TRADE: Avalanche Get Ross Colton From Tampa Bay

We knew the Colorado Avalanche were not going to keep all those draft picks they got yesterday.

They didn’t even keep them all for 24 hours.

Ross Colton, who has been on both of our off-season trade boards, is now a member of the Avalanche. In return, Colorado is sending away the 37th overall pick in the 2023 draft that they acquired on Tuesday.

The Avalanche now enter Wednesday night’s draft still armed with two 1st round picks. We’ll see if they hang on to both, but the fact that they made this deal without giving up either is pretty remarkable, to be honest. At the moment, yesterday’s trade looks like Alex Newhook for Ross Colton and the 31st overall pick.

Not too bad.

As for Colton, he’s a bulldog around the net. He scored 16 goals during the 2022-23 season, just one year after scoring 22. He also scored the Cup clinching goal for the Tampa Bay Lightning back in 2021. He didn’t take a ton of face-offs, but finished at 56%.

The 26 year old is a restricted free agent, so the Avalanche will have to negotiate a contract extension with him. He’s a versatile player who can play either center or wing, but fits in with how Colorado wants to play.

Here's Colton's 2023-24 projection card. #GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/YvAxsJDtIl

— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) June 28, 2023

Here’s Avalanche GM Chris MacFarland’s comment on the trade:

“Ross is a hard-working, two-way center with a championship pedigree,” said Avalanche General Manager Chris MacFarland. “He has physicality to his game, is ultra competitive and his versatility will make him a valuable addition to our lineup in a lot of ways.”

We’ll have a lot more on this trade coming up on Colorado Hockey Now, but I’m not so sure the Avalanche are done. MacFarland has spent the first part of his off-season rebuilding a forward group that struggled behind their big guns. You can’t say he’s not trying.