Rumor: 2026 Trade Rumors and Free Agency: Offseason Edition

[Pierce Hawthorne]

I think this place just severely underrates Nichushkin at this point.

If he does get traded (And I'd bet money he does not), I think everyone here is gonna be really surprised at the value he carries.

 

[missionAvs]

Are you open to do Knies for Nichushkin ?

Man I would eat your ass if the Avs somehow managed to acquire Knies for Nuke. Good grief that would be robbery of the century.

 

[EdAVSfan]

I think this place just severely underrates Nichushkin at this point.

If he does get traded (And I'd bet money he does not), I think everyone here is gonna be really surprised at the value he carries.

I’m not doubtful that he’ll have value. He still a bit of a unicorn in terms of style of play.

But we need cap space. If it’s not him to create the space to ice a roster, then who?

 

[AvsWraith]

Man I would eat your ass if the Avs somehow managed to acquire Knies for Nuke. Good grief that would be robbery of the century.

I would consider it proof that we are living in a simulation.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

I’m not doubtful that he’ll have value. He still a bit of a unicorn in terms of style of play.

But we need cap space. If it’s not him to create the space to ice a roster, then who?

We dont  need anymore space. It would be nice, but not a need anymore.

They've got $5.2M in space with 12F, 4D, and 2G signed.

They'll add a 6D for $1M or less, they'll add a 7D or 13F nacho guy for $900k or less, and they'll have between $3-3.5M to add another Dman via trade. Depending on exactly what/who all these guys end up being, they may even have enough space to run a 13F and 7D.

 

[shadow1]

I think this place just severely underrates Nichushkin at this point.

If he does get traded (And I'd bet money he does not), I think everyone here is gonna be really surprised at the value he carries.

If you're talking about me, I posted cold hard stats.

I think he has a lot of trade value. Mikheyev, who has a career high of 36 points, is seeking $5+. Even the current ~50 point version of Val at $6.1 is going to have a good market.

 

[Lawrence Oates]

We dont  need anymore space. It would be nice, but not a need anymore.

They've got $5.2M in space with 12F, 4D, and 2G signed.

They'll add a 6D for $1M or less, they'll add a 7D or 13F nacho guy for $900k or less, and they'll have between $3-3.5M to add another Dman via trade. Depending on exactly what/who all these guys end up being, they may even have enough space to run a 13F and 7D.

Not sure what the purpose of carrying any extras for the Avs is, unless they are on a road trip.

They never hold practices, so why bother with extra bodies that are being paid to do nothing?

 

[EdAVSfan]

We dont  need anymore space. It would be nice, but not a need anymore.

They've got $5.2M in space with 12F, 4D, and 2G signed.

They'll add a 6D for $1M or less, they'll add a 7D or 13F nacho guy for $900k or less, and they'll have between $3-3.5M to add another Dman via trade. Depending on exactly what/who all these guys end up being, they may even have enough space to run a 13F and 7D.

Using your above suggestions, with a 21 man roster, the Avs can afford a 3M dollar 2nd pairing LD.

At 22 man, you're looking at a touch over 2M.

I'm not remotely comfortable with that depth on LD. Toews, and then a 2-3M 2nd pairing guy and a crappy 1M on the bottom pairing doesn't sound encouraging at all.

If they want to have any type of quality on the 2nd pair, I think they need to allocate more cap space to it.

But you are correct that they dont need the space. They can ice a roster with the remaining space. I just think the defense will be terrible.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

If you're talking about me, I posted cold hard stats.

I think he has a lot of trade value. Mikheyev, who has a career high of 36 points, is seeking $5+. Even the current ~50 point version of Val at $6.1 is going to have a good market.

Not talking about anybody in particular.

I just think in general this board has jumped off the deep end of despair and hatred for a lot of the players/coachss/management of this team and aren't actually thinking very clearly with most evaluations. And Nuke is for sure one of those who has felt this wrath.


Val is a good player. 50+ point guy who can easily play PP1, PK1, Top line, 3rd line, RW, LW, he's a one man forecheck, etc etc.

If it weren't for the off ice issues he wouldn't even be in discussions for being available. And while the off ice issues do impact his value, its pretty abundantly clear now that the NHL isn't really a league that gives a shit about that stuff, its easily swept under the rug in 90% of markets and the NHL does a good job(Well, good job at doing a bad thing) at taking care of the rest of it.


I think the main boards are a great indicator of how Nuke is perceived outside of this area. If he were made available you'd have a dozen or more teams very interested and likely willing to move some really interesting pieces to get Val.

Not a Matthew Knies, but good pieces.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

Not sure what the purpose of carrying any extras for the Avs is, unless they are on a road trip.

They never hold practices, so why bother with extra bodies that are being paid to do nothing?

Well with the Eagles being literally right down the road, they dont usually carry more then 1 extra guy but yeah its basically just for the road trips in case someone gets hurt in a b2b situation.

 

[The Kingslayer]

If you're talking about me, I posted cold hard stats.

I think he has a lot of trade value. Mikheyev, who has a career high of 36 points, is seeking $5+. Even the current ~50 point version of Val at $6.1 is going to have a good market.

True but I wonder if Nuke being on his last chance might scare possible suitors and that might tank his value some?

 

[hockeyfish]

Using your above suggestions, with a 21 man roster, the Avs can afford a 3M dollar 2nd pairing LD.

At 22 man, you're looking at a touch over 2M.

I'm not remotely comfortable with that depth on LD. Toews, and then a 2-3M 2nd pairing guy and a crappy 1M on the bottom pairing doesn't sound encouraging at all.

If they want to have any type of quality on the 2nd pair, I think they need to allocate more cap space to it.

But you are correct that they dont need the space. They can ice a roster with the remaining space. I just think the defense will be terrible.

You’re also not leaving much room for deadline additions or injury replacements.

 

[LOFIN]

Not talking about anybody in particular.

I just think in general this board has jumped off the deep end of despair and hatred for a lot of the players/coachss/management of this team and aren't actually thinking very clearly with most evaluations. And Nuke is for sure one of those who has felt this wrath.


Val is a good player. 50+ point guy who can easily play PP1, PK1, Top line, 3rd line, RW, LW, he's a one man forecheck, etc etc.

If it weren't for the off ice issues he wouldn't even be in discussions for being available. And while the off ice issues do impact his value, its pretty abundantly clear now that the NHL isn't really a league that gives a shit about that stuff, its easily swept under the rug in 90% of markets and the NHL does a good job(Well, good job at doing a bad thing) at taking care of the rest of it.


I think the main boards are a great indicator of how Nuke is perceived outside of this area. If he were made available you'd have a dozen or more teams very interested and likely willing to move some really interesting pieces to get Val.

Not a Matthew Knies, but good pieces.

Fact #1: We need capspace. You said we don't need it, I disagree. We don't have the cap to keep Drury, re-sign Kulak, and adding another D-man and even sign league minimum guys. More space out is needed.

Fact #2: Nuke has done f*** all since the cup to make me and many others feel like he's worth keeping around, when we are looking at potential places to shed salary. He directly ruined two post-seasons for us because hookers and drugs were more important, and the two most recent post-seasons where he actually played, meh.

I'm not one of those guys who's itching to drive him out of town, but he's the easiest one to let go. Whether or not we can actually make a move worthwile to us, is another thing.

 

[Tommy Shelby]

The sooner y'all accept that Nuke has played his last game as an Av, the easier it'll be

 

[shadow1]

Not talking about anybody in particular.

I just think in general this board has jumped off the deep end of despair and hatred for a lot of the players/coachss/management of this team and aren't actually thinking very clearly with most evaluations. And Nuke is for sure one of those who has felt this wrath.


Val is a good player. 50 point guy who can easily play PP1, PK1, Top line, 3rd line, RW, LW, he's a one man forecheck, etc etc.

If it weren't for the off ice issues he wouldn't even be in discussions for being available. And while the off ice issues do impact his value, its pretty abundantly clear now that the NHL isn't really a league that gives a shit about that stuff, its easily swept under the rug in 90% of markets and the NHL does a good job(Well, good job at doing a bad thing) at taking care of the rest of it.


I think the main boards are a great indicator of how Nuke is perceived outside of this area. If he were made available you'd have a dozen or more teams very interested and likely willing to move some really interesting pieces to get Val.

Not a Matthew Knies, but good pieces.

We'd be talking about him regardless. I don't think anyone has brought up the worry of another suspension. He's 31, is often banged up, had a tough second half of the season, and was downright bad in the playoffs.

The only part his past suspensions play in Nuke's evaluation is the understanding that his best hockey was artificially fueled. That, plus his age and diminishing performance, are reasons we shouldn't expect the hands of time to turn back to 2022-2024.

There were a few years there where Colorado was downright mediocre when Val wasn't in the lineup. Those days are done; they were 8-1-1 without him this past season.

 

[Pokecheque]

For the most part, Nichushkin was one of the worst Avs players for the final few games of the season and didn't do a whole lot in the playoffs either. Don't know if that was injury-related or not but the coaching staff was struggling mightily to figure out where to put him because he was dragging down every line he was on.

When dude is on, he's a force, a freight train on skates who seemingly wins every puck battle he's in and moves with surprising speed and awareness--not to mention one of the few guys on the roster who can get to the front of the net and make things happen. But when he's NOT on, he just sorta floats around the perimeter and turns the puck over. Unfortunately we've seen far too much of the latter of late.

I don't expect a huge return for his services, it'll be kinda surprising if they get anything of substance to be honest. That's not a great contract at all to try and move.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

Fact #1: We need capspace. You said we don't need it, I disagree. We don't have the cap to keep Drury, re-sign Kulak, and adding another D-man and even sign league minimum guys. More space out is needed.

Fact #2: Nuke has done f*** all since the cup to make me and many others feel like he's worth keeping around, when we are looking at potential places to shed salary. He directly ruined two post-seasons for us because hookers and drugs were more important, and the two most recent post-seasons where he actually played, meh.

I'm not one of those guys who's itching to drive him out of town, but he's the easiest one to let go. Whether or not we can actually make a move worthwile to us, is another thing.

Like I literally just finished saying.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

Using your above suggestions, with a 21 man roster, the Avs can afford a 3M dollar 2nd pairing LD.

At 22 man, you're looking at a touch over 2M.

I'm not remotely comfortable with that depth on LD. Toews, and then a 2-3M 2nd pairing guy and a crappy 1M on the bottom pairing doesn't sound encouraging at all.

If they want to have any type of quality on the 2nd pair, I think they need to allocate more cap space to it.

But you are correct that they dont need the space. They can ice a roster with the remaining space. I just think the defense will be terrible.

Our defense is going to look different from most traditional defenses, because we already have 4 guys who are Top 4 Dmen... But 3 of them make up the right Side of the defense.

They can afford to go "cheaper" or lower quality on the left side because we have the stronger guys for each pairing playing on the right side.

Also whats the difference in how this team started last year. Ilya Solovyov was our #6D for basically the first month and a half of this year. Middleton played a few games.

There's a few decent LD they could target for around $3M IMO that would compliment our Right side pretty well.

Siegenthaler or Lohrei are the guys I like the most.

 

[RoyIsALegend]

Avs social media have just been spamming posts about Brett Kulak for the past two hours…

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

The sooner y'all accept that Nuke has played his last game as an Av, the easier it'll be

I literally dont give a shit what they do with him. Quite frankly I dont care what they do with anybody on the team, I'm finding myself caring less and less seemingly every day about this Avs team.

Has no impact on me... But I do think the Avs not trading him would have a pretty significant impact on the mental health of quite a few folks here.

 

[The AntiBob]

Avs social media have just been spamming posts about Brett Kulak for the past two hours…

I feel like they did this with a lot of guys last off season too.

 

[Balthazar]

Avs social media have just been spamming posts about Brett Kulak for the past two hours…

Watching that goal and the celebration hurts when you know what’s about to happen over the next 4 games. What a f***ing choke job.

On a side note, it makes a lot of sense to sign Kulak instead of trading whatever assets we have left for a mystery top 4 LHD.

 

[The Kingslayer]

Avs social media have just been spamming posts about Brett Kulak for the past two hours…

Didnt they do something like this before before they kept the player? Notice they didnt do one for Ross lol

 

[Balthazar]

It seems like about 20 teams in the league are looking for a 2C

 

[LOFIN]

Avs social media have just been spamming posts about Brett Kulak for the past two hours…

Pessimist: "They are doing this because they know he won't be back"

Optimist: "They are doing this because an extension is coming"

Realist: "They do pretty much the same stuff every year with every player, and decided to start with Kulak this year"