Avalanche add speed and skill in free agency with Wood and Drouin

The Colorado Avalanche hung out for a few hours as the NHL’s league calendar turned over and the organization paid Nathan MacKinnon a shade under $16M today in signing bonus money as the contract that makes him the NHL’s highest-paid player began today.

After watching a lot of third-pairing defensemen get paid more than $3M per year, the Avs struck with a deal of their own that would turn into a multi-hour chase for the details as Miles Wood agreed to terms with the Avalanche. Boy, did he ever as the feisty depth forward who had spent his entire career in New Jersey to this point agreed to a shocking six-year contract for $15M, with an annual average value of $2.5M per year.

As the details of that deal were slowly (and I mean slowly) trickling out, the Avs landed former Montreal Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin on the ultimate “prove it” contract as Drouin agreed to a one-year deal that will pay him just $825K next season.

After those deals were finished, the Avs took care of some internal business in inking RFA Bowen Byram to a two-year deal with an AAV of $3.85M.

It’s a tidy piece of business to get the Byram deal snuck in here as that one had potential to take all summer to get finished, especially if the team was going to try to do a long-term deal. Instead of giving Byram the money necessary to get a longer deal done, the Avs prioritized flexibility in this current year to continue adding pieces but make no mistake that Byram remains a vital part of Colorado’s long-term future.

Shortly after everything else was wrapped up, Colorado announced the signing of five players who should largely be for the Colorado Eagles as defenseman Jack Ahcan signed a two-year deal and the team gave one-year deals to forwards Chris Wagner (yes, the former Av) and Riley Tufte, defenseman Corey Schueneman, and goaltender Arvid Holm.

Schueneman joins defenseman Gianni Fairbrother, who was acquired in the Alex Newhook trade, coming from Montreal to Colorado and is likely AHL-bound.

While Avalanche GM Chris MacFarland said they were hoping to push some signings with internal free agents (Jack Johnson? Andrew Cogliano? Maybe Evan Rodrigues?) across the finish line in coming days, it appears the team is done for the moment so let’s get to the two newest additions to the Avalanche lineup. (While writing this, Colorado re-signed Cogliano to a one-year deal worth $825K)

Miles Wood is really fast

That’s where I want to start with the Wood signing. A lot will be made of the term for the almost-28-year-old Wood and that’s because normally guys as limited as Wood don’t get long-term contracts. As a player who was very likely receiving shorter offers in the $3M AAV range, the Avs decided instead of using cap space to compete they would lean into term.

The deal takes Wood into his age-34 season so the team really needs him to age well in order to get the kind of discount possible if Wood can stay healthy and effective moving forward. It starts with his skating, which is the hallmark of Wood’s game.

He’s a a very fast skater up the ice and regularly puts pressure on opposing defenses with his transition rushes. You can see below in the fancystats that Wood is a quality play-driver and terrific transition player, both things that will play wonderfully in Colorado, and at 6’2″ and 195 pounds he is the kind of heavier player the Avs wanted to target to make their bottom six harder to play against.

Wood recorded 27 (13 g, 14 a) points last year in 76 games after missing most of the previous year following hip surgery. The operation didn’t sap Wood of any of his speed and certainly not of his competitive snarl, which is something Avalanche fans are going to greatly enjoy about him.

When you dig deeper into Wood’s game, his appeal becomes even more obvious. If he’s going to start on the left wing on Colorado’s third line next to recently-acquired Ross Colton, who is currently slated to take the 3C job vacated in the Newhook trade, checking into his microstats is very telling in why the Avalanche have targeted him specifically.

Wood and Colton will combine for a very heavy, skilled forecheck on Colorado’s third line next season. Where Colton struggles in the defensive zone is trying to get the puck from defense to offense. Alongside Wood, that should be no problem as Wood is a fantastic transition player, as seen above when you look at his zone exists, rush offense, and zone entries.

Simply put, Wood excels at transporting pucks from defense to offense and then shooting them. Alongside Colton, another shooter, it will be paramount this line is rounded out with an all-around talent who can help them fill in each other’s gaps.

Wood will fit in very nicely but he will have to calm down with the penalty problem he’s had his entire career. If he can play more within himself, his competitiveness and thirst for domination of the opposition is very real. Combined with Colton, another supremely competitive and physical player, suddenly Colorado’s third line is looking to start some static every night.

The MacKinnon-Drouin reunion finally happens

Ever since they were drafted back in 2013 while members of the Halifax Mooseheads in the QMJHL, MacKinnon and Drouin have been linked together to try to rekindle the magic. This became especially true as Drouin’s career went sideways, first in a deal from Tampa Bay to Montreal and then later when Drouin had to step away from the game for personal reasons.

After fighting through the disappointment that came with being the third pick of a draft loaded with great players and then not living up to the big-money deal given to him by the Canadiens, Jonathan Drouin is getting a fresh start on his NHL life at age 28 and in an environment that will be the most conducive to success as he’s had to this point in his career.

Nobody in Colorado is asking Drouin to be a savior, be a top player, or even be one of the team’s very best players. MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, Cale Makar, Devon Toews and Alexandar Georgiev have that all covered.

No, the Avalanche are just asking Drouin to come into Colorado and round out their top-six forwards. As you’ll see below, he’s a brutally bad defensive player and that’s going to be something he absolutely has to work on during his Avalanche tenure or it is hard to envision Colorado head coach Jared Bednar having much of a leash for Drouin.

Drouin hasn’t been much of a goal-scoring threat in several years, either, as he has just 17 (!!) goals in his last 163 games across the last four seasons but his playmaking remains a real strength as he has regularly pushed for 30 assists in seasons he’s been remotely available.

In Colorado, he will have the defensive support of an elite defensive wing in Artturi Lehkonen or Valeri Nichushkin so all Drouin has to do is really round his game into a respectable form in that end and let his raw skill take over. His vision and passing ability will be a nice fit wherever Bednar decides to utilize Drouin.

There really isn’t an obvious fit for him as Ryan Johansen is also a pass-first player but if the Avs wanted to avoid the redundancy of two pass-heavy guys on a line together, Mikko Rantanen can play next to Johansen while Drouin lands on MacKinnon’s non-Lehkonen/Nichushkin wing.

Whatever the alignment, for $825K this season, it shouldn’t take much for the Avalanche to have one of the league’s more cost-efficient players on their hands next season. Still, here are Drouin’s fancystats.

The takeaways? Everything I said above: Bad defensively, not a guy you want to plan for a 20-goal season, but a legit playmaking threat. If you look at that last chart, you can see where in his career he has actually been a decent defensive player at times so it’s in there somewhere and he has been both a positive finisher and a high-quality playmaker before.

There are no guarantees here and if Drouin doesn’t work out, that job is likely the main priority come the trade deadline. The Avs are taking a chance that their playstyle is a fit for what Drouin does well and removing the pressures he faced in Tampa Bay and Montreal will allow him to focus solely on being the best hockey player he can be, something that he hasn’t gotten to do enough of in his NHL career for a myriad of reasons.

What’s left for the Avs?

Colorado’s lineup currently looks something like this:

Lehkonen – MacKinnon – Rantanen
Nichushkin – Johansen – Drouin
Wood – Colton – ??
Cogliano – Meyers – O’Connor
Olofsson

Toews – Makar
Byram – Girard
?? – Manson
MacDermid

Georgiev
Francouz

At the moment, the Avs still have right around $7.5M in salary cap space to work with. That doesn’t include new contracts on the way for Colton and Meyers, which would get them down into the 2-3 range, but they could always drop Olofsson to the AHL if they wanted to free up a little space to make another move.

There’s still work to do to round out those top-nine forwards but the majority of Colorado’s overhaul is already complete. The defense needs another guy but with Brad Hunt and Ahcan under contract, there are guys who fit Colorado’s playstyle (read: offensive) that can pop onto the defense and provide some help if needed. Sam Malinski is also on Colorado’s radar as a hopeful who can help the NHL club next season.

The major takeaway so far from this offseason is Colorado targeted size and went and got it. Johansen, who doesn’t always utilize his size well, is a bigger body who is comfortable playing in front of the opposing net, the same as both Wood and Colton.

The additions of Wood and Colton together strike me as a potential master class by the Avalanche front office. They complement each other perfectly in terms of strengths and weaknesses but both possess an intense competitive drive and physical mindset that will be extremely welcome in Colorado’s bottom six after last year’s group got a little too easy to play against (injuries certainly didn’t help as the war of attrition was a real mess).

We all know what Cogliano and O’Connor can do together and if Meyers can take a meaningful step forward this year, that fourth line can follow up the newly-made third line with another very fast, very physical attack mindset.

Seeing the pieces together like this, it’s hard not to feel excited about what this group could look like together if it gets a chance to gel over the course of an 82-game season. Depth beyond this group remains somewhat of a concern but the Avalanche are hopeful prospects Jean-Luc Foudy and Oskar Olausson can help take another step forward and potentially be meaningful additions to the NHL roster if need be.

The other hopeful that I will continue keeping on people’s radar is Nikolai Kovalenko, who could join the Avalanche at the conclusion of the KHL season in late March. His physical, bowling ball style will play excellently next to Wood and Colton if the team is still searching for a more permanent solution there.

We’ll see what the next few days but right now it’s not hard to look at Colorado and feel they pick up right where they left off after Game 82 – in a dead heat with the Dallas Stars for Central Division supremacy.