The Avalanche having had a largely successful season in 2020-2021, and with a core of young players (
Dugin,
Lezak,
Dingle,
Yermolayev) to build around and at least one veteran worth keeping around longer (
Hughes), plus two young Goalies who showed more promise than expected, there were questions to be answered about which players to let walk as free agents, and how and where to spend available money on free agents on the market.
A small handful of players were allowed to move along, all over the age of 30, ranging from the mildly useful ( LD Lee Eigts, RD Stephen McIntyre, both of whom played a significant number of games elsewhere in the NHL during the 2021-2022 season, with Eigts having a rather fine season with Vancouver and playing in 70 games) to the borderline viable (LW Dale Donnelly, RD Matej Jerabek- both of whom played only in the AHL in 2021-2022.)
With some money to spend and roster space, the first thing the Avalanche did was to target one of the biggest name Right Defencemen on the market-
Sherwood Sharp- who was coming off a 63 point, +20 season, and having led his team, the Edmonton Oilers, to the promised land, leading him to being awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy. In
Sharp the Avs got a gifted offensive defenceman who also has 2-way skills and very strong physical gifts.
With a star signing out of the way, the team focused on picking up some more veteran, but not yet aged, players with useful skills to fill roles, largely on 2nd to 4th lines.
29-year old Left Winger
Tommy Lockhart proved to be one of the better signings. This is jumping ahead a bit but I will note at this point that Lockhart played exclusively in the AHL in 2020-2021 and then gave the Avalanche 76 games in 2021-2022 in which he collected 42 points with a +14 goal difference. He was also very good in the first round of the playoffs.
Left Defenceman
Luke Bosum was also a solid signing, profiles as being ultra-durable at age 27, and in addition to strong checking skills on defense he is also a strong rushing defenceman and point shooter. (Again, jumping ahead, after a fine season in Montreal before joining the Avs he had an ever better season with us, with 41 points (31 assists) and +15 in 65 games played.)
And finally, the Avs also added Right Defenceman
Timothy Duffy. At age 28,
Duffy was another player who was in the AHL the previous season. While
Duffy did not provide as much value as any of the other free agency signings, with his solid checking and stickchecking skills, as well as strong puckhandling and passing, he is a useful role player who ended up appearing in 56 games.
Coming up next will be a look at the NHL Entry Draft and the Avs top picks.
Edit: Looking back through this post after posting it I notice that after Sharp our free agency signings were in reverse order in terms of how much we paid them and how much value they provided. Ah, well, on the whole it worked out at least.