Adrian Dater
Other than going to a conference final as a regular D-man and playing on national television, living in a bubble for nearly two months, getting traded to another team, getting married, going on a honeymoon and signing a rich new four-year contract with his new team, it’s been a quiet last few months for Devon Toews.
“The whirlwind,” is how the newest Av described his recent past.
Toews can relax a little now, armed with the security of a new four-year, $16.4 million contract. The Avs now have a 26-year-old left-shot D-man who can play locked up for four years – an eternity in this sudden dystopian NHL world where time and space don’t seem to matter anymore.
“We’re excited to have Devon under contract for the next four years,” said Avalanche Executive Vice President / General Manager Joe Sakic. “As I said when we acquired him, Devon is a smart, two-way, puck-moving defenseman who is a durable defender and is excellent in transition.”
Selected by the Islanders in the fourth round (108th overall) of the 2014 NHL Draft, Toews has recorded 46 points (11g/35a) in 116 career NHL regular-season contests and added 15 points (3g/12a) in 30 Stanley Cup playoff games.
The question moving forward: Is Toews going to be worth this kind of money? Did the Avs overpay a little for a guy who, good season and all with the Islanders, still doesn’t have a very big body of work overall as an NHL player? Were his defensive numbers inflated some, because he played for a defensive mastermind coach, Barry Trotz?
We’ll start to find out this coming season, of course, whenever that starts (I keep hearing Feb. 1 is more realistic than Jan. 1, thanks to our ever-growing Covid numbers).
Here’s what I think: I think Toews will do just fine with the Avs. Yeah, losing the mentorship of Trotz is a blow to any defenseman (the man is a true genius when it comes to defensive schemes), but I’ve seen enough tape of him now to believe that he’ll be able to fit in well with a fast team like the Avs, a team that likes to get the puck and go.
Toews is a guy who can make that good first outlet pass, and he’s got enough size and strength to where he can play a muck-and-grind game too. No, he’s not Rob Blake when it comes to pure physicality, but he’s not soft either.
Overall, I’m excited for the Toews era to begin. Toews me bro!
Toews is excited to be an Av too, but admitted in a Zoom call today that it was tough at first to hear the news he wouldn’t be an Islander anymore.
“There’s definitely an emotional side to it, with all the relationships and friends and stuff we’ve made here (in Long Island, where he did the call). We’re so grateful to the Islanders what they’ve done for us. We’re also so grateful for everything we’re going to have in Colorado,” Toews said. “Them trading for me and giving me a chance there. For Joe and his staff to put their faith in me for four years, we’re just so excited to settle down somewhere. It’s a crazy time right now, with a lot of moving parts in the league and the world in general. To kind of have that security, and know that we can settle down and try to start a family (in Colorado), without having to worry about moving around, is something we’re very excited about.”
My colleague Scott McDonald wrote a good column this morning, about what the Toews addition does to the status of Bo Byram. It almost certainly means Byram will spend another year in junior. I guess that’s OK, considering he’s still just a kid and all, though I do believe he’ll mostly just spin his wheels there. He’s not going to learn a lot playing more junior hockey.
After next season, Ian Cole will almost certainly depart the Avs and that will open up a spot for Byram. Erik Johnson’s status moving forward after next season is a big issue too. The Avs have to protect EJ in the Expansion Draft with Seattle, but not if they convince him to waive that clause and/or trade him first. Then, another spot opens up for a kid like Byram or Conor Timmins.
I expect the new Avs’ top six to look like this:
Graves-Makar
Girard-Toews
Cole-Johnson
We’ll see. It’s a damn good top six, on paper. The new season can’t come soon enough. If it ever comes.
(By the way, hopeful young hockey reporters out there: don’t leave your text notifications off early in the morning, like I did today. I had been working on the Toews contract story for a few days now, and at 8 a.m. today, got a text from a source saying the contract was done and would be announced later in the day. But I was snoring through it all. I woke up late – after the contract was announced, in fact – and so the scoop went bye-bye. Que sera sera, but news never sleeps – that’s the lesson of the day).