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Avalanche Season In Review: Rodrigues Provided Great Value; Can They Retain Him?

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Rodrigues Avalanche nhl

With the season for the Colorado Avalanche complete, it’s time to take a look back at the individual players and how they performed.



Next up is Evan Rodrigues.

Let’s take a look at his numbers from this season.

Games: 69

Goals: 16

Assists: 23

Points: 39

CF%: 55.94%

TOI: 17:51 per game

The Avalanche signed Rodrigues in early September after he sat on the market for a few months, and got a pretty sweet deal out of it. Making just $2 million this season, he was a bargain for what he provided to Colorado.

It was a bit of a slow start for him, adjusting to a new team and all. He started to hit his stride in early November, but that quickly ended, as a flukey knee injury took him out of the lineup for a few weeks. He returned and kept producing, only to leave the lineup again.

When he came back into the lineup in January, he was put on a line with Nathan MacKinnon, and their chemistry was apparent from the get-go. They worked off each other really well, made space for each other, and Rodrigues did a great job of hitting MacKinnon with speed. That continued away from games as well, as the two would work in unison at practice frequently.

Consistency was an issue for him, like it was the year before in Pittsburgh. After the All-Star break, he hit a dip in his play, going 11 games without a goal and picking up just a single assist in that timeframe. Those ebbs and flows continued, but that’s been the M.O. with him for years, so it wasn’t a surprise.

In the end, he produced at a higher pace than he ever has in his previous years, far outperforming the contract he signed. In the postseason, he was one of the few non-star forwards who stepped up, which including increasing his physical play. He finished with five points in seven games, and after Game Seven against the Kraken, sounded like a player who wanted to stick around.

Season Grade: B+

Rodrigues was up and down with production and his play, but that had to be expected from a player who was thrust into a bigger role than he was probably suited for. He averaged almost two minutes more per game than he did with the Penguins, but did manage to score at a better pace. Considering how little he cost, the Avalanche got their money’s worth.

In a perfect world, he’d be a great middle-six player for the team, but you could tell he was a little above his head at times when playing on the top line. Moving forward, he’d be a great utility player for the Avalanche to retain if the two parties can find some common ground. I have to imagine that’s something both sides would like to see happen.

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