The Colorado Avalanche were heavily speculated to move on from Valeri Nichushkin at some point and that’s exactly what they did on Thursday afternoon. They sent him to the Columbus Blue Jackets for a couple of draft picks while effectively removing his cap hit off of their books.
Colorado still had to do some roster configurating because of some pending free agents, and getting Nichushkins’ $6.125 million off the books does just that. I suppose, to a point, you could say that it was—not a terrible—but unfortunate contract, depending on who you ask.
As an Avalanche, Nichushkin came closest to playing every game in a season this past year, as he missed just 10 games. Before that, his next closest number of games played for the Avs was 65, followed by 62.
That was probably one of the big indicators for why the team flirted with, and eventually acted on, the idea of moving him.
Cale Makar’s contract extension was another piece of the puzzle. He’s expected to get perhaps $15-17 million annually on a long-term deal. It’s a salary cap world we live in with sports, and that is just disappointing because we all want our teams to put the best product out on the field/ice/court/you name it. Unfortunately, that’s not always possible.
How much cap space do the Avalanche have with Valeri Nichushkin gone?
The Avalanche went from the bottom of the league to just a few spots higher in terms of the amount of cap space they have. Right now, their cap space sits at $10.98 million, good for 26th in the league.
To put that into perspective, Vegas has the least amount, at $4.63 million, while the San Jose Sharks lead the league with a whopping $46.27 million.
Colorado has six roster spots to fill as of right now following the Nichushkin trade and acquisitions of Fyodor Svechkov and Zachary L’Heureux. With the 2026 NHL Draft right around the corner, we could see even more moves. Freeing up that cap space could be a sign for something big.
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