Avalanche defenseman Devon Toews hopes to reach an agreement with the organization on a contract extension before the 2023-24 season, he said Wednesday.
“My intent is to stay here the rest of my career,” Toews said during the team’s preseason media day.
The 29-year-old blueliner is entering the last season of a four-year deal with an average annual value of $4.1 million, occupying 4.5% of the team’s available cap space in 2023-24. The Avs are allowed to exceed this year’s $83.5 million NHL salary cap by up to $7 million, which is the AAV of injured captain Gabriel Landeskog, who is out for the season.
Toews is the fourth highest-paid defenseman on Colorado’s roster, behind Cale Makar ($9 million), Sam Girard ($5 million) and Josh Manson ($4.5 million). He’s regarded as one of the league’s most stalwart defenders, and he’s coming off his second consecutive 50-point season. Thirty-seven of his 43 assists were at even strength in 2022-23.
Playing on one of the NHL’s most potent defensive pairings with Cale Makar, Toews finished 14th in Norris Trophy voting. Since coming to Colorado in a trade with the Islanders, he has finished top-15 in Norris all three seasons, and as high as eighth place in 2021-22.
Toews said he has talked with the front office this summer about getting a deal done.
“It’s a business, right, so we both have sides that we’re trying to get done,” he said. “There’s their side, and there’s my side as well. So we’ll hopefully find some common ground here. I’d rather it not drag on into the season. … If we’re able to get that done, that would be awesome.”
The Avs have completed major contract extensions with core players in back-to-back offseasons. In July 2021, Landeskog agreed to his eight-year deal on the eve of free agency. The ensuing season, he put together a memorable point-per-game playoff run to help Colorado hoist the Stanley Cup before a recurring knee injury sidelined him.
Then late in the 2022 offseason, the Avalanche and Nathan MacKinnon agreed to an eight-year extension with a $12.6 million AAV that will make the star center the highest-paid player in the NHL this season. MacKinnon, like Toews, wanted to get negotiations out of the way before entering the final season of his previous deal.
Toews will become an unrestricted free agent in July 2024 if Colorado doesn’t re-sign him beforehand. Organizational depth is the conundrum preventing his scenario from being as simple as the Avalanche paying an elite player without pause. In 2023-24 with MacKinnon’s new contract going into effect, he, Makar and Mikko Rantanen will make a combined $30.85 million.
Even when MacKinnon was on a team-friendly deal, the Avs were up against the cap in 2022 after winning the Cup, forcing them to choose between top-six forwards Valeri Nichushkin and Nazem Kadri. The forfeiture of Kadri to free agency that July, while unavoidable, turned out to be an obstacle Colorado could never fully overcome in its championship defense. The second line struggled to score, especially as injuries piled up.
Paying Toews would further stabilize the Avalanche’s core for the time being, but it would make fringe signings more difficult — particularly with more massive contract negotiations looming. Rantanen (current AAV: $9.25 million) is set to become a UFA in 2025, and top-four defenseman Bo Byram will be a restricted free agent again that offseason after signing a two-year bridge deal ($3.85 million AAV) this July.
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