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Colorado Avalanche: The Gabriel Landeskog Situation

By Nadia Archuleta

DENVER, CO - MAY 17: Gabriel Landeskog #92 of the Colorado Avalanche warms up prior to Game One of the First Round of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs against the St Louis Blues at Ball Arena on May 17, 2021 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images)
DENVER, CO - MAY 17: Gabriel Landeskog #92 of the Colorado Avalanche warms up prior to Game One of the First Round of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs against the St Louis Blues at Ball Arena on May 17, 2021 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images) /
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Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog is unsigned and unprotected. Should Avs fans be worried?

The Colorado Avalanche did not protect captain Gabriel Landeskog for the expansion draft taking place tomorrow, and that has caused some Avs fans to lose their minds. They think the captain is going to go to the Seattle Kraken.

The fact that the Avalanche have also not signed Landeskog has fans further losing their minds. They think the captain is going to walk to test the free agency market.

Either scenario is possible. However, they’re both unlikely. I would bet good money Landeskog will be back in burgundy and blue next season with the C proudly on his chest.

The Avalanche and Landeskog have had plenty of time to form a relationship with each other — ever since the rugged winger was drafted in 2011. He made the team out of training camp, and has played for no other NHL team since. For seven seasons, Joe Sakic has been his GM. The Avs and Landy know each other well.

Hard-nosed hockey sorts will state that hockey is a business, and players are always out for the biggest payday they can get. That’s true and not true. You only have to look at our own superstar, Nathan MacKinnon, to know players make exceptions. He’s making $6.3 million over the next two seasons despite being our hands-down best player and top-3 in the entire NHL. He chose a longer contract with Colorado over a bridge deal. Had he chosen the latter, he’d be making a LOT more money now.

He chose to win with this group.

I firmly believe Landeskog wants the same. Sure, he wants to make stupid money. Who doesn’t? However, he is a long-tenured captain of a team that is on the cusp of winning what every hockey player dreams about their whole life — the Stanley Cup. There are few teams who are as poised as the Avs to win that trophy, and the others have the same sorts of salary restrictions that Colorado does.

In other words, Landeskog has loyalty to the Avs, but perhaps even more significantly, he has the chance to make his lifelong dream come true with this team. If he accepts a big payout from a rebuilding team, he may lose his window.

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And he will definitely lose his captaincy, at least at first. Unless he went to the Kraken, Landeskog would go back to being something he hasn’t been in almost nine years — just a player. Landeskog was groomed from childhood to be a captain, so he’d be unlikely to want to give that role up.

More to the point, Avs insider Adrian Dater has stated that the team and Landeskog likely have a gentleman’s agreement. They leave him unprotected during the expansion draft so the team can protect another player to keep their depth. (Surprisingly, that player turned out to be Logan O’Conner — none of us saw that coming.) The Avs reward him with a sweet deal that only partially includes a “hometown discount.”

Landeskog could have it all — great (if not actually stupid) money, his captaincy, a legitimate shot at the Cup. Oh, and he gets to stay with the only franchise he’s ever known, a desire he has stated firmly in the past.

So, am I worried about the Landeskog situation? Surprisingly, no. Landy is my favorite Colorado Avalanche captain ever (no shade to Joe — obviously, he’s in a different league as a player). Yet I firmly believe a plan is in place to keep Landeskog on the team.

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