The Colorado Avalanche aren’t allowing Brock Nelson to hit the free agent market. The team signed him to a three-year extension worth an average annual value of $7.5 million. The news comes as somewhat of a surprise because of the rumours about him likely leaving for a new team and a bigger contract than the Avalanche were willing to give him.
They proved those people wrong.
Very recently, it was reported that there was mutual interest between the Avalanche and Nelson. It came to fruition on Wednesday.
Nelson was in the lineup for 80 games this past season, racking up 26 goals and 30 assists—six goals and seven assists with the Avalanche after the trade with the New York Islanders.
Nelson is 33 years old, so it appears likely that he will finish his career with Colorado. I like this move because of what the team gave up for him earlier in the year. I wasn’t a big fan of that trade as I’ve stated several times, giving up Calum Ritchie and more. The Avalanche are getting more years from Nelson now, which makes the trade less painful.
The Avalanche now have just $1.20 million in cap space, signaling that there will be some more moves to free up cap space to fill out their roster. We could see someone like Martin Necas or Charlie Coyle perhaps be shipped out. I would think it would be Necas between those two, given his role this year and the fact that he is much younger than Coyle. The Avalanche should get more for him.
It’s also possible that they trade someone that we aren’t necessarily expecting.
At the end of the day, general manager Chris MacFarland has a plan. It might not sit well with some fans, but that sort of thing will happen all the time. The fact is that the Avs have to re-sign or acquire more players to fill out their roster. Perhaps we even acquire some AHL talents who could make their way up to the NHL this season.
It’s good that the Avalanche are keeping Nelson in the sense that it keeps a somewhat familiar face around. Hopefully he can put up bigger numbers for the team next season and especially into the postseason, where he ha zero goals and four assists in seven games.