Jack Drury traded to Nashville as Avalanche makeover continues

The Colorado Avalanche made their second trade in a week with the Nashville Predators and former general manager Chris MacFarland. The first deal was moving Ross Colton out for draft picks; this time, the Avs solved another of their contract conundrums by dealing Jack Drury to the Predators in exchange for two recent first-round picks who haven’t quite broken through for the Preds.

The trade

Here are the full details of the deal:

Colorado receives:

• Forward Fedor Svechkov
• Forward Zachary L’Heureux

Nashville receives:

• Forward Jack Drury
• Forward Chase Bradley
• 2029 3rd-round pick

I’m not really sure why the Avs had to send both the best player (today) in Drury and the draft pick, but this is a fun deal for the Avalanche. Let’s dive into who these two players are and why they could make Drury a distant memory.

Zachary L’Heureux and his nuclear button

Way back in the 2021 NHL Draft, I was sitting on the DNVR set hoping that L’Heureux would make it to the Avalanche. I loved his mixture of skill and physicality and thought that he could bring a real edge to the Avalanche roster.

He was selected 27th, and one pick later the Avalanche took Oskar Olausson. Today, Olausson plays in Europe and L’Heureux is now a member of the Avalanche.

The 23-year-old certainly has not lived up to the first-round pick billing quite yet as his career-high is a 15-point season in 62 games in 2024-25. Injuries and an AHL demotion limited him to 25 games last season, but it was an interesting season. He scored only five points in those 25 games, but he notched 28 points in 30 games for the Milwaukee Admirals in the AHL.

His game is built around pure power despite being only 5’11”, 200 pounds. He registered 198 hits in his rookie year and added 64 in just 25 games. If you’re curious, that would have tied him for sixth on the Avs (with Nathan MacKinnon!). In 25 games.

So, yeah, he brings a level of physicality the Avalanche have rarely had in recent years. Let’s look at his player cards to see what the fancy stats have to say about him.

And the other model I like to use.

The minutes are limited, but we’re seeing a pretty good defensive winger who contributed positively to Nashville’s penalty kill. Add in that physical element, and you like that the Avalanche got a guy who is built for playoff hockey.

Or is he?

You see, L’Heureux has a significant suspension history because he hasn’t been able to curtail his on-ice craziness. He’s been suspended 12 times for all kinds of infractions, including an incident with a fan, from his junior career to the NHL. That level of undisciplined nonsense is flat-out not going to fly for Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar.

That said, L’Heureux only took three minor penalties last season while drawing six. The year before, he took 13 while drawing 15. If he can continue to keep the penalties to a minimum, he can carve out a consistent job in Colorado.

How does Fedor Svechkov fit the Avs?

Svechkov, taken eight picks before L’Heureux in 2021, is a completely different type of player. Stuck playing a depth center role for the Predators, it will be tough for the more offensively-minded Svechkov to find a clear-cut role with the Avalanche.

L’Heureux’s mission is clear: be crazy, hit stuff, go hard to the net, hit stuff, make the other team mad, hit stuff, help kill penalties, hit stuff, score the occasional dirty goal, hit stuff, fight sometimes, and, finally, hit stuff.

Svechkov’s mission is a little murkier. He has a much higher offensive ceiling than L’Heureux, but he’s also farther away from being the maxed-out version of himself (relative to his potential). He scored just four goals in 70 games last season, so we aren’t talking about crazy high-end skill buried in there, but he’s a good distributor who plays with pace and sees the ice very well.

Let’s look at his player card for an idea of who Svechkov is.

It’s a pretty blah profile from this angle, so let’s see what the other model says.

Again, we’re talking about a guy who isn’t standing out in any direction. On an individual skill basis, the second model rates his ability to avoid taking penalties as his greatest skill. If it’s high hockey IQ preventing taking penalties, that’s a great thing; if it’s the lack of engagement, that’s a big concern, especially under Bednar, who loathes “quiet” games from guys.

Svechkov shot just 5.7%, won only 42.8% of his faceoffs, and scored only 17 points in 70 games. That isn’t screaming “huge value buy” for the Avalanche, but when you break down Svechkov’s microstats, you get an interesting look under the hood of a player who might be brimming with skills waiting to break out.

Look at this! That’s a lot of blue!

The only areas that you aren’t feeling good about are his in-zone offensive contributions, shooting, and finishing. Those are pretty important parts of the process, but he’s showing a lot of upside as a playmaking option in a team’s middle-six forward group.

I can’t help but wonder if the plan is to utilize Nicolas Roy as the fourth-line center, then move Svechkov to Nazem Kadri‘s wing on the third line and let him work on a very different line than what he did in Nashville.

For reference, Svechkov’s five most common linemates during his two seasons with the Preds were Tyson Jost (!!), Matthew Wood, Luke Evangelista, L’Heureux, and Steven Stamkos.

Those are completely different roles, and it isn’t a surprise that the bulk of his success came alongside the more skilled players, save Evangelista (they got outscored 12-7 at 5v5).

The reality here is that Svechkov isn’t really meant to be a role player like that. If the Avs can unearth a solid middle-six contributor from him, it would be a huge win for them. That’s the kind of upside the Avs are banking on with Svechkov.

Where does this deal leave the Avalanche?

Colorado sits with just under $4M in salary cap space and three defensemen and a depth forward left to sign. That’s not enough cap space to fill the spots they need, so I’d expect another trade on the horizon. Given what I’ve heard, I fully expect it to be a Val Nichushkin deal, a concept you can read more about tomorrow morning when my piece on Nichushkin’s situation drops.

Right now, this is the framework of a forward corps for the Avs:

Lehkonen-MacKinnon-Necas
Nichushkin-Nelson-Landeskog
Kelly-Kadri-Roy
L’Heureux-Svechkov-O’Connor

Move the players around as you see fit, but there’s a lot of versatility in that group at the moment.

The other aspect of this deal is the contract situation. Both players are 23 years old and are signed for the next two seasons at a combined rate of a tick over $2M combined. If they both stick on the NHL roster (both have to pass through waivers if the Avs wanted to demote them, so I’d expect them to at least stay on the roster even if they aren’t in the lineup), this is the kind of value they’ve needed to pursue.

They got younger and potentially filled out two forward spots of need. This is a risky trade from the Avs in that they are giving up a known quantity and one of the best fourth-line centers in Drury, but both players have the potential to land higher in the lineup if they start to tap into their full potential.