NHL Free Agency: Colorado Avalanche Targets After Draft

After months of build-up, the 2015 NHL Entry Draft is officially over. However, that does not mean that there is a summer hole coming up. What is coming up, is the NHL free agency, which will be another really important time for the Colorado Avalanche.

Back in May, I already had a first look at who the Avalanche should target in free agency, but the draft has of course shaken things up a bit. On the bright side, one of my targets from back then has already signed a contract with the Avs — Carl Soderberg.

My plans with him would have been to have him in the lineup centering the third line and allow John Mitchell to move down to the fourth, but the Avalanche has other things planned with him. Judging by his contract (five years, $4.75 million cap hit), the plan seems to be to let Soderberg play on the second line, as Ryan O’Reilly’s immediate successor.

Furthermore, I had Jan Hejda listed as a target in NHL free agency. The plan here was to sign him to a cheap one-year contract and let him play on the second D-pairing for another year. However, the Avalanche acquired Nikita Zadorov from Buffalo in the O’Reilly deal, which fills that hole Hejda could have filled.

Therefore, the targets have changed a bit — and here they are.

Next: NHL free agency target #5