Colorado Avalanche swap defenseman in trade with the Pittsburgh Penguins

The Colorado Avalanche have made a pre-trade deadline deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday, acquiring defenseman Brett Kulak for Samuel Girard and as second-round pick.

Kulak is a top-four defenseman, while Girard took on that role with the Avalanche. Neither player scores a lot, with Kulak’s career-high is seven goals, when he did that in 2024-25. Girard recorded six goals in 2022-23.

Kulak is in the final year of four-year, $11 million deal. His cap hit is $2.75 million.

It will be interesting to see which pairing Jared Bednar places Kulak in. The departing Girard was on the third pairing with Sam Malinski, while Josh Manson and Brent Burns manned the second pairing and Cale Makar shares the top line with Devon Toews.

The move frees up a little bit of cap space, so one has to wonder if there is another move in the works. Colorado is set with their lines for the most part but can definitely make some improvements on the third and fourth lines.

Could we see the Avalanche move someone like Jack Drury or Ross Colton? I think those two names have been floating around lately. If anything, either one of them might be on the way out. It’s just a feeling.

According to PuckPedia, the Avalanche now have $8,741,926 in cap space and could acquire someone such as Nazem Kadri. Kadri’s name has also been floating around for months as an option for the Avs. He carries a cap hit of $7 million.

Kadri was pretty successful in his first stint with the Avalanche. He had 39 goals and 80 assists in two seasons with Colorado, where he played 107 games.

We’ll see what happens next, but I would not be surprised if there is something else brewing. The Avalanche play the Mammoth in their next game, which is Wednesday night.