How's your cap fit, Avalanche? Part 1 of 30

Posted 10:29 AM ET | Comments 4

So, with the season almost over, everyone will hope to fill needs through the draft, trades and free agency. My love of this season and all it brings gets me thinking what can a team do, so how does your cap fit? Today Colorado. As I am sure you are already aware, for the first time in memory, the cap gets smaller dropping down to $64,300,000, so here goes....The Av's presently have 12f, 8d and 2g under contract for 13-14 at $56,138,333, which leaves $10,851,667. There are quite a few teams that would like that kind of space. However that may not be as comfortable as it seems on first glance. Unlike playing NHL 14, you have to look years down the line.. the Avs cap issues are a year away, while I am sure the cap will go up 3-5% that would only bring it to about $68 million for the following year, the Avs may use this off season to lock up some players long term (see Pittsburgh and Malkin). The Avs must consider pending RFA's (O'Reilly he was fun last year, Duchene, Landeskog, and if he should bounce back Varlamov) While all are making pretty good numbers, it would be unrealistic to think that they wouldn't eat up that $10million space. Also Colorado does not have a history of spending to the ceiling. The one theory that helps is the real possibility of letting Statsny go, to free up another 6.6million. So what does this mean for this year, well in my un-informed (no secret sources) opinion, I don't see the Av's being overly involved in free agents this year. Maybe they look to trade Stats to get a dman with some experience, or they stay the course with youth. Duncan Siemens, and Garrett Meurs are both coming off good seasons, and should fill in nicely soon. In conclusion, I see Colorado taking that new coach of theirs and letting him work with young players like he has already, if they do try to get someone it might be a vet d, short term to leave room for play next season. Next up Edmonton!

Filed Under: Colorado Avalanche