My personal opinion is they come out of Christmas break and hammer out a deal somewhere in the first couple weeks of January.
Uneducated guess: 8 years, 11.7m NMC
I'll be pretty surprised if that happens. I believe that this will go down to the wire, just like it did with Landeskog and just like it did with Nichushkin with the potential that he just walks as a UFA a distinct possibility (and Avs fans freaking' the f*** out in the process).
I also believe that the Avs are going to load up for the 2025 playoffs. I absolutely LOVED hearing that C-Mac doesn't want to wait to make more improvement to the roster because in the end, when you think about it really doesn't matter.
You wait months until the TDL to get into a bidding war with these other teams for a select few players that everyone seems to want to add to their team and for what? So that MAYBE you can pay a lower price by waiting out these sellers ?
Pay a bit of a higher price NOW, avoid the bidding wars and make sure you get your guy. For me, the TDL is for adding pieces like bottom-6 forwards / bottom pairing d-men and/or specialty/utility players IF the price is right as a 'nice to have' but if it doesn't happen, so be it. It's NOT the time to add Top-6 forwards or Top-4 d-men and make massive changes to your roster - especially in this system - where we see guys take up to 25 to 30 games to come around to playing the way Bednar wants.