Colorado Avalanche Free Agency: Ian Cole to Join Team

The Colorado Avalanche signed defenseman Ian Cole as soon as free agency opened up, a move few saw coming.

The Colorado Avalanche made a ninja move on Free Agency Frenzy morning — I’m pretty sure they must have cell disrupters around their offices because there were no Bernier rumblings last year and no Cole rumblings this year.

That’s right, the Colorado Avalanche signed Ian Cole as a free agent as soon as the window opened up. According to Darren Dreger (and Cap Friendly), the contract is for three years. Let’s look below at what we got.

Ian Cole

Age: 29
Position: Defenseman
Shoots: Left
Height: 6’1″
Weight: 219
Contract: 3 years, $4.25 per year
Previous team: Columbus Blue Jackets

I told you all the Avs and BJs were thick as thieves. Colorado uses Washington to develop their goalies and Columbus to develop other players for them.

The Colorado Avalanche acquired a good shut-down defenseman who can chip in a bit of offense — he had 20 points (5 goals, 15 assists) in 67 games with Columbus last season.

Ian Cole doesn’t offer a lot of high-end skill, but he can be an adequate puck-mover. He also plays a physical brand of hockey. And before you say that’s irrelevant in today’s NHL, you should know that Cole has two Stanley Cup rings from his days with the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Ian Cole and the Colorado Avalanche

It certainly looks like Ian Cole is an upgrade on a defenseman the Colorado Avalanche were thinking about bringing back, Patrik Nemeth:

The Avalanche offered Nemeth a qualifying offer, but a deal hasn’t been done yet. Since they’ve extended a qualifying offer, they must sign him if he agrees to their offer. The offer must have been at least $945,000 based on his previous salary.

Here’s Cole compared to another Avs defenseman, Mark Barberio, who just signed a two-year contract with the team:

Bit of an upgrade there, too.

So, what that means is that the Colorado Avalanche have some defensive depth. Did you hear that, Avs Nation? Colorado doesn’t suck at the blueline anymore.

Free Agency Tracker

In other Avs-related free agency news, some former players have been signed by other teams. The first two are simple terrible:

• Jonathan Bernier to Detroit (3 years, $3 million per)
• Andrew Hammond to Minnesota (unconfirmed at the time of writing)

Really? What did we do to those two that they signed with our mortal enemies? (No, best of luck to them, actually. Just not against us.)

We’ve also got Blake Comeau heading to the Dallas Stars (3 years, $2.4 million per). Good for him, too.

Paul Stastny continues to get overpaid. He’s heading to Vegas for the next three years. The 32-year-old, often-broken center will be making $6.5 million per year. Yikes — glad we stayed away from that.

The Colorado Avalanche may be making one more NHL addition today, though it’s yet to be officially announced:

We already wrote a free agency profile exploring how Matt Calvert could fit in with the team:

Next: Matt Calvert as an Avalanche

However, this is less encouraging:

Hopefully he rests up and gets rejuvenated for next season. And if not — the Avs will just plug one of the younger guys in, or maybe Colin Wilson.

Anyway, expect the Colorado Avalanche to make some AHL-level moves the rest of the day. They have to fill the Colorado Eagles and Utah Grizzlies coffers. I’d expect a goalie and a couple forwards and defensemen, nothing too crazy.