MacKinnon’s league-leading $12.6 million AAV goes into effect this season, which will catch every eye in the NHL - he’s unimpeachably worth the investment - but it’s the remaining however-many-million that will truly begin to shape the Avalanche’s 2024 fate.*After 3 months, Sunday-Friday Print Delivery + Digital will be $30/month. His contract could end up structured as a long-term or bridge.įrom there, MacFarland and Sakic are left with the resources that could yield an exceedingly different collection of role players from the current ones. It’s common for at least one player on a two-way deal to be on the NHL roster at any given time, so those contracts (Brad Hunt, Ben Meyers, new trade acquisition Fredrik Olofsson, etc.) will factor in intermittently as well.Ī chunk of the $20 million available will go to RFA Bo Byram, but it’s still difficult to predict how much. Those contracts eat 74.9% of the team’s cap space if the league salary cap increases by only $1 million, as has been projected. Miles Wood agrees to 6-year contract with Avalanche in free agencyĬolorado has $62.5125 million in one-way contracts on the books for 12 players (five forwards, five defensemen, two goalies) as July 1 nears. And Valeri Nichushkin does plan to return, leaving no questions about his $6.125 AAV. Landeskog will miss the entire 2023-24 season, meaning his $7 million cap hit won’t apply to the team’s. Johnson’s $6 million dent from last year is no more. The Avs know where they stand in relation to the salary cap now that three of the biggest offseason dominos have fallen. GMing after a championship is a constant race to find the newest affordable depth pieces. When forwards play next to MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen, they look better. When Compher wins a division title and receives Selke buzz as the next 2C, his value skyrockets. When Nazem Kadri wins a championship as a second-line center, his value skyrockets. The roster-building challenge during that window resides on the fringes. Contractually, the Avs have the star power to contend for the next three years at least (probably more). The long-term tax of winning a Stanley Cup is different it’s more than a few bruised shoulders, knees and toes. It was a wise sentiment from a trusted locker room leader. Johnson liked to refer to the Avalanche’s injury misfortune in 2022-23 as their “championship tax.” Short offseasons catch up to you eventually. Blackmon made his Colorado Rockies debut Jfour months after Johnson first appeared in an Avalanche uniform Feb. Assuming he signs elsewhere in free agency, Charlie Blackmon will take over the title of Denver’s longest-tenured athlete, with Gabriel Landeskog close behind. No athlete currently on a Denver professional sports team has been in town longer than Johnson, who played 717 games for the Avalanche. It even raises questions about the Avalanche’s restricted free agent forwards, Alex Newhook and Denis Malgin.Īll that to say the winds of change could be upon Colorado. That makes it difficult to want to run it back with Matt Nieto or Lars Eller. The lasting image of the 2022-23 season was Nathan MacKinnon on fumes, trying to will the Avs to a tying goal late in Game 7 without help from his other lines. Whether Chris MacFarland and Joe Sakic actually want to bring back their other pending UFAs is another matter: The Avalanche’s bottom six failed to score a single goal over the course of a seven-game playoff series in which Colorado was favored. There’s at least one team out there bound to get hasty. Compher ($3.5 million x four years) and Evan Rodrigues ($2 million x one year), the headliners of a forward lineup in flux, both might have priced themselves out of Colorado’s range last season - especially because they’re surrounded by what is widely considered a weak NHL free agency class. The Avalanche’s other prominent pending UFA situations seem destined to play out similarly. He was on a seven-year deal worth $42 million. A dramatic pay cut would be necessary for Johnson, 35, to return for a 14th season with the same team. The Avs aren’t in position to re-sign the veteran defenseman, taking into account the team’s salary cap space and the $6 million AAV standard set by Johnson’s expiring contract. Start with the end of an era: Erik Johnson is expected to try the open market as an unrestricted free agent July 1, a source told The Post, confirming a report Thursday by ESPN’s Emily Kaplan. Then there’s the Avalanche, comforted by a familiar nucleus but faced with the increasing likelihood that their roster’s depth could look very different, very soon. The defining stretch of the NHL offseason is arriving with the draft and free agency days apart - events that will shape some organizations’ cores for years to come. Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close Menu
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