The Colorado Avalanche made a trade on Friday afternoon/evening, trading away two players and acquiring one player as well as some draft capital. That wasn’t all that they did on the opening night of the 2025 NHL Draft.
On what has been a primarily quiet night (as expected), the Avalanche quietly made an in-organization move by qualifying defenseman Sam Malinski, who was the biggest name of their restricted free agents this offseason.
MacFarland said the team is going to qualify Sam Malinski and "hope to get something done with him" in the near future.
— Aarif Deen (@runwriteAarif) June 28, 2025
Malinski saw his ice time skyrocket in the 2024-25 season. In 2023-24, he played in just 23 games, averaging 14:14 of ice time in that amount of games. His role greatly increased for this past season, as he played in 76 games, and averaging just under 16 minutes a night.
Malinski finished the season with five goals and 10 assists, while also boasting a plus-minus of 11. He also shot the puck 115 times, a major increase than his inaugural season with the Avalanche, when he had just 31 shots. As a defenseman, it’s not all the time where you’re asked to shoot the puck, but in the Avalanche’s system, it’s more than welcomed.
As it is draft season, I’ve talked a lot about how being a late-round draft pick puts odds against a player in a huge way. It’s even worse odds for undrafted players, which Malinski was. He joined the Colorado Eagles for the 2022-23 season and has only improved since then.
The Avalanche qualifying Malinski is a great decision. It not only fills a hole, but it also keeps around an offensive defenseman. I’d expect that the Avalanche want to see if he can add on from a positive 2024-25 season and perhaps eventually sign him to a multi-year deal. Had the Avalanche not made a qualifying offer to Malinski, he would have automatically became an unrestricted free agent. I think that he’s that good of a player that they couldn’t risk that happening.
I don’t think that he’ll move up the depth chart, but having continuity on each line or defensive pairing is crucial to a team’s success and that’s part of what the Avalanche are trying to do by qualifying Malinski.