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Wyatt Aamodt

Snapshots: Avalanche, Squires, Ziemmer

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The Avalanche announced some heavy roster trimming after playing their final regular season game last night. Forwards Jere Innala, T.J. Tynan, Chris Wagner, and defensemen Wyatt Aamodt and Jack Ahcan were reassigned back to AHL Colorado after being called up recently to allow some lineup staples to rest. All the players listed saw limited action down the stretch, and all five appeared in last night’s win over the Ducks to give Colorado its fourth straight season with over 100 points. The Avs finished with a 49-29-4 record and will face the Stars in the first round as the lower seed. The group of five will now suit up for the Eagles in the Calder Cup Playoffs, with more experienced names like Wagner likely to be among the first added to the Avalanche’s postseason roster if injuries necessitate a recall.

Other minor moves from around the league this morning:

  • The Devils announced today that they’ve reassigned right-wing prospect Cam Squires to AHL Utica after he finished his major junior season with the Cape Breton Eagles of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League. Squires, fresh off his 20th birthday, led Cape Breton in scoring with 24-51–75 in 58 games this season and 15th overall in the QMJHL. A 2023 fourth-round pick, he signed his entry-level deal last summer and will kick off his first full professional campaign next season, presumably in Utica.
  • The Kings are also giving one of their prospects a taste of pro hockey to end the season, reassigning right-winger Koehn Ziemmer to AHL Ontario. The 2023 third-rounder is coming off a 37-goal, 71-point campaign in 61 games with the Prince George Cougars of the Western Hockey League, but he’s still failed to break the career-high 89 points he scored in his draft year with the Cougars. With his 20th birthday behind him, as well as four seasons of WHL play, he’s eligible for a full-time assignment to Ontario beginning next season.

Avalanche Recall Wyatt Aamodt, Jack Ahcan, Jere Innala

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The Avalanche announced today they’ve recalled defensemen Wyatt Aamodt and Jack Ahcan, along with forward Jere Innala from AHL Colorado. The trio will presumably get into game action for the Avs’ season-ending back-to-back this weekend to allow some lineup fixtures extra rest ahead of the postseason.

Colorado is already without a laundry list of lineup fixtures for their final two games, namely superstar pivot Nathan MacKinnon. He’s dealing with a minor injury that wouldn’t hold him out of playoff action, but he’s expected to sit for both contests after missing last night’s game against the Canucks. Carrying more serious injury designations up front are Ross Colton (undisclosed) and Jonathan Drouin (lower body), both of whom are day-to-day and probable for their Game 1 lineup in over a week. On the back end, Ryan Lindgren and Josh Manson are unavailable with upper-body injuries.

On top of those absences, today’s recalls indicate they’ll allow multiple other players to rest. It would be Aamodt’s NHL debut if he plays. Colorado signed the 27-year-old as an undrafted free agent out of Minnesota State in 2022, playing exclusively with their AHL club since. While he was set to be an unrestricted free agent this summer, he signed a two-year extension at the trade deadline. The lefty is amid a spectacular two-way season with the Eagles, posting 3-13–16 in 66 games while posting a league-leading +35 rating. The Minnesota native has 12-36–48 with 131 PIMs and a +48 rating in 181 career AHL games over the last four years.

Ahcan hasn’t seen NHL ice since suiting up nine times with the Bruins in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons. Now 27, the 5’9″ lefty is set to be a UFA this summer upon completing the two-year, two-way deal he signed with the Avs in 2023. The 2017 World Juniors gold medalist with Team USA has a career-high 5-36–41 scoring line in 67 games with the Eagles this year.

Innala is the most familiar of the trio. The 27-year-old Finn is in his first season in North America, signing an entry-level deal with the Avs last summer following a standout playoff performance with Rögle BK of the Swedish Hockey League. He made 15 NHL appearances for Colorado earlier this season, going without a point and logging a minus-three rating while averaging just 6:55 per game. He hasn’t made an appearance for the Avs since January. The 5’9″ left-winger has been a decent complementary scorer in the minors, logging 16-11–27 in 42 games.

Avalanche Sign Wyatt Aamodt To Two-Year Extension

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The Colorado Avalanche have followed their Trade Deadline festivities by signing depth defenseman Wyatt Aamodt to a two-year, two-way contract extension. The deal will carry a league-minimum $775K salary at the NHL level.

Colorado signed Aamodt as an undrafted free agent following the end of his 2021-22 season with Minnesota State University-Mankato, where he totaled 29 points in 123 career games. Aamodt played through his rookie AHL season in 2022-23 and recorded 18 points, 39 penalty minutes, and a plus-five in 52 games. He’s seen a slight dip in scoring in both seasons since then, netting 14 points in 60 games last year and 13 points in 51 games this year. But he’s noticeably improved his ability to defend away from the puck, ramping up to a plus-32 and top-four role on the Colorado Eagles this season.

Aamodt is now 27 years old and projects as a career minor league option with a physical boost, thanks to his six-foot, 200-pound frame. His new contract extension will see to that status for the next two years, while guaranteeing him $275K in salary over the first year of the deal. He’ll continue to serve as the fourth man on a blue-line headlined by Jacob MacDonald, Jack Ahcan, and Calle Rosen.

Avalanche Sign Erik Brännström, Wyatt Aamodt

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3:00 p.m.: The Avs have also brought back defenseman Wyatt Aamodt on a one-year deal with an undisclosed cap hit. Aamodt, an RFA, had 14 points in 60 games with the AHL’s Colorado Eagles last year. The 26-year-old returns for his third full season in the Colorado organization.

1:00 p.m.: Colorado has made the deal official.

11:54 a.m.: The Avalanche have come to terms on a one-year, $900K deal with UFA defenseman Erik Brännström, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports. Canucks freelance reporter Irfaan Gafaar said earlier Tuesday that there was traction between the Avs and Brännström on a deal.

Brännström, 24, became a UFA yesterday after being non-tendered by the Senators. It wasn’t unexpected. Ottawa has never fully placed their trust in the 2017 first-round pick, who they acquired from the Golden Knights as the centerpiece of the trade return for Mark Stone in 2019.

The Swede has spent parts of the last six seasons in Ottawa but didn’t truly catch on as a full-time piece until 2022-23. Since doing so, he’s been an exemplary bottom-pair defender, posting 38 points and a +10 rating in 150 games over the last two years. He’s also posted decent possession numbers, controlling 50% of shot attempts and 52.1% of expected goals at even strength last year.

The Sens didn’t use that strong play as evidence to try him higher up in the lineup, though, and his ice time stayed low at around 16 minutes per game. The one time Ottawa did insert Brännström into somewhat consistent top-four minutes in the 2021-22 campaign, he struggled with 14 assists and a -17 rating in 53 contests while averaging 19:46 per game.

Brännström won’t be tasked with a ton of responsibility in Colorado, though. Their top four is already set with Samuel Girard, Cale Makar, Josh Manson and Devon Toews. Instead, he’ll likely start the season in a consistent bottom-pairing role with either journeyman Calvin de Haan, who the Avs signed yesterday, or third-year pro Sam Malinski on his flank.

He’ll provide solid puck-moving depth and is a much cheaper replacement for deadline pickup Sean Walker, who signed a five-year, $18MM deal with the Hurricanes yesterday. At $900K, Brännström’s deal can be fully buried in the minors if he flames out, but he would need to pass through waivers to head to the AHL.

It’s a good pickup for an Avalanche team that is already projected to be over the salary cap upon the return of Gabriel Landeskog from injury and Valeri Nichushkin from suspension next season. They’ll need players on sub-$1MM cap hits to contribute as much as possible, and there were arguably no higher-upside bets available for that price after yesterday’s moves than Brännström.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.

Colorado Avalanche Extend Wyatt Aamodt

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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.

Colorado Avalanche Sign Wyatt Aamodt

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The Colorado Avalanche have landed a top college free agent, signing Wyatt Aamodt to a one-year entry-level contract. The deal will start in 2022-23, and Aamodt will join the Colorado Eagles on an amateur tryout for the rest of this season. Aamodt recently completed his senior season with Minnesota State, leading them all the way to the National Championship game.

If you already have a bounty of elite puck-moving defensemen, what do you target? A free agent that does just about everything else. Aamodt, 24, is certainly not much of an offensive threat but uses his physicality to shut down an opponent’s best players. In 41 games this season he recorded six goals and 12 points, both easily the highest totals of his four-year college career, but as captain of the Mavericks had much more impact at the defensive end of the rink.

As an undrafted free agent, there won’t be huge expectations put on the young defenseman, but Aamodt should add some more depth to the Avalanche system for the risk-free proposition of a one-year entry-level deal. Getting his feet wet at the AHL level will give the Colorado management a chance to see how he transitions to professional hockey and some insight into whether he’ll be able to handle himself in the NHL.

That’s certainly not a guarantee, as the left-shot defenseman doesn’t actually have a ton of size behind that physical playstyle. While the NHL continues to lean toward adding length and mobility on the blueline, it will be interesting to see if his play results in a chance with the Avalanche next season.

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