REPORT: Avalanche Will Not Qualify Denis Malgin…Here’s Why

With a flat cap, more and more teams are having to make tougher decisions when it comes to who gets qualifying offers and who does not. It appears the Colorado Avalanche have had to make one of those tough decisions.

Denis Malgin, who scored 11 goals in 42 games after being acquired by the Avalanche, is not going to get a qualifying offer, as first reported by Peter Baugh with The Athletic.

Had wondered if this would be the case. Malgin scored at a nice clip and would have had a decent arbitration case. https://t.co/xWEIBrBc3J

— Evan Rawal (@evanrawal) June 28, 2023

Colorado is usually one of the last teams to release their list of who got qualified and who did not, and the deadline for qualifying offers is June 30, but there’s no reason not to trust Peter on this one.

On the surface, this is a strange move, but as I mentioned in the tweet, it really just came down to one thing.

Arbitration.

A qualifying offer for Malgin would have been $787,500. That’s nothing. But at 26, Malgin had arbitration rights, and coming off a career best season in terms of goals, he likely would have filed for arbitration to get the best deal for himself. 11 goals in 42 games with Colorado is nothing to sneeze at. That’s a 21 goal pace over the course of a full season, and if I had to guess, he could have been awarded anywhere from $1.75-2 million in arbitration.

That’s not a commitment Colorado wanted to make.

With J.T. Compher headed for free agency, and Evan Rodrigues likely following suit, the Avalanche have bigger holes to fill. And to fill those holes, they’ll need to pinch pennies near the bottom of the lineup. Malgin was a nice surprise last season, particularly for the final 30 games or so, but he’s not going to be a part of the long-term plans for the team. Rather than qualify him and try to negotiate a deal before arbitration, it makes more sense to just cut ties completely…for now.

This doesn’t mean Malgin can’t come back. He could hit the market and realize nothing else is out there, but a return does seem unlikely. And after the performance of the bottom six in the playoffs, it seems like the Avalanche are not going to be afraid to change the make-up of that group for next year. Can you blame them for that? They got nothing from that group, and given how tight the series was, a goal or two here and there could have been the difference.

The changes have already started with the addition of Ross Colton and subtraction of Alex Newhook, but that won’t be the end of it.

Farewell, Malginator. You were a fun player to watch, and way more confident with the puck than you probably should be. I wish you well, and hopefully you can find a job elsewhere.