Avalanche Keeps Core Together In Flat Cap World

It is almost impossible for a team to maintain the same roster from one season to the next in the NHL. The Colorado Avalanche anticipated a few changes for the upcoming 2021-22 season, but the focus for the club is to keep most of its core intact.
The Avs were able to sign captain Gabriel Landeskog and young defenseman Cale Makar to long-term deals before the 2021 free agency window opened on Wednesday, and the organization also acquired a few new faces via signings and the trade market.
With the salary cap staying the same as it was for the past two seasons, most teams in the league are having to make tough decisions on which of their players they can retain. Colorado emphasized preserving its core group and will rely on its up-and-coming players such as 2019 first-round draft selections Bowen Byram and Alex Newhook, who are both on entry-level deals.
"We knew last year was going to be the deepest team we had going forward, especially knowing that the cap was going to be flat and we had some high-end guys that needed new contracts," said executive vice president and general manager Joe Sakic. "Obviously Bowen is going to be healthy, and we expect him to have a big role for us, and we believe he is going to be ready for that."

The Seattle Kraken selected forward Joonas Donskoi in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft from Colorado and additionally, Seattle signed free-agent goaltender Philipp Grubauer to a six-year deal. Donskoi spent the past two seasons in Colorado, while Grubauer played the last three campaigns with the Avalanche.
Grubauer shared the league lead with a career-high seven shutouts and ranked second in both wins (30) and goals-against average (1.95) in 2020-21. He was a finalist for the Vezina Trophy, given to the best goaltender of the season--the first time he had been up for the award and the third Colorado player to be named a finalist for the honor.

"He did a lot of great things for us, he played real well. I think he helped us as much as the way we played helped him as well," said Sakic of Grubauer. "To have the defensive metrics that we had, we gave up the fewest shots in the league and scoring opportunities, so the team played well and when we needed huge saves, he came up big for us. He kept us in games, and we are going to miss that, but he has moved on and obviously there's a flat cap. You have to make tough decisions. For us, we wanted to make sure we kept our core guys together. That is the most important thing to us."
Captain Landeskog inked an eight-year contract through the 2028-29 campaign with the Avalanche on Tuesday after Makar signed a six-year deal with the club on Saturday morning.
In 687 career regular-season games, Landeskog ranks sixth in franchise history in goals (218), eighth in points (512) and 11th in assists (294). In Avs history since 1995, only former captains Sakic (391) and Milan Hejduk (375) have scored more goals.
"I knew all along that Gabe wanted to be here, and we wanted him here," said Sakic. "We decided we were the one team who could give him eight years and we were happy with that, our captain is here for the rest of his career. Both sides wanted this… We knew that going into this last week we'd have a lot of conversations and we did, and both sides are excited that Gabe is going to remain our captain for the rest of his career."

Makar was a finalist for the Norris Trophy as the league's top defenseman and was named to the NHL First All-Star Team this past campaign after he notched 44 points (eight goals, 36 assists) in 44 games, the only NHL blueliner to average a point per game in the campaign.
In his first two NHL seasons, Makar has recorded 94 points (20 goals, 74 assists) in 101 career regular-season outings, the sixth-highest total by a defenseman through 101 contests in NHL history. Only Harry Cameron (115), Mark Howe (112), Brian Leetch (99), Larry Murphy (97) and Phil Housley (95) had more.
"We wanted to just make sure we had our core guys locked up and locked up a long time," Sakic added. "I mean we have known you sign those guys and keep them here, and you keep your core and you build around them. Every year you are going to have different depth guys to help support them."
The Avalanche made a few trades to do just that, acquiring goaltender Darcy Kuemper from the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday and defenseman Kurtis MacDermid from the Kraken on Tuesday.
Kuemper is 106-83-32 with a 2.47 goals-against average, .917 save percentage and 20 shutouts in 242 career NHL games with the Minnesota Wild, Los Angeles Kings and Arizona. He most recently played for Team Canada at the 2021 IIHF World Championship and posted a 5-2 record with a 2.17 goals-against average and .916 save percentage to help his country to a gold medal.
With Pavel Francouz expected to be fully healthy at the start of the season after missing the 2020-21 campaign with a lower-body injury, the two netminders are set to work together to backstop the Avalanche.
"In Darcy we are acquiring a proven, reliable netminder who brings a ton of NHL experience at just 31 years of age," said Sakic in a statement following the announcement. "Obviously we had to solidify the goaltending position and we feel like Darcy is someone who can step in and do that. We feel very confident in our goaltending tandem as we head into the 2021-22 season."

As for MacDermid, the 6-foot-5, 233-pound rear guard has skated in 118 career NHL games with L.A. and recorded four points (two goals, two assists) in 28 games last season, leading all Kings blueliners with 7.38 hits per 60 minutes. Seattle had selected him from Los Angeles in the NHL Expansion Draft on June 21.
"We see him on the ice for us and actually he's played a little bit of forward as well, so he can play forward or on the backend," noted Sakic. "But we thought it was important for us, we have a lot of amazing players and our core guys, and we wanted to surround them with someone who is a big, hulking, physical defenseman. He likes to step up and keep guys honest in the neutral zone.
"The most important thing for us, he is great character guy, great in the room. He is going to stick up for his teammates and that is something we feel was lacking here in the last couple of years and we want to make sure we address that. And I can tell you one thing, our players are very excited to have him on our club."
The Avalanche also signed free agent veteran forward Darren Helm on Thursday. Helm had spent his entire 14-year career with the Detroit Red Wings, appearing in 744 regular-season games and recording 251 points (112 goals, 139 assists). He also has 82 career playoff contests under his belt (11 goals, 10 assists) and has a Stanley Cup on his resume as he won in 2008 as a rookie.
While Colorado still has some room under the salary cap to possibly make more moves before or during the season, all transactions will be made with the same goal in mind: putting together as deep a team as possible to make a long run toward the franchise's third Stanley Cup.