Five free agent right wingers the Colorado Avalanche can realistically afford — and what they would cost

Seemingly, after years of failed experiments and thorough disappointments, the Colorado Avalanche may have finally found their second-line center in Brock Nelson. With the solidification of that pivotal roster spot, the third and fourth-line center positions are also comfortably filled with Charlie Coyle and Jack Drury, respectively. Now, with the Avs' goaltending woes of recent years finally addressed, and with the team having one of the best defensive cores in the entire NHL, there's one, remaining area where they could use some support: the right wing slot in the bottom-six.

The problem, though, is that the Avs are projected to have just $1.2mil in available cap space heading into this offseason, so there will almost certainly need to be some subtraction before any additions can be made. This list presents five right wingers who the Avs should consider when free agency commences on July 1, 2025, and it looks at the potential trades that would be needed to make room for each proposed addition.

Note: The 2024-25 Corsi For Percentage (CF%) and Wins-Above-Replacement (WAR) Percentage have been included for each player on this list.

- CF%: a breakdown of a player's impact on the team's overall shot generation while said player is on the ice. It's a similar stat to plus-minus, but it is far more intuitive. A good CF% is anything above 50%. If a player has a CF% of 60%, that translates to their team generating 60% of the shot attempts vs. the other team's 40%

- WAR%: a representation of a player's individual impact on their team's collective success. WAR, on its own, indicates the amount of wins a team generated because of the player's contributions, with the baseline metric of . If a player has a 4 WAR, it means that the team won four more games than they would have if a league-average player was used instead. A negative WAR indicates that the player is below leage average. WAR% takes this a step further, breaking down 10 individual statistic percentages into one number, which represents how much better a player is than the rest of the players at his position. If a right winger has a WAR% of 60, they are better than 60% of all right wingers in the league