No, they added close to 2M. It was a 2 for 1 player deal. You have to include the fact that Drury allows the Avs to move a player down, saving an additional 800Kish.
2nds are unspectacular because they don’t have the same excitement as 1sts, but they are absolutely incredibly valuable at getting good players. The Avs got Toews for 2 2nds, half of Lehkonen with a 2nd. The more you have, the more packages you can create.
They also added Drury. He’s a bottom 6 center. They’ve used Colton, maybe parsinnen, Kelly, etc. You now have an extra that could be moved if necessary. Maybe this facilitates a Colton move for a different player or Dman.
Again, this move has exchanged 1 player, for 2 players and two tradeable assets and close to 2M in cap space. To suggest that this move isn’t a precursor to being able to have more depth is simply disingenuous. Now, if they don’t spend to the cap, don’t spend the assets, are under the cap next season by 5-6M, sure, I’ll absolutely concede that they haven’t added depth.
Like I said originally, this trade allows them to have more depth. That could mean activating Landeskog. It could mean being able to keep Colton and re-sign Drouin, it could mean several things. They obviously still need to make the additional moves.