Discussing the Colorado Avalanche Trade and Resigning Rumors

Many rumors have been flying around surrounding the Colorado Avalanche and their potential trades and signings so I am going to give my perspective and opinion on those rumors.

The first rumor I am going to discuss is the Avalanche not resigning Nazem Kadri. It is suspected that the Avalanche want to trade Kardri for JT Miller, or just not resign him. This year Kadri is making 4.5 million dollars and will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season. Currently the Avalanche also have 700,000 in cap space, per cap friendly.

This year Kadri has produced tremendously. In his 56 games played, Kadri has scored 22 goals, and had 50 assists for a total of 72 points. Kadri is also +19 this season and helped his team with 6 game winning goals. Within the Avalanche, Kadri is ranked first for points and assists and is ranked second for power play assists. Kadri clearly makes an impact on this team. In addition to team standings, Kadri is ranked 6th overall in the NHL for points. By looking at these statistics, Kadri is clearly a important piece to the Colorado Avalanche team. I think that if the Avalanche did not resign him that would be a big mistake. Especially because he obviously has good chemistry with the team and they all build on each other.

As to the JT Miller trade rumors, in his 56 games played, Miller has scored 23 goals, and had 44 assists for a total of 67 points. Miller is +7 on the season and is ranked first on the team for points, assists and goals. Miller is ranked 9 within the NHL for points. Miller is also making 5.2 million dollars a year.

While it seems as though these two are pretty even with skill, some uncertainties are still there. The first one is how each player will be able to play with the rest of the team and the team dynamics. It is obvious that these players can play well with their own team, but how will they do on another one? Another thing to keep in mind is that Kadri is getting paid about .7 million less than Miller. To trade for Miller would mean the Avalanche would be at their cap and not be able to resign any more players for any more money.

Another rumor is trading young defenseman Bowen Byram in the Nazem Kadri trade for JT Miller. To use this budding defenseman as a pawn in order to get JT Miller is also not smart of the avalanche due to the similarness of Kadri and Miller’s statistics. The two players have such similar statistics that making a trade for Miller would cost the Avalanche more money than needed and therefore need to make a trade with Byram to get rid of some cap space.