Everything about Brandon Saigeon’s time in the Avalanche organization has been peculiar.

Even the drafting of Saigeon was outside of Colorado’s usual bag of tricks. They haven’t been shy about drafting older players (eight, including Saigeon, in the last five years) but Saigeon was the only one who was in his second time through and in the CHL.

Because he was drafted out of the OHL and was already 20-years-old, this allowed the Avalanche certain opportunities to advance Saigeon’s career. Primarily, Colorado could sign Saigeon to his entry-level contract and send him immediately to the AHL to play for the Colorado Eagles.

Instead, Colorado brought Saigeon to last year’s development camp and rookie showcase, where he impressed in both settings. He even led the team in goals during the showcase, upping the expectation the Avs would put an ELC in front of him and put him on the Eagles.

Colorado declined, however, and went with an extremely conservative approach instead. Saigeon returned to the OHL for an overage season with the Hamilton Bulldogs. After a dominant statistical start from Saigeon, the rebuilding Bulldogs sent him to the Oshawa Generals, who were looking to take the OHL crown from Hamilton.

Saigeon had a strong year with the Generals but it was nothing particularly special, especially for an overage player, as he produced 29 points in 28 games. He did lead the Generals in postseason scoring with 16 points in 15 playoff games but Oshawa fell short of making the Memorial Cup run they were dreaming of.

With Oshawa’s season over, what was next for Saigeon was again a big question for the Avalanche to answer.

A source told BSN Denver the original plan was to see how Colorado’s post-draft development camp went and then sign Saigeon to his ELC then. Because he’s recently turned 21, it would have been a three-year ELC.

When development camp came and went, Saigeon was still without a deal despite being one of the most impressive players at the camp. With the Avalanche not anywhere near the contract limit, the question only seemed to grow louder: What more did this kid have to do to earn a deal?

Another wrinkle to this story is Saigeon’s dual citizenship with Canada and Sweden. With that in mind, his agent went fishing around for competitive offers from SHL teams looking to add a young forward to their club and the added pressure on the Avalanche appears to have worked to some degree.

Today, Saigeon finally got…a deal. It was an AHL deal with the Eagles and not an ELC but that’s not quite the end of the story. In what has already been an odd situation through and through, a source tells BSN Denver the plan is still to sign Saigeon to his ELC…next March.

Waiting until next March would mean his ELC signing age is 22, an important factor in this story. ELC signing age is determined by the player’s age on September 15 of the calendar year he signs, which would be 2020 in this case. Saigeon’s June birthday makes it so his ELC is a two-year deal instead of the standard three.

To my eye, there doesn’t appear to be a tangible benefit here for keeping Saigeon from a three-year ELC when they plan to commit three years to him in pro hockey anyway. Had they given Saigeon an AHL deal last year and then signed him to an ELC this summer, they would’ve gotten four years from pro hockey while only paying for three.

But because of Saigeon’s age, that isn’t the case here. Instead, it looks like the Avs like the player enough to commit to him, but not enough to give him the ELC outright. With 39 contracts currently signed and five RFAs left to add, Colorado isn’t within a mile of the 50-contract limit.

And all of this brings us back around to the original, still unanswered question here:

Why?