I liked to do yearly summer posts during Sakic's tenure as GM, so I thought I'd start doing them for GM Chis MacFarland as well.
Overall, it was a 5-star off-season in my book. MacFarland made several major re-signings, including LW Artturi Lehkonen, D Josh Manson, and RW Valeri Nichushkin. Most importantly, MacFarland signed C Nathan MacKinnon to a massive extension, making him this highest paid player in the NHL.
Though Sakic was technically still the GM when this move went down, I also liked the trade for G Alex Georgiev. He was a guy I thought the Avalanche might go after last off-season (before acquiring Darcy Kuemper), and I'm optimistic about what he can do this upcoming year.
If I do have a nitpick, it's regarding the Avalanche's 2C position. Colorado had enough cap space to address the vacancy left by Nazem Kadri - including retaining Kadri himself, had they wanted to - but instead opted to bring in Evan Rodrigues (1x$2M) and re-sign #5 defenseman Josh Manson (4x$4.5M).
This decision has caused the roster to be very bottom heavy, while still having a gaping hole on the second line. If a player (like Alex Newhook) doesn't step up to fill the void, it's going to be the talk of the season - though I'm sure it'll be addressed externally if internal options don't pan out.
2022-2023 was a lost year for the Avalanche. A large part of that is on MacFarland's decision to keep D Josh Manson - who barely played - instead using that cap space on a proper 2C. With a thinned out forward group, management tried to address the problem in-season, with mixed results.
But realistically, it wasn't going to be Colorado's year the moment it was known Gabe Landeskog would be out indefinitely. With the umbrella of "will he/won't he" return hanging over the team's head, and a hilarious amount of injuries, the season was doomed.
I love the response by MacFarland this off-season. The Avalanche had a lot of holes to fill, and not much cap space to do it. I was sure he would move depth from the back end in order to add cap space and talent up front. But the defense remains intact, sans Erik Johnson.
Yet, the forward group is considerably deeper. I really like the gambles on Jonathan Drouin and Ryan Johansen, while recognizing they could both be disasters. Ross Colton fills Colorado's yearly tradition of trading for an unsigned RFA, and has upside on top of his already solid play. Tomas Tatar, signed in mid-September for well below market value, is the cherry on top of retooling the Avalanche's forward group.
Miles Wood is the move that could be an unforced error. The Avalanche had not given a UFA a multi-year deal since all the way back in 2019 with Jonas Donskoi ($3.9x4), but dipped back into free agency in a big way by giving Wood a six year deal ($2.5x6). Wood is coming off a 27 point season in which he was healthy scratched multiple times in the playoffs, so his long contract will either look very smart or very stupid in the end.
In a vacuum though, MacFarland added all of the above players for the low, low cost of Cap Space and RFA Alex Newhook. He even picked up an additional 1st Round Pick in the process, using that asset and the Avalanche's own pick to select C Calum Ritchie and D Mikhail Gulyayev. Newly signed prospect Nikolai Kovalenko could also be an impactful late season addition.
Overall, this was Colorado's biggest off-season since 2019 (Bellemare, Burakovsky, Byram, Donskoi, Kadri, Newhook, Nichushkin). In my opinion, this is the club's strongest team heading
into a season in recent memory, outside of the ill-fated 2020-2021 team. None of the new players feel miscast in their roles, but many of them have seen their careers downturn, so we don't know yet how they'll work out. Based on the coaching staff's work with other incoming players in recent years, I'm going to take the "over" and predict more of them will work out than not.
