Adrian Dater
Well, I guess we know now that the Colorado Avalanche didn’t have any interest in getting Paul Stastny back, to possibly fill the second-line center spot vacated by Nazem Kadri. Stastny today signed a one-year, $1.5 million free-agent contract with the Carolina Hurricanes.
That’s a salary number the Avalanche could have afforded, as they have about $2.4 million in available cap space. But the 36-year-old Stastny is off the market now. The former Avalanche center had 21 goals and 45 points for Winnipeg last season.
There aren’t too many viable free agents still out there to realistically seem to have any shot at playing on an Avalanche second line.
Evan Rodrigues is still out there, but he’s 29 and his scoring production in his NHL career (129 points in 316 games) doesn’t exactly jump off the page.
Folks, I think what’s going to happen now is something I and others have speculated about recently: I think the Avalanche are going to start the season with what they currently have. That could mean Mikko Rantanen is your new No. 2 center. It might mean Alex Newhook is your new No. 2 center. It might mean someone like Ben Meyers has an awesome camp and gets an on-the-job audition for the spot. Hey, maybe J.T. Compher too.
If it’s not working out, I would expect the Avalanche to say, “OK, we’ll get Kadri’s real No. 2 center replacement more toward the trade deadline.”
I never really thought Stastny would come here, as the Avalanche have been fairly particular who plays on those top two lines the last few years. They want, or at least it seems, for them to be young, fast players with lots of runway still left in their careers. Stastny, never a speed demon to begin with, doesn’t fit that profile.
Training camp isn’t too far away, so we’ll know more about the plans of Jared Bednar and Avalanche management on the No. 2 center job then. Until then, it’s still something of a guessing game.