UPDATED: Seconds after this article, news broke that the Colorado Avalanche have traded Calvin de Haan, Juuso Parssinen and draft picks to the New York Rangers for Ryan Lindgren and Jimmy Vesey.
Lindgren, Vesey, prospect Kampf for de Haan, Parsinnen and a 2nd and 4th https://t.co/T6g0LP56Ay
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) March 1, 2025
The Colorado Avalanche could look to acquire a defenseman to pair with whoever plays on the third pairing at any given game. Specifically, The Avalanche might look to reach out to the Minnesota Wild—who they just defeated on Friday night—to see if defenseman Declan Chisholm might be available in trade discussions.
It seems as though since the return of Valeri Nichushkin, the Avalanche have been playing a lot better. He missed nearly two months because of injury. What we saw in the last two games has me feeling confident about the future and the team’s chances of getting into the playoffs, and perhaps being a top-3 team in the central division. That being said, I feel like the team could still use some help.
Chisholm has a Corsi For percentage of 49.1 percent and an offensive-zone shooting percentage of 45.9 percent. Honestly, any sort of offfense you can get by a lower-line/pairing player is good. Chisholm had nine points in 31 games between Minnesota and Winnipeg in 2023-24.
Chisholm is on the Wild’s second power play unit, too. That’s an area I would like to see the Avalanche improve on. They currently rank 15th in the league at 22.5 percent. In comparison, the top team in power play success is the Jets at 30.9 percent. Anywhere you can get scoring success is obviously key. I think that Chisholm would be a player that the Avalanche can take a chance on.
The Avalanche would take on a $1 million cap hit while I could see someone such as Calvin de Haan going the other way. de Haan has an $800k cap hit this season.
I’ve seen several instances where de Haan did not play well at all. If you go back and watch, you’d see that de Haan was near opposing teams’ goal scorers against the Avalanche. It was pretty frustrating.
The Avalanche could also do some experimenting with the bottom pairing. While de Haan would be out in this scenario, they still have Oliver Kylington (who I was considering in this article before his solid game against Minnesota on Friday night), as well as Sam Malinski, who I’m pretty high on. They’ve got options.
For a third-pair defensive unit, you’re just looking for players to keep the puck in the offensive zone. You’re not going to be asking these players to score often, but like I mentioned, if you have an opportunity, go for it and shoot the puck. That’s one area that I’ve been frustrated with from the Avalanche. So, if they do happen to make this trade, I would hope that they try to be more aggressive in that department.
Speaking of de Haan, he plays on the team’s second penalty kill unit. Chisholm could potentially be a guy who can improve that area of the team’s game.
Another positive about this potential trade is that Chisholm is only 25-years-old. Calvin de Haan is 33. I’d hope that if the team does make this trade, they can unlock an extra level of Chisholm’s game. If it doesn’t, it probably wouldn’t be a huge problem, as this trade would be quite a minor one. If it worked out, phenomenal. I just love the potential of getting something out of a younger player while moving on from a player who doesn’t necessarily do a whole lot.
de Haan could benefit from another change of scenery. Maybe that would help him get back onto his feet. I understand it’s a pretty hard sell to have someone take de Haan off Colorado’s hands, but you never know.