Film Room: Why Brännström Might Be The Next Avalanche Reclamation Project To Pay Off (+)

Having covered the NHL for almost a decade and watched it for much longer, I’ve seen many “can’t miss” prospects actually miss. It happens all the time for various reasons. For a handful of years, the Colorado Avalanche have participated in the Rookie Faceoff tournament that takes place right before training camp.

Perhaps the most dominant player I’ve seen the Avalanche rookies play against over the years is Erik Brännström, who was originally drafted by the Vegas Golden Knights. He oozed confidence and it seemed like the puck never left his stick in those games. I thought this guy was destined to become a star in the NHL.

That certainly has not happened.

In 2019, Brännström was the trade chip that Vegas used to acquire Mark Stone from the Ottawa Senators. Having just moved Erik Karlsson to San Jose the year before, Ottawa thought they had found their EK65 replacement in the former first round pick. Five years later, Ottawa let Brannstrom go for nothing, and he signed with the Avalanche on July 2.

Is Brännström the next reclamation project that finds success with the Avalanche? I’ve watched plenty of Ottawa over the years (they were my favorite team growing up), so I knew what was going on with the 24 year old defenseman, but for this film room, I watched every shift of his from seven Sens games last season. Maybe the Avalanche didn’t need another undersized defenseman, but especially at the cost of under $1 million, I think there’s a lot for them to work with here.

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