NASHVILLE – The Colorado Avalanche took a significant step Friday to gaining the financial flexibility needed to make a splash before the NHL trade deadline later this week.
Now the two big questions are who can the Avs realistically target and how can they get a deal (or deals) done by the afternoon of March 8? Colorado has one of the best teams in the NHL, but Dallas, Winnipeg and Vancouver have already made significant trades, while Vegas and Edmonton have reportedly been actively looking for help as well.
“We’ve seen it and I’m sure our management has seen it,” Avs forward Mikko Rantanen said. “Teams in the West are loading up and getting stronger. I’m sure they know exactly what we need.”
Moving Kurtis MacDermid’s contract to New Jersey for a prospect and seventh-round pick opened up a significant amount of wiggle room, provided the Avs are willing and able to get creative. Every dollar available can essentially be turned into two or even four by getting the original trade partner to retain half of a player’s salary, and then inducing a third team to eat half of what’s left.
With MacDermid’s contract off the books and the Avs at 21 players on the active roster, they have $2,229,257 available but also the ability to double or even quadruple that with the right touches to a transaction. Avalanche coach Jared Bednar even noted the cap gymnastics trend when discussing deadline moves after practice Friday.
He also spoke about not wanting to have to yield a player from the current roster, but that it could be possible given the circ*mstances. MacDermid, who was traded a few hours after practice ended, was a very popular player with his teammates and within the organization.
“You’d love to just be able to add and make your group better, but oftentimes someone goes the other way because of different pieces or to create flexibility and that sucks because we like all the guys that we have,” Bednar said. “They’ve been a big part of not just the success we’ve had this year but from years past. It’s hard to see but it is part of the business.”
While the Avs have created enough financial flexibility to add an impact player or two without needing to trade a roster player, Colorado does not have the same war chest of assets to trade from as other contenders.
The Avs can have the desire to swing a big trade, but they are going to need to outbid other teams. They do not have a second- or third-round pick in the 2024 NHL draft, and that’s already reportedly come into play.
Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic and TSN reported the Avs were one of the teams in pursuit of defenseman Chris Tanev, who went to rival Dallas from Calgary with a 2024 second-rounder as the key piece in the deal. LeBrun reported that one team offered a first-round pick with the caveat of taking a contract back. The Flames chose the Stars’ offer instead.
Colorado’s best non-roster assets are its 2024 first and three quality prospects – Calum Ritchie, Mikhail Gulyayev and the University of Denver’s Sean Behrens. Ritchie and Gulyayev are the consensus top two, but Behrens has made big strides for the Pios and another club could see him as closer to being NHL-ready.
Teams are typically loath to trade their best prospects, but the Avs’ pool is pretty shallow after years as a buyer at this time of year. And this management team has made serious deadline moves. Two years ago, they traded two good prospects, Justin Barron and Drew Helleson, to land Artturi Lehkonen and Josh Manson en route to a Stanley Cup.
If one or two of those four assets isn’t enough to land an impact player, the most valuable piece general manager Chris MacFarland has could be defenseman Bo Byram, particularly for a selling team that isn’t in full-on rebuilding mode.
“There’s always going to be speculation around this time of year about different players,” Byram said. “As a player, it’s kind of cliche but it’s out of your control. It’s not that you never think about it. It kind of goes through your mind every once in a while, but you just stay focused and keep trying to play your best.”
The Avs have arguably the best defense corps in the league. Moving Byram and just replacing him with Sam Malinski or Caleb Jones might help get the Avs an impact forward, but the group would no longer be the league’s best. It also could be inevitable that Byram or Samuel Girard has to be traded at some point in the future because of salary cap complications anyway.
But it would be hard for any team to part with a young, promising talent like Byram, especially before a potential Stanley Cup run.
“It’s hard. Being a GM, it’s a very hard job,” Rantanen said. “I kind of tip my cap to them. At this time of year, it’s probably so busy for them. You don’t want to lose teammates, but it’s a business. But yeah, I’m sure ‘C-Mac’ is working on all the calls and trying to figure it out.”
Colorado’s involvement in the Tanev sweepstakes might have offered some insight into what the Avs are thinking as the deadline approaches. Adding Tanev seems like a luxury at first blush, given the strength of the defense corps and that the obvious need seems to be at forward and particularly center.
But the Avs lead the NHL in goals per game, while also leading the top Cup contenders in goals conceded per game. Tanev is a high-end defensive defenseman.
If Ryan Johansen was the contract going the other way, it’s also likely Colorado was trying to make two moves – one for Tanev and then one for a center to replace Johansen. And without the 2024 first available, it’s plausible Byram could be part of a package for the right No. 2 center.
Moving MacDermid gives the Avs the financial flexibility to still do two moves like that. Whether or not they could pull off a double dose of upgrades as they did in 2022 — without needing to part with Byram or Girard — will be fascinating to monitor for both the short- and long-term ramifications.
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