The Colorado Avalanche could be hurtling towards a major cap crunch this offseason. Despite registering just under $3 million in cap space, that amount won’t be nearly enough to ensure the club rounds out the roster.
One of the biggest pressures will be filling out the blue line. As it stands, the Avs have just four defensemen signed for next season. In particular, Brent Burns and Brett Kulak remain on track to become UFAs.
We’ve advocated here at Mile High Sticking for the need to re-sign Kulak. We would also love to see Burns return to the lineup next season, should he decide to play one more season.
Re-signing both Kulak and Burns would easily burn through the available cap space. And that doesn’t include RFAs Jack Drury and Zakhar Bardakov, while Joel Kiviranta will be a UFA.
As such, the club will need to make some tough choices. And one of those choices could be trading Ross Colton. There are two key reasons that make Colton one of the players who may not return in 2026-27.
Colton should draw plenty of interest
First, Colton should draw plenty of interest around the league. It’s not hard to envisage several contending teams looking for depth that would be willing to give up something for Colton.
While the Avalanche would need to have tempered expectations in a Colton trade, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility to fetch a couple of late-round picks or a serviceable prospect. Perhaps the Avalanche could land a decent depth forward, making close to league minimum.
Ultimately, the Avs shouldn’t have trouble finding interested parties in Colton. The only limitation may be his 12-team no-trade clause. But that still leaves about 20 other teams that could be interested in the 29-year-old.
Colton is a versatile option contenders crave
Colton is the sort of versatile player that all contenders crave. He can play center or wing, and move up and down the lineup as needed.
Plus, Colton can kill penalties, play in a defensive role, and even pick up top-six minutes and power play time.
That makes Colton even more valuable to teams needing that sort of depth. While it might be tough for the Avalanche to give that up, Colorado does have a Colton-lite version in Joel Kiviranta. Plus, “Kivi” comes with a much lower cap hit than Colton’s $4 million.
Given Colton’s overall skill set, the Avalanche shouldn’t have too much of a hard time finding potential suitors.
Avalanche should just keep Colton
Yes, there is no question that the Avalanche should just keep Colton. But given the impending cap crunch, there could be a clear need to move on from Colton and open up some cap space for the blue line.
It’s worth pointing out that Cale Makar’s extension will greatly impact what the Avs do this offseason.
While Makar’s extension wouldn’t kick in until next season, the organization can’t commit to cap-guzzling deals this offseason. In fact, I would daresay that the club won’t extend or re-sign anyone else until there’s clarity on what Makar will re-sign for.
Makar can’t technically extend until July 1. But that situation won’t preclude the two sides from working out a handshake deal until they can officially ink it. Once there’s a handshake deal in place, the organization can move forward with addressing impending UFAs and making trades.
So, stay tuned.
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