Team: 2024-25 Colorado Avalanche

Initial Creation Date: Jul. 14, 2023

Published: Jul. 14, 2023

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

What do the Avs look like in a year+?
Cap increase to $88 million.
Assuming that Landeskog is back from LTIR. If not then they possibly sign Drouin (if all things work out) to a bigger long term contract. Without that there isn't really room for Drouin in the top 6; of course there is a chance that he finds chemistry on the 3rd line but we have a trio of youngsters that might be NHL ready to consider there: Olausson, Kovalenko, and Polin among others.

Assuming we run a full 23-man roster, we should have about $4.6 million in salary cap to re-sign Devon Toews; but the following year have to extend Rantanen, Byram, Georgiev, and/or Ryan Johansen so we can't over-extend ourselves. The projected cap increase will probably cover Byram's projected raise but we'll need a couple million each for Rantanen and Georgiev. If Byram stays healthy in 2023-24 and continues to develop then he'll be in that $8 million range and we'll be expecting him to get top line minutes (or near enough). Either Toews, Girard, or Manson become a 3rd pair luxury which just doesn't work financially. Toews is the better all-around blueliner but a move has to be made before 2025-26 season to create the room to keep him. Manson's health and the ability of Sean Behrens (hopefully in the AHL at that point) to possibly replace Sam Girard but on a much cheaper ELC could factor in greatly to this as well. Unfortunately outside of Sam Malinski there isn't much in the RHD pipeline so Manson replacements (especially for his size and style of play) are non-existent at the moment.
Both Manson (12 team) and Girard (9 team) will have modified no-trade clauses in effect mid year 2024.
If Landeskog does not recover from his injury then the cap situation becomes dependent upon how well RyJo/Drouin fit in to the lineup and what their possible next contract(s) might look like. Any early extension on either of them next season would indicate to me that it has a bearing on Landeskog's likely return.

Georgiev extension should be the biggest in-season priority as we have little goalie talent in our pipeline and going back to the market would be too expensive.

Aside from RyJo the Avs now have a 2C prospect in their pipeline which could factor in for the 2024-25 season in Calum Ritchie who will be playing this next season in the OHL after recovering from his shoulder injury but eerily fits the mold of Ryan Johansen as well.

So the Avs have done a good job of addressing all of their near future roster holes with the one exception of a big physical RHD; which is why I can't understand the aversion to signing someone like Cal Foote (only 24 years old) and putting him in Loveland for a year to see if they can develop him. He costs them nothing right now to acquire and is a classic "buy low" candidate.

While handedness doesn't matter as much for a shutdown physical defender than it does an offensive/two-way player it does help the flexibility in the lineup; especially in the top 4. With Behrens and Gulyayev in the system as both small lefty puck-movers in the Sam Girard mold; we need to create balance in our pipeline and fill the void after moving out Justin Barron and Drew Helleson.