won’t be on the trip as he continues to battle an upper-body injury. At this point, with Perunovich already being out for a month, a short-term stint in the minors seems likely when he is cleared to return.
- Avalanche blueliner Jacob MacDonald has been cleared for contact as he works his way back from an injury that has kept him out of the lineup for more than two months, relays Peter Baugh of The Athletic (Twitter link). The 28-year-old has been limited to just seven games this season and is currently on LTIR. Even with this step, MacDonald is still likely at least a couple of weeks away from returning.