It’s been a wild 24 hours for Greg Pateryn, who woke up this morning with news from the league that he was being fined $5,000 for a cross-checking incident in last night’s game against the Anaheim Ducks.
Now, Pateryn is riding the Avs team bus solo from Anaheim to Los Angeles as he and Ian Cole are swapping spots after being traded for one another this afternoon. As part of making the financials of the deal work, the Avs are retaining $800K in salary.
To recap:
COL GETS: Greg Pateryn
MIN GETS: Ian Cole ($800K retained by Avs)
With Cole making $4.25M to Pateryn’s $2.25M, this ultimately ends up saving Colorado about $1.2M in salary cap space.
Pateryn, 30, has been a well-liked and valuable depth defenseman for the Wild organization the last several years. While he won’t light up any scoreboards (his career-high in points is 13), he has been a steady third-pairing defender who has reliably killed penalties when called upon.
Where he fits into Colorado, however, is more of the rotational type of role we saw from Mark Barberio and Kevin Connauton last season.
The team clearly is high on Conor Timmins and will be moving highly-touted Bowen Byram into the lineup as early as this week and this deal removes a major obstacle from both players getting legitimate opportunities to cement themselves as NHL regulars.
In the immediate, Pateryn won’t play tonight but Colorado’s previous plan to play seven defensemen remains the same as Erik Johnson makes his debut alongside Dennis Gilbert, who was called up from the taxi squad this afternoon.
With the extra salary cap space gained in the deal, the Avs can comfortably add some depth to their roster without again being forced into a tough situation such as yesterday when Pavel Francouz suffered an injury and the team had to call up Hunter Miska as their third goaltender on the roster.
Where this deal stings for Colorado is that Minnesota gets the clear-cut better player in Cole. While at 31 and entering the final year of his deal means the relationship between Cole and the Avs was nearing its natural conclusion anyway, he was valuable both in the locker room and as a safeguard against the inevitable onslaught of injuries.
Pateryn is a fine rotational player but Cole is coming off one of the best all-around seasons of his career and it is a legitimate downgrade in quality for the Avs. If Cole was not going to be happy being a role player and wanted more of an opportunity, he will certainly get it in Minnesota as the Wild are the odds-on favorites to snag the final playoff spot in the soft West Division.
Because it’s just habit at this point, let’s look at some of the fancy stats for Pateryn and a quick side-by-side comparison of the players in this deal. It would be a good time to grab a Breck brew.
0 Comments (4 conversations)
Goblynkyng
Yay! Cole was good until the playoffs ladt year where he stunk it up. Hasn’t been good first 2 games this year either. I’m happy with this
deej19
I have some thoughts on this trade, firstly people are saying how this is bad for Colorado and even AJ admits the Mild are getting the better player of the deal. but if you think of it from the viewpoint of you’re trading Cole for Pateryn and Bowen Byram then this trade is A+ by the Avalanche. I think thats how you’re going to need to look at a trade like this because its all about making a roster spot for your future D stud with no incumbrances. also a bright side is that Minny just got older and slower on the backend. so on the face of the deal this trade looks ugly in regards to the immediate surface of it, but in the long run this is going to turn out to favor Colorado when Byram or even Timmins, receives an ample amount of ice time during this shortened season.
I think the real ‘grading’ of the deal will be done when we know what gets done with the money. If nothing happens from here and they just use it to play the young guys, that’s perfectly fine, but they could use it at the deadline, too, and that would change the math on this one.
Hockeyhead
AJ, any chance that Cole requested a trade after seeing the written on the wall that the Avs were going to start playing Byram -Timmins more to get them some experience and that he was going to become a role player with fewer games played and fewer minutes per game? If so, Cole will get more time on ice in Minny, but his odds to win the Stanley Cup just decreased. What do you think he values more? The answer seems obvious that a guy would want the cup, but you never know.
Doesn’t seem like Cole’s MO but I’m sure he appreciates getting to go to a competitive place where he’ll get ice time, especially in a contract year. A strong showing could lead to a multi-year deal for him. At his age that’s a big opportunity.
Hockeyhead
Good point about the contract year and having a good showing. I wish him well against all teams not the Avs. I always liked watching him when he was a Pen and with the Avs overall when he was playing well and not taking penalties.
Sunfunbun
Cap space is the biggest consideration. 1.2 is not a lot, but it’s more than we had. As far as the trade goes, I’m not particularly in the happy group, mainly because the better player goes to a division rival. Although Mini isn’t considered in the top 3 of the division, they’re always a pain for us to play, and Cole will fit into that ‘man, these guys suck but they sure are hard to play against’. Fans of the trade be careful what you wish for.
Has real backfire potential if we get another COL-MIN playoff series