The Colorado Avalanche announced they have come to terms on a new contract for defenseman Sam Malinski on a one year, $1.4M contract. The defenseman was set to become a restricted free agent tomorrow when the market opened, making him vulnerable to an offer sheet from a team that had significantly more salary cap space than the Avs.
Malinski, 26, had an interesting sophomore season in pro hockey. He was so good in training camp that Avalanche general manager Chris MacFarland felt compelled to trade defenseman Erik Brannstrom to the Vancouver Canucks. Malinski’s play was so solid that he also beat out veteran Oliver Kylington for a job for a while. Through the first half of the season, Malinski and Calvin de Haan formed one of the league’s most effective third pairings but injuries and de Haan’s inclusion in the Ryan Lindgren trade with the New York Rangers changed things up.
As a player with a puck-moving reputation, Malinski only scoring 15 points in 76 games was certainly a disappointment but his defensive growth was quite encouraging. The postseason was solid for him, although a crucial penalty stopped Colorado’s comeback momentum in a Game 5 loss. Still, he wasn’t on the ice for a single goal against in the seven-game series against the Dallas Stars, reinforcing that the defensive growth we saw from him in the regular season can carry over to the playoffs.
The fancy stats also reinforce that Malinski was a solid contributor for the Avs this season.
The contract ultimately is a nice bargain for both sides. The AFP Analytics contract model had Malinski slated for a two-year deal at $1.8M per season. The Avs only get the one year but save some money as they are pretty tight against the salary cap. A big year from Malinski means he gets to walk into free agency next year as a right-shot defenseman and get a significant raise.
While the draft has been a wasteland for the Avalanche for the better part of a decade, Malinski represents another solid find for the Avs in the undrafted college ranks. He was signed as a 25-year-old out of Cornell and worked his way into the Avalanche lineup and is now an important player in the bottom of their lineup. While the Avalanche continue looking for a partner for him, Malinski showed an ability to be adaptable last season.
His most common partners in the postseason were Sam Girard and Ryan Lindgren. With those two, here were their 5v5 results:
With Girard (31:37 TOI):
- Shot attempts: 56%
- Shots on goal: 63%
- Scoring chances: 66%
- High-danger chances: 71%
- Expected goals: 67%
- Goals: 2-0
With Lindgren (22:30 TOI) :
- Shot attempts: 59%
- Shots on goal: 70%
- Scoring chances: 50%
- High-danger chances: 60%
- Expected goals: 62%
- Goals: 0-0
In the regular season, here were his 5v5 results with his two most common partners.
With Girard (305:54 TOI)
- Shot attempts: 52%
- Shots on goal: 51%
- Scoring chances: 51%
- High-danger chances: 49%
- Expected goals: 49%
- Goals: 16-7
With de Haan (241:12 TOI)
- Shot attempts: 55%
- Shots on goal: 56%
- Scoring chances: 57%
- High-danger chances: 62%
- Expected goals: 56%
- Goals: 8-13
Wild to see the difference in the process versus results for those pairings and partners. The process was significantly better when Malinski had a more defensive partner, but the goals were pouring in versus a solid but unspectacular process and a huge goal advantage when paired with Girard.
That might inform what the Avalanche try to do here in the next three days as they look to shore up their defense specifically with a partner for Malinski.
