Colorado Avalanche Sign Francois Beauchemin: 3 Years, $13.5 Million

A longer-than-expected off-season has seen the Colorado Avalanche state time and time again their desire to add quality left-handed defensemen to the fold and now they have signed one in Francois Beauchemin. The 35-year old Beauchemin departs the Anaheim Ducks, his second stint with the team, after spending parts of the last five seasons there as he has inked a 3-year, $13.5 million ($4.5M annual average value) with Colorado.

The aging Beauchemin was a high-end two-way defenseman as recently as two years ago but his play has begun to slip significantly, especially last season. Still, the Avalanche felt he had enough to provide the roster in terms of veteran leadership and ability they are currently missing on the left side of their defense.

Beauchemin immediately becomes the elder statesman on a blue line that didn’t need one with Brad Stuart already on the roster and becomes another mentor for recently-acquired 20-year old rearguard Nikita Zadorov and upcoming top defensive prospects Chris Bigras and Duncan Siemens.

The hard-nosed and gritty Beauchemin’s addition potentially slides Nate Guenin off the opening night lineup card, which is sort of addition by subtraction, but beyond that it is difficult to see where this signing makes the Avalanche significantly better today or tomorrow.

From a contract standpoint, because Beauchemin is already 35, his contract slides into the 35+ contract status, meaning the salary and all bonuses will continue to count against the salary cap, regardless of whether or not the player is still playing for the team or not.

Beauchemin’s career statistics are below: