Colorado Avalanche keep Drouin, add De Haan and Kelly on Day 1 of NHL Free Agency

Colorado Avalanche keep Drouin, add De Haan and Kelly on Day 1 of NHL Free Agency

day one of NHL free agency is for the most part in the books and the Colorado Avalanche had a day that I would call extremely cap conscious where they added a number of Fringe pieces of the NHL lineup to their organization the one nonf Fringe piece they added was bringing back Jonathan druin on a oneyear $2.5 million deal and that may be the most cost efficient contract signed by any team in the league it’s extremely good business from the ABS not just to get Jonathan drwan back but to get him on that number as a 56-point player this season to get him that cheap is just crazy drwan will continue to play a key role in the ABS top six this season and continue to be probably the most cost- effective player on the team even with a significant raise from that 800k he probably could have been making four four and a half maybe even 5 million had he chose to go elsewhere instead he stays here in Colorado and becomes a guy who takes a significant discount to help the elves build out their entire roster next up the AL signed Calvin D Han to a one-year 800k deal right off the top with a deal like that it doesn’t really matter how this goes this was a solid shot for Colorado danan is a solid defensive D who’s very experienced around the league very easy for the ABS to drop in on their third pairing where he should be able to play a shutdown role both preventing Zone entries at the Blue Line the way the ABS like to play defense but also adding a little bit more phys physicality in battle and their ability to defend in zone which they struggle with at times he also should provide better Puck moving ability than someone like Jack Johnson on that bottom pair even if you can’t really expect very much offense out of him all in all if those were the only two moves the AVS made today I still think it would have been a good day on top of that they add yel kir ranta returning for another year at a league minimum deal personally I like him more as a 13th forward the EVS probably see him in their NHL line up as a fourth line guy but as long as he stays that he’s perfectly serviceable there he’s a guy who knows the ab systems they are familiar with and someone that has earned the coach’s trust particularly in the playoffs someone that Bednar liked to go to so he’s a guy that’ll end up in the ABS lineup and be fine for you in the fourth line then late in the day the ABS added Parker Kelly to play on their fourth line as well he’s technically listed as a center in some places but he’s not don’t take the bait on that he plays left wing and he can’t win a face off to save his life what Parker Kelly does do is play high-end defense at that fourth line level very good at shutting down teams at five on five and maybe more importantly even better than that on the penalty kill the ABS forward core has desperately needed some guys to join that penalty kill and Kelly will be one of them he’s not going to give you hardly any offense at all though so the ABS are going to lack some scoring in their forward depth at least on that fourth line but it should be able to shut down teams pretty darn effectively in Kelly’s case he signed a 2-year deal at 825k so it seems like the ABS expect him to be that PK shutdown roll guy on their fourth line for two years those are the guys that really I’m confident will have significant NHL impact for the ABS on the signings for today there are a couple of other guys though including Jacob McDonald obviously McDonald has been here before he’s not really a full time NHL but he can be a part-time one and maybe most importantly he plays both defense and forward so if the abs are looking to save a little bit on the edges and fractions of the cap here he can be that one guy who scratched that can play both positions realistically he’s probably going to spend a lot of time in Loveland with the Colorado Eagles but he can be a bit of a safety blanket scratch the ABS can call up for road trips and things like that he will likely get into games this year I’m just not sure how many beyond that the ABS added some extreme depth guys to their roster that includes CI Rosen another guy who used to play here there’s a possibility he could get into games depending on where he falls on the defensive depth chart is he behind or ahead of melinsky personally I hope he’s behind melinsky as an eight or maybe even a nine in Colorado’s system but I’m not sure the ABS see it that way and then they added TJ tinan AHL scoring depth would be pretty hard to see him getting to the NHL but never Say Never and lastly the ABS add Chase Bradley as a college UFA out of Yukon had 22 points in 30 games in college not the type of guy that jumps straight to the NHL this season he’ll likely need at least one full year in the AHL but a good bit of death work to add a prospect at just 22 years old a bit younger than some of these guys that come out as College ufas he could be a guy to watch in Loveland and according to my podcast partner AJ Hayley his path should be really similar to Logan Conor if things go well and we all know how much everybody in the ABS loves Logan oconor so overall the ABS did a good bit of business around their lineup you can see it here they still do have some work to do at minimum they need to add one defenseman whether it’s that sixth or if Sam molinsky is that sixth they need to add a legitimate seventh they need to add one forward that can at least Moonlight in the top six eventually Landis or nushin or both may help fill that role but it to start the season someone’s going to fill that and realistically they probably need to add A4 c as well Wagner can fill in that role as a pinch but he probably shouldn’t be your everyday guy so that leads two forwards and one defenseman you also probably need a third goalie but that won’t count against the cap because he’ll be in the AHL unless you call him up because of injury and with all of the work the ABS did today including Landis skog’s contract not including NuSkin contract the AVS sit at just over 5.5 million more dollars of cap space that is is more than enough to add the three spots that they need to fill maybe even one more guy if you want to run some extra scratches but this is a complicated situation for Colorado they’re going to have to spend some of that money but come mid November things are going to get weird with Val NuSkin hearing coming up I don’t know how Val nichushkin hearing is going to play out if the NHL doesn’t clear him his money stays off the books and the ABS really don’t even have to think about it all that much as far as the cap is concerned but if he does come back onto the books if the NHL clears him and his cap starts to count again the ABS are going to have to do some stuff maybe that stuff is Landis goog is on ltir and is just not playing that would fit the entirety of Val’s contract maybe it’s that they’re terminating Val’s contract or trading it or buying it out I don’t know but in the immediate it feels like the ABS should spend this money or at least most of this money to fill out their roster and make it as effective as possible possible and then deal with whatever comes with that situation in mid November when they get there ultimately with these question marks in the cap of Landis Scag and nushin hanging over their head I really have to give Chris McFarland a lot of credit he made a lot of smart money moves and helped the ABS fill out that roster pretty darn effectively on day one there’s still more work to do and ultimately the entire body of what they do will decide how we feel about the ABS this off season so this is far from over but so far I feel pretty good about it

The Avalanche were smart with their money on Day 1 of Free Agency signing Calvin De Haan, Parker Kelly, and Jacob MacDonald all to deals worth less than one million, with their big fish being Jonathan Drouin returning on a fantastic deal.

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