Aarif Deen
The Avalanche didn’t want to trade Charlie Coyle. They liked having a strong core down the middle that rivals the best teams in the league.
But an opportunity to clear cap space came, and general manager Chris MacFarland plucked one of his centers off a roster that he really wanted to bring back.
“We believed in that group tremendously, and it still stings, I’m not gonna lie,” MacFarland said, speaking at Ball Arena during the first round of the decentralized NHL Draft.
Coyle is under contract for one more year at $5.25 million. Shedding his cap, along with Miles Wood’s $2.5 million, gives the Avs room to maneuver. Both are heading to Columbus.
Colorado has almost $9 million in cap space now, with quite a few bottom six roles to fill out and some questions on defense. Will they go out and find a replacement for Coyle?
Read More: Avs Still Have Work to Do After Coyle, Wood, and Brindley Trade
It doesn’t sound like it’s the priority.
“I think Jack Drury is an elite fourth line center, but he can play a bigger role for us. He’s got under-the-radar type skill,” MacFarland said. “What that line (with Parker Kelly and Logan O’Connor) did, they were dominant. If they have to play a bigger role at times, they certainly have shown that that’s a line that our coaches can use against any line at any time.”
Will they basically be the new third line?
“We’re going to try and replicate that (line) in the bottom six, as opposed to sort of a third and fourth line moniker. We’re looking for competitive guys that can play that type of tenacious type of game where we have the puck and hound it when we don’t.”
The Avs finally have a complete top six. Gabe Landeskog is healthy, Brock Nelson is locked up, and Valeri Nichushkin will be available to start the year. Assuming nothing else changes, it’s the strongest top-six they’ve had to start the year since 2021-22.
Does it hurt to lose talent in the bottom six? Yes, but the priority shouldn’t be on adding another big center. The defense needs a major shakeup and the added cap space, plus the pieces already under contract, should be used to change things up.
Read More: Report: Avalanche Among Teams Interested In Acquiring Bowen Byram
I’m not sure how the front office feels about Samuel Girard and Josh Manson. But I’d imagine it would be hard to bring both of them back, and add another notable defenseman, and fill out the other spots.
MacFarland noted that Sam Malinski will be qualified, and the team hopes to get something done with him soon. That says to me that he’s not going anywhere.
There’s also the thought that perhaps the Avs would be interested in re-signing Ryan Lindgren. If that’s the case, you have to imagine at least one of Manson or Girard are gone.
Colorado has a lot of talent at forward and have done a great job identifying players like Parker Kelly and Drury. If they can continue to find players of that ilk, with perhaps a little more scoring, it would make it a lot easier to spend what’s left of the cap space on the defense.
Also: “We’ve got (Zakhar) Bardakov coming over, so we’re excited to see what he can do in that mix in training camp,” MacFarland said.
I’m curious if the Avs are going to dip their toes into free agency. Not just for depth, but for a bigger name. Adding, for example, one of Ivan Provorov or Vladislav Gavrikov would change the outlook of their bottom two pairs. It also means that they’d be able to recoup assets for Girard or Manson without needing to use those assets on their replacement. But it also means a bigger contract after what’s likely going to be a bidding war for their services.
Basically, there’s a lot that’s yet to be determined. Saturday could give us a better picture of where the team goes from here. If not, it would be wise to keep an eye on updates between now and Tuesday.