One dream, one realistic, and one bargain player Colorado Avalanche can sign in NHL free agency
The Colorado Avalanche have some things to prioritize as we near NHL free agency and the NHL Draft. This team will look a little bit different next season, with uncertainties surrounding Gabriel Landeskog and Valeri Nichushkin. I am sure that we will discover some new news in the coming months, but we know for certain that Nichushkin will miss a good chunk of the 2024-25 season.
It is certainly a tough thing to plan for, given that once Nichushkin returns, his cap hit will count towards the team, and if they decided to sign a high-priced free agent, someone with a high cap hit would need to be traded at some point.
It’s been two seasons since the Avalanche won the Stanley Cup. The loss of Nichushkin really hurt in the postseason. The Avalanche should do their best to try and find someone in free agency who could come as close as possible to replicating Nichushkin’s production on the ice. It’s now time to come up with who the team could add, whether realistic, a dream, or a bargain.
1 dream player the Colorado Avalanche could sign in free agency: Sam Reinhart, FLA
Surely, Sam Reinhart is going to cash in big somewhere. He’ll be the top free agent on the market when free agency begins and the Colorado Avalanche won’t be able to afford him. However, for the sake of this exercise, wouldn’t that be fun?
It’s certainly possible that Reinhart gets extended by the Florida Panthers, but as of this writing, that hasn’t happened.
Reinhart had the best season of his career during the 2023-24 season, and it wasn’t particularly close. He played in all 82 games, recording 57 goals and 37 assists for 94 points. His goal totals were a career high and his assist totals were good for third-best of his career. He was also pretty aggressive in the hit department, with 78. His average time on ice of 20:18 was good for second beset of his career and he notched the most minutes of his career this year.
If the Avalanche wanted to switch things up in their top lineup, they would have to make a sacrifice or two. Extending Mikko Rantanen is a top priority for the team, and re-signing Jonathan Drouin is as well. It would be fun to be able to land Reinhart, though.
1 realistic player the Colorado Avalanche could sign in free agency: Daniel Sprong, DET
If the Colorado Avalanche are able to re-sign Drouin, adding a top forward from another team becomes less of a priority. However, they can still add to their bottom-six. Daniel Sprong of the Detroit Red Wings could be of interest to them.
Sprong has played for several teams, including the Pittsburgh Penguins, Anaheim Ducks, Washington Capitals, Seattle Kraken, and the Red Wings. He has been fairly productive, especially during the last two seasons in which he played in 142 games, and had 39 goals and 50 assists.
When it comes to adding onto a lower line, you’re not looking for a player to score 40 goals. I think that Sprong could be a nice rental player for the Colorado Avalanche as they get through some difficulties that will happen in the upcoming season regarding the salary cap.
Signing Sprong to a one-year deal would be the move here with flexibility to sign him again in the 2025 free agency period if he does well enough. The thinking is that he would be a short-term solution for this team. That’s what the Avalanche kind of have to do right now. It’s up to Sprong or any other player they target to decide whether or not that’s what they want in 2024-25.
1 bargain player the Colorado Avalanche could sign in free agency: Jonathan Drouin, COL
Yeah, I understand this may not be an exciting last player given that it doesn’t add anything new. However, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That’s the case with Colorado Avalanche free agent-to-be Jonathan Drouin.
Drouin came over from the Montreal Canadiens last offseason in free agency and revived his career in a big way. He played in 79 games (second-most of his career), scored 19 goals and 37 assists (second-best and first-best of his career, respectively) and helped the Colorado Avalanche with two game-winning goals.
Drouin’s Avalanche career did not start out well, as we saw Jared Bednar flip him around on different lines to figure out the best spot for him. He finally found a home on the top line for a good portion of the season and stayed there with Nathan MacKinnon centering the line.
He’s not a Reinhart-type player, but I think that he’s definitely a top priority for the team and both sides want to get a deal done to have him stick around in Colorado. He is only 29 years old, so the team could sign him to a longer deal and spread out his cap hit, whatever it may be in the end.
My thinking here is that Drouin is worth the contract that he’s going to get in free agency. We know what he can be with the Avalanche, and we don’t know how or if a potential replacement in free agency will work out. So, the best thing to do here is to keep Drouin in the building, which the two sides are trying to do.
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