Tyler Arnason is a first: The first member of the Avalanche whose father played for the city’s previous NHL franchise, the Colorado Rockies.
Chuck Arnason played for the Rockies for 90 games over two seasons before he was traded to the Cleveland Barons in the middle of the 1977-78 season. Tyler was born a year and a half later, in March 1979, in Oklahoma City, where Chuck was playing in the Central Hockey League in the twilight of his career.
“He just said Denver’s a great city,” Tyler said after a recent Avalanche practice. “I think my parents wanted to live here at the end of his career, but it didn’t work out. It’s a great town and great fans, so it’s good.”
Tyler Arnason played three seasons at St. Cloud State after going in the seventh round of the 1998 draft to Chicago. After joining the Blackhawks in the 2001-02 season, the young center was stamped as one of the organization’s bright hopes for the future, but he never quite got over the hump, getting 19 and 22 goals in his two full seasons with Chicago.
Last season, he had 13 goals in 60 games before going to Ottawa in a deadline deal in March, and then he signed with the Avalanche as a free agent July 1.
“It has been tough sledding in Chicago over the last couple of years and the team hasn’t done very well, so it has been kind of tough to play,” he said. “But I’m looking forward as opposed to back, and I think that’s the way you have to be. I’m looking forward to this season.”
He has had “potential” stamped all over him so often, he might as well have that word on the back of his sweater instead of his name. And the Avalanche is hoping that with a fresh start in Denver, he can break through.
“I think it’s a compliment,” he said of the label. “I don’t think I’ve reached it yet, either. So I actually think it’s a good thing that people think there’s more there. I think there’s more there, too. A guy like me has to keep working hard. I think the skill level is there. I just have to work, and everything’s going to fall in place.”
Arnason’s early-season importance will be magnified if veteran center Pierre Turgeon – who played well last season on a line with Marek Svatos before Svatos suffered a fractured shoulder in March – remains out of the lineup long with an assortment of minor injuries.
Steve Konowalchuk’s retirement could heighten the need for Arnason to be a find on the free-agent front, rather than perpetuate his image as a bit of an underachiever.
The Arnason file
Age: 27
Height: 5-11
Weight: 204
Position: C
Key stat: $950,000 – the amount the Avalanche is paying him this season after signing him as a free agent.
Season projection: 25 goals, 35 assists.
The future: He is on a one-year deal, so this is a contract season for him. The future, in other words, is in his own hands.
Terry Frei can be reached at 303-954-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com.
