Colorado Avalanche general manager Chris MacFarland said Monday he wasn’t sure if he had another trade in him this week.
He did, and it’s a big one.
The Avs traded top prospect Calum Ritchie, a first-round pick in 2026 or 2027, a conditional third-round pick in 2028 and defenseman Oliver Kylington to the New York Islanders for center Brock Nelson and prospect William Dufour.
“I think it’s a huge add,” Avs coach Jared Bednar. “Big, long, strong, can skate. Highly productive. Getting better with age. He’s always been a trusted 200-foot player.
“To get a player of that caliber is hard to do. I think it’s an amazing add for our team.”
Nelson, 33, has 20 goals and 43 points for the Islanders this season. He’s in the final season of his contract and was considered the top rental center on the trade market.
He played for the United States at the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off.
“We have the same strength coach, so we’ve been at the same camps,” Avs star Nathan MacKinnon said. “Really excited. He’s an amazing player.”
The Avs owe a first-round pick to the Philadelphia Flyers in the deal for Sean Walker before the deadline a year ago. If that pick is not conveyed until 2026, or Colorado’s selection is in the top 10, the Islanders will get a 2027 first. They will receive the 2028 third-round pick only if the Avs win the Stanley Cup in 2025 and Nelson plays in at least 50% of Colorado’s playoff games.
Nelson, listed at 6-foot-4 and 205 pounds, has scored at least 34 goals in each of the past three seasons. He set a career high with 75 points in 2022-23.
“It’s awesome to see, from our prospective, how much faith in us management has and how much they want to win right now,” Avs star Cale Makar said, shortly after setting a career high with six points in the club’s 7-3 win against the San Jose Sharks. “They’re trying to give us the best opportunity to do that.”
Ritchie was Colorado’s first-round pick in the 2023 NHL draft (No. 27 overall) and the club’s consensus No. 1 prospect coming into this season. He played in seven games for the Avs at the beginning of this season before being returned to his junior team in the Ontario Hockey League.
Dufour, 23, was a fifth-round pick by the Islanders in 2020. He’s listed at 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds, is in his third season in the AHL and has played one NHL game. He has eight goals and 18 points in 45 games this year.
This is the sixth trade MacFarland has made since the start of the regular season. Colorado now has just one draft pick in the first three rounds of the 2025 and 2026 drafts combined: a second in 2025.
With Ritchie gone, the club’s consensus top prospect is now defenseman Mikhail Gulyayev. He was selected four picks after Ritchie at the 2023 draft.
The Avs have been scrambling to get healthy all season, and the win against the Sharks was the first time Bednar had everyone (except captain Gabe Landeskog) available. Then his boss went and made another deal that signals this club is clearly all-in to try and win a second championship in four seasons.
“We have to,” MacKinnon said. “These are our years. It’s up to us, but yeah … there’s no other way.”
