Kurtis MacDermid's new contract with the Avalanche is both good and bad

Knowing they have a very busy summer ahead with some big decisions on the table, the Avalanche got their second piece of business done yesterday when they announced that Kurtis MacDermid had re-signed for two more years.

The contract comes in at two years, $1.975M, which breaks down to an AAV of $987,500 per year.

The 28-year-old utility player was a defenseman before arriving in Denver this year and has played both forward and defense for the Avalanche this season, registering five points (2G, 3 A) in 54 games while racking up 72 PIMs along the way.

For a role player, this has been a slightly controversial deal (as much as it can be for a guy averaging 7:23 of ice time. That’s because there are two pretty extremes to this deal, so I wanted to break them into the two obvious pieces and get into it.

No grade from me on this one, but I’ll give you what I know and what I think and whatever conclusion you draw from that will be up to you.

Let’s take a look.

The Hockey Player

When it comes to MacDermid, let’s start with what he does on the ice.

On the upside, MacDermid’s proven versatility this year is absolutely part of the value in this contract. Colorado has preferred to open the season with less than the 23-player maximum anyway, but with salary cap restraints continuing to force tough decisions from the front office, having a player making essentially a million dollars who can be a depth forward and a depth defenseman is smart allocation of money. That part is an easy sell for me.

Where things get more complicated, however, is what MacDermid has actually done on the ice.

His raw shot metrics at 5v5 are fine with nothing sticking out as too problematic.

• CF%: 51.87
• SF%: 49.63
• GF%: 51.52
• xG%: 49.50
• SCF%: 50.00
• HDCF%: 46.38

If you looked just at that list, you wouldn’t have anything really negative to say about the signing. That all looks fine. This is where I remind you that MacDermid is playing on a pretty good team, however, and those numbers are pumped up a bit by that fact. His isolated impacts are quite a bit more problematic.

In the first chart, keep in mind that the percentages are relative to league average and that negative numbers on offense are bad and positive numbers on defense are bad.

That means that Kurtis MacDermid drives play at a rate nine percent worse than a league-average player. That’s not the worst, to be honest. There are some really good defensive defensemen that simply don’t drive play but lock things down in their own zone.

The defense from MacDermid, however, has been among the very worst in the entire NHL. The giant red blob that looks like a gunshot wound in front of Colorado’s net when MacDermid is on the ice is nothing short of horrific. His isolated defensive impact is 22% worse than a league-average player.

Looking at the second player card via JFresh, you see that while MacDermid has slightly improved in Colorado, it all still comes out to a bottom-tier player in the NHL. Without MacDermid’s goal-scoring acumen (seriously), it would be even worse because these models favor things like goal-scoring ability.

Now, it’s all relative, remember because this is a player averaging 7:23 per game. In last night’s win in Pittsburgh, he played all of 3:47. He is as sheltered and protected as any player in recent Avalanche history.

Things get even worse when you look at the impact he has on his teammates.

Looking at this, basically the only player significantly better with MacDermid on the ice is, somehow, Nazem Kadri. I have no idea what to make of that beyond small samples sometimes produce funny outliers and this is clearly an example of that because the rest of the teammates here are all worse with MacDermid on the ice.

His on-ice results have been ghastly and despite extremely limited ice time, has regularly made his teammates worse around him. He’s been a boat anchor. It’s like asking a Lamborghini to pull a U-Haul trailer behind it in a drag race.

There isn’t any way to sugarcoat what has happened with MacDermid on the ice. The run of play has been negatively impacted and the coaching staff has gone to significant lengths to shelter his usage to try to limit the damage and he’s still profiled as one of the worst players in the NHL this season.

This isn’t the entire story, however, so let’s talk about where MacDermid clearly shines.

The Person

I’m not sure any sport values intangibles and character the way hockey does. Where MacDermid is clearly acing his time in Colorado is in this area.

He’s a rink rat constantly working on his game trying to improve and spending time with Avalanche skills coach Shawn Allard. Playing both positions has meant double the work and by all accounts, he’s committed himself to that.

Simply put, that kind of work ethic is contagious and it fits into the culture of accountability Colorado has spent the last several years trying to establish. The guys at the top obviously put in the work but there are no free passes. You have to be committed to the work and MacDermid has won everyone involved in the process over with his willingness to show up and try to make himself better.

It also helps that his teammates just like him. There isn’t really an eloquent way to put that. Watch the bench on either of the goals he scored this year. The guys go crazy for him. They’re all rooting like crazy for MacDermid to get one while he’s out there. They all understand the score. Everyone knows he isn’t the most naturally gifted player in the room, but he’s out there squeezing every ounce of talent he has to offer to help them chase their dream.

Chemistry is an underrated part of the team-building process and the one the outside world (a la all of us) is the least privy to. I can post charts and graphs and fancystats all day to tell you Kurtis MacDermid isn’t a very good player in the NHL, but his teammates love him.

Teammates that like each other play for each other. They go the extra inch together. A rising tide raises all boats, right? MacDermid contributes to Colorado’s locker room culture and they clearly value that. If you don’t think it’s important, look at a team like Winnipeg for the difference culture can make.

As a role player, he is very comfortable in his own skin and isn’t pushing the needle for more playing time or to play on a different line. He comes to the rink and does whatever the coaching staff asks of him to best try to help the team on that day.

There’s value in role players who are comfortable being role players. Ambition is healthy, of course, but knowing who you are can be just as important. In MacDermid’s case, there are no delusions of grandeur here. He knows his limitations and his role and he plays to that.

As an absolutely jacked human being at 6’6”, 240 pounds, he knows his job is to go out and hit people and fight his way through a season if need be. He’s done all of that this year and he deserves credit for that.

Final Thoughts

In my eyes, this is where the Avalanche finds value. They have a player they love for lots of reasons (culture mainly, which matters) and the money is low enough that if better roster options come along, they can waive him and send him to the AHL and suffer zero salary cap penalties for it. His entire salary is buriable if they choose to do that.

I definitely don’t think that’s the immediate plan (one-way contracts for waiver-eligible players typically are a dead giveaway a team views a player first and foremost as an NHL player), but if things change along the way, it’s an option.

The deal brings up a lot of follow-up questions for me, such as:

• Why was this a priority?
• Was there going to be so much demand for him over the summer that they were worried they’d lose him in free agency?
• Couldn’t Jacob MacDonald have served the same essential function while being a more productive player? Even understanding MacDermid is an enforcer and MacDonald is more of an offensively-oriented player, the versatility was already there with MacDonald and he’s shown himself to be a decent NHL player in stints. Obviously, the Avs value the enforcer more, but it struck me as interesting nonetheless.
• What does this mean for younger Eagles players who are trying to break into the NHL? Did they just a permanent roster roadblock?
• If they valued MacDermid this much, why did they spend assets at the trade deadline to get better at both of the positions he plays, especially when getting more physical (MacDermid’s calling card, remember) was the goal?
• For a front office that has made so many smart moves and has built one of the league’s most trustworthy evaluation processes, what am I missing here?

Time will answer most of those questions, but it sure is about as interesting a depth signing as this organization is bound to make. Hit me with how you all feel about it in the comments.