avalanche news
Drouin Is Back! Avalanche To Re-Sign Winger For One Year
The Colorado Avalanche have found a way to keep the Halifax boys together for at least one more season.
According to multiple NHL Insiders, the Avalanche and Jonathan Drouin have agreed on a one-year contract that will keep the 29 year old winger in Colorado for another season. With Colorado’s cap issues, a one-year deal allows both sides to keep this relationship going and maybe find a longer-term solution next summer when there’s a little more clarity with the situations involving Gabriel Landeskog and Valeri Nichushkin.
According to The Athletic’s Pierre Lebrun, it will be at $2.5 million per season. A huge bargain considering some of the contracts being thrown around today. UPDATE: As expected, the Avalanche confirmed the deal about an hour later.
Because it’s a one-year deal, Drouin will be eligible to sign a contract extension with the Avalanche on January 1. Drouin is coming off a career best season where he posted 56 points in 79 games. He was injured in the final regular season game of the year, but returned against Dallas and picked up three assists in three games.
Quite frankly, the Avalanche needed to get something like this done to stay competitive next year. With the uncertainty at wing, bringing back Drouin at a reasonable number gives Nathan MacKinnon a linemate he works well with to start the year. Both Artturi Lehkonen and Logan O’Connor will be coming off major surgeries by the time training camp opens up. MacKinnon recently called Drouin the best teammate he’s ever had, and that will continue for at least one more year.
Chris MacFarland is scheduled to speak to the local media later today at Family Sports Center, and we’ll see if Colorado makes any additional moves on July 1. We’ll have a heck of a lot more on this contract in the near future, but for now, Colorado has made one of the smarter moves you’ll see today.
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Salary Cap Leaves Avalanche In Pickle With Jonathan Drouin
Good deal. Interesting to see who will be in top 6.
Lekhonen mack moose drouin mittelstadt
That’s all we have as top guys unless the move colton to 2nd line.
Great work by the Avs’ brass. This is the best way to keep him while not committing long term with the precarious situation the Avs are in cap wise. We get another year to see if Drouin can stay healthy and repeat his success while not overpaying for it. One of the smartest contracts we have seen all day and it looks like we are keeping Colton so it all worked out.
Tidy piece of business by CMac right there. For sure Landy’s situation will be resolved by next summer and hopefully Val is off the books by then as well. Shows a lot of faith and trust toward the organization.since this is realistically his last shot at large longer term contract.
Fantastic news.
Great job by C-Mac to keep him from signing for several years with someone else and have the chance to to something bigger next summer. The Avs really needed him back for all the reasons you mentioned.
So 1.8 million for a 3LD and maybe a 4th liner.
Still need top 6 player.
Lekhonen LOC landy all have injuries and landy is the one who plans on playing this year.
Lehky & LOC should be back training camp. Wood has looked pretty good since he had similar hip surgery.
Avs may sign Teuvo Teräväinen.
Dude went to hawks
Hawks signed him for 3 years for $16.2m🤣
Wonderful move. And, perhaps the salary cap issues will be better determined after January 1, 2025. Good for Drouin, good for the organization and definitely good for Mac, who has been very vocal about keeping Drouin with the Avs. Nothing but positives for this move by all parties.
Speaking mostly objectively, this was probably the best deal of the day. Signed a guy perfect for the system with a great rapport with the core of the team, and did it for a fraction of what he’s worth. I’m sure he got better offers elsewhere, but clearly wanted to run it back in Denver!
The Avs got him at THEIR number. And good for them for not budging. I’ve heard people say he gave the Avs a discount, that’s pretty naive to believe. If 2.5 was all it was going to take this would’ve got done weeks ago. The market clearly wasn’t what he thought it would be. Especially since he took another 1 year deal. I think teams looked at Drouin’s success this past year more as a byproduct of playing with MacKinnon, Rantanen & being on an elite top PP unit. I still have my reservations that he can stay healthy for… Read more »
Great to see Drouin back and at a great price, but the question becomes how the team fills out their lineup with the remaining cap space. Nichushkin’s cap will be adjusted for missing the first month of the season at a maximum cap of $5.23 million. If you add that to this lineup, you are left with $3.07 million: Drouin-MacKinnon-Rantanen Landeskog-Mittelstadt-Lehkonen Wood-Colton-O’Connor Toews-Makar Girard-Manson Georgiev-Annunen Five players at a minimum salary of $775K is $3.875 million. Just adding Malinski, Kovalenko, Foudy, and Wagner cost $3.37 million, with another defenseman needed. If the signing of Kiviranta is at the league minimum,… Read more »
I’d put colton on 2nd line.
Put landy foudy LOC
Wood wagner kovalenko
Cant just put landy in top 6 when he hasn’t played for 2 years.
With the signing of Drouin, Kiviranta, and DeHaan, the Avs have basically reached the cap with the 4C position open. Just filling in all the spots the Avs have a player: Drouin-MacKinnon-Rantanen Landeskog-Mittelstadt-Lehkonen/Nichushkin Wood-Colton-O’Connor Kovalenko-xxxx-Kiviranta Toews-Makar Girard-Manson De Haan-Malinski Georgiev-Annunen The cap hit for this is $87.78 million. The only way the Avs could fill out the lineup is to trade someone or not count Landeskog or Nichushkin’g cap hit. A possibility I thought of, is that Landeskog may not return until Nichushkin does and his cap hit is resolved. Landeskog would just remain on LTIR until the team has… Read more »
I like it! As long as Landy meets the NHL LTIR criteria. That shouldn’t be hard based on his injury, surgeries, and rehab. The other wild card is that he’s jonsing to comeback sooner than later and can’t wait for Nuke’s deal to play out. CMac said over the weekend that Landy will be back on the team as soon as he says he’s ready to go.
Huge! Most important deal of the offseason (barring ridiculousness)
Drouin was about 50% of the time a top 3 forward last year. For that price? Absolutely.
This is not to say Drouin made a bad deal.. We can infer he was not getting 7 x 7M offers. Teams will question: one year flash? did the team environment enable the stats? One year deal. Bets on himself to earn bigger lettuce next year. McFarland said at the presser Drouin was good for the Avs, but also vice versa. That was clearly the pitch to the agent, and it landed. Great job.
It’s gratifying to see someone base a salary decision on more factors than money. Drouin has actually gotten paid pretty well over his carreer and by most standards is set for life. There was a lot of talk about his contracts as stinkers in the past. Finding a team environment that helped him recover his enthusiasm for the game has been a great for him and us fans and is a perk he wouldn’t find elsewhere. I think his recovery from anxiety will cintinue to provide benefits in his physical durability. The odds certainly do not favor Nicushkin finding an… Read more »
This is really thoughtful and well written as well. While I do not feel the Avs chances at this point are anywhere near “dire”, this piece helps illuminate Nichushkin’s situation very well.