Avalanche adds depth in Bellemare, brings back Wilson

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Following the signing of Joonas Donskoi earlier in the day, the Avalanche added two more players to their roster with the signing of Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and re-signing of Colin Wilson.

Bellemare’s deal is two years for $3.6 million ($1.8M AAV) and Wilson’s is a one-year deal for $2.6 million. The two are expected to help add depth to Colorado’s suddenly robust bottom six forward group.

Wilson has spent the last two years in Colorado after coming over in a trade on July 1, 2017, from the Nashville Predators. He had a productive regular season in scoring 27 points (12g, 15a) in 65 games played.

Wilson’s postseason really stood out as he scored eight points (4g, 4a) in 12 games. Of course, he scored a fifth goal that was infamously disallowed upon review because Gabriel Landeskog was both simultaneously not part of the playing surface yet still offside (the NHL, everybody!).

Bellemare was on the other end of San Jose’s other big controversial playoff break as he was a member of the Vegas Golden Knights last season. As part of their annoyingly effective fourth line, Bellemare registered 15 points (6g, 9a) in 76 games played. He is purely a fourth line player who can win faceoffs (54.7% win rate last season) and kill penalties.

Bellemare can serve as the de facto replacement for Carl Soderberg in terms of the PK/faceoff combination but certainly won’t come close to replacing the point production.

The combination of Bellemare and Wilson essentially polishes off Colorado’s forward group for now. Adding their unsigned RFAs, the Avalanche are now at 13 forwards already with A.J. Greer and Martin Kaut on the outside looking in.

Both of the signings continue the trend set by the acquisitions of Andre Burakovsky and Donskoi as all of them are strong in the area of analytics. It’s obvious the team’s investment in the area has had an impact on how they conduct their business.

Per usual, some of the fancy stats are included below for your perusal. We’ll start with Bellemare and move on to Wilson.