Colorado Avalanche steal Ryan Johansen from Predators

The Colorado Avalanche have traded a minor-league prospect for a player who has been around quite a bit longer than the former. Gone is Alex Galchenyuk to the Nashville Predators for center Ryan Johansen. Johansen has played for the Predators for the past eight seasons following a five-year run with the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Galchenyuk appeared in 11 games for the Avalanche last year and scored a grand total of zero points. Not just goals. Points. He also had a plus-minus of minus-eight.

Johansen will fill the role of second-line center as, currently, Evan Rodrigues is set to hit the open market and could end up being outside of the team’s price range, although that’s just speculation on my part. The move of acquiring Johansen could signal that the Avalanche might feel the same way.

The big plus in Johansen’s history is his faceoff abilities. Although he only played in 55 games last year, he won 59.3 percent of his faceoffs, the highest percentage of his career.

Unfortunately, Johansen missed 12 weeks because of a leg injury. The blade of a player’s skate hit Johansen’s leg against the Vancouver Canucks, causing the injury. The injury was classified as “acute compartment syndrome of the left thigh.”

As Ryan Johansen is on the other side of 30, the Colorado Avalanche are still going to need to search for players who can fill that second line center position in the future. It’s unknown how much more Johansen has left in the tank. It’s possible that this acquisition does not stop them from going with a center in the first round of the 2023 NHL Draft.

A positive thing to note about this acquisition is the fact that the Predators are retaining 50 percent of Johansen’s salary. If that wasn’t the case, would the Avalanche have still made this deal? Maybe, maybe not. But right now, it’s a huge victory for Colorado.