The problem with having so much talent on a single roster is that a team such as the Colorado Avalanche might need to face a very difficult reality. On one hand, they have the best defenseman in the entire NHL. He is in line to receive a major payday from the team as he is entering a contract year.
The difficult reality I mentioned is that they have a few other players entering free agency at the same time and might not be able to keep the higher-paid ones. The one player in particular I’m referring to is Artturi Lehkonen.
Lehkonen is on a team-friendly deal at $4.5 million annually. As stated, he is entering the final year of his deal—the fifth year. That’s a solid contract term and amount but it has also turned out to be a steal for the Avs. Therefore, he will most certainly be looking for much more.
Maybe that number heads towards the $7 million AAV mark. Even that could be considered a good deal for both team and player. In my eyes, keeping Makar and Lehkonen on the team is non-negotiable. Those are two of the best players on the whole team—Both top-3 guys.
What does this mean for the Avalanche’s depth?
Here is the remaining list of unrestricted free agents in 2027: Nicolas Roy, Brent Burns, and Scott Wedgewood.
Two of those contracts will be relatively cheap. Maybe they can work something out with Roy to bring his AAV down a little bit from $3 million. Burns signed for another year at just $850k. He might be looking at the final year in the NHL, though I don’t know if it would be that surprising if he stuck around one last year in hopes for a Stanley Cup. Either way, Burns won’t be expensive.
Not only will Burns be inexpensive, but he’s also a solid mentor for the team’s young players, which is something that cannot be coached. It’s pretty important for a team with guys who are young such as the Avalanche with Sam Malinski.
If Wedgewood has another breakout season this year, he could cost a pretty penny for the Avalanche, though I think it would be worth it. Either that, or he looks for a more secure starting job somewhere else, creating a hole for the Avalanche between the pipes. Here’s hoping it’s the former option. The Avalanche need two solid goaltenders if they want to secure yet another chance at a Stanley Cup.
In 2028, Brock Nelson, Josh Manson and Noah Juulsen will be free agents. I could see them moving off of Nelson’s deal in a sacrificial move to make Makar’s contract more affordable. Nelson is going to be 36-37 years old around the time his contract expires, so he might call it quits, too.
So, in summary, the three players that the Avalanche must keep around are Makar (obviously), Lehkonen (pretty obvious), and Wedgewood. The first two are still relatively young and have a lot of hockey left. Wedgewood is getting up in age, but I think he still has a lot of tremendous hockey left in him.
The team’s depth might lack with these extensions on the horizon, but hopefully the Avalanche are able to find players in free agency or through trades that can be more than capable depth pieces for the next five-plus years.
Add us as a preferred source on Google