Nicolas Meloche puts on his jersey after being selected 40th overall by the Colorado Avalanche during the 2015 NHL Draft at BB&T Center on June 27, 2015 in Sunrise, Fla. (Bruce Bennett, Getty Images)
Saturday’s main Avalanche story from the first round of the NHL draft on Friday is . Everything we publish online is at .
Colorado’s trade on Saturday — it dealt No. 31 to San Jose for the Sharks’ 39th plus what the Avs gave up to acquire defenseman Brad Stuart a year ago (2016 second, 2017 sixth) — is , along with all the Day 2 draft picks. The Avs went heavy on guys from Quebec and Russia (Greer is from Quebec).
Colorado’s draft selections:
Round 1 RW Mikko Rantanen, Finland (10th overall)
— Top European ranked skater was considered a top-six pick; a steal at 10.
Round 2 LW A.J. Greer, Boston University (39th)
— Had just three goals and seven points in 37 games as a true freshman; 6-3, 205.
Round 2 D Nicolas Meloche, QMJHL (40th)
— Just 17 and coming off big O-season with Baie-Comeau (10 goals, 34 points in 44 games).
Round 3 C Jean-Christophe Beaudin, QMJHL (71st)
— Produced 53 points (14 goals) in 68 goals for Rouyn-Noranda as a Q-league rookie.
Round 4 D Andrei Mironov, Russia (101st)
— He’s 20 with three years of pro hockey in KHL under his belt with Moscow Dynamo.
Round 6 D Sergei Boikov, Russia (161st)
— Had three goals, 21 points in 64 games for Drummondville of QMJHL last season.
Round 7 C Gustav Olhaver, Sweden (191st)
— Likely a project at 6-6, 213 pounds.
Excerpts from GM Joe Sakic’s conference call Friday:
About Ryan O’Reilly’s salary demands (eight years, $64 million) and big trade to Buffalo: “It was clear to me we weren’t going to get to where the numbers were. We had a chance to acquire Carl Soderberg, who was high on our list, as a replacement. Big body, real smart with the puck. He’ll be a great fit for us – he’s a good two-way player. And that allowed us to not worry about the center position and try to get a good young D. We really like the potential of Zadorvo v. He’s capable of being a solid, solid D for us here for the next 10 years. And we add Grekorako; he played for Patrick Roy. He’s another (big) guy who’s 6-foot-3. His hockey IQ is really good and we can really use that on the power play. And then J.T. Compher, our guys really liked. He’s captain this year at Michigan. He’s a leader, a tenacious player who plays a 200-foot game.”
Former midgets Brandon Carlo (37th BOS), Troy Terry (148th ANA) & David Cotton (169th CAR) NHL picks. Terry is bound
— Mike Chambers (@MikeChambers)
You got much bigger with first-round pick Mikko Rantanen, Soderberg and the incoming Buffalo players: “We weren’t the biggest team in the league. Letap face it, in the Western Conference we have to go head-to-head with some big teams. So thatap going to help. But what I like (most) about all of them is they’re all good, smart hockey players.”
About Rantanen, who was projected to go in the top six: “Our guys had him rated higher. So we were surprised. He’s the No. 1-rated international player … And he’s a winger; we’re looking for wingers. He’s a left-hand shot who plays right wing … He’s going to come to training camp and we’ll see how it unfolds. But we’re definitely not going to rush him.”
$16.7M under cap ceiling, $1.9M above floor w/ major RFA’s C Grikorenko, G Pickard, F Hishon, D Elliott, F Agozzino to qualify 4sure
— Mike Chambers (@MikeChambers)
About slicing about $8 million of salary, available for next week’s free agency, trades and resigning 2016 free agents Erik Johnson (UFA), and Tyson Barrie and Nathan MacKinnon (both RFAs), among others: “This year we have room but we also have to make sure we’re responsible because we do have some guys coming up next year. It definitely frees up some stuff and gives us flexibility going into free agency. Obviously, we’d like to get one more defenseman and we’ll see how that goes. We want to be responsible and hopefully there’s a fit for us July 1. If it doesn’t work out – we don’t have the guy we want, or the guy or two – we know we’ve got flexibility to do something via trade whether itap in the summer or September.”
About the first pick (No. 31) of the second round (acquired in O’Reilly trade, ultimately traded to San Jose): “We have all night to think about what we’re going to do. There might be some opportunities to move the pick and acquire more picks later on.”
About realizing that extending O’Reilly wasn’t going to work: “When I met with his representatives, (including) Pat Morris, I spoke to him a couple times and he gave us numbers that we just (couldn’t) go to. In the salary cap era, you got to make tough decisions sometimes. Thatap one of the reasons why we acquired Soderberg. We like what he brings. We think he’s going to be a very valuable player here and help us on the power play. He plays a complete two-way game and he’s going to be used a lot …
“Itap always tough to trade one of your core guys, but the reality in a cap world.”
Replacing O’Reilly on the power play: “Our power play last year, I mean, it wasn’t the best. We feel with Grigorenko and Soderberg, our power play should (improve).”
