It’s been a busy 10 days for Joe Sakic. It sounds like he’ll be OK if the next 10 are a little quieter.
Sakic spoke shortly before the 2026 NHL draft began Friday night. The Colorado Avalanche don’t pick until Saturday, but Sakic and Co. have made three trades and signed two key defensemen since he returned to the general manager role after Chris MacFarland left for Nashville.
The first two trades were with MacFarland and the Predators, before he sent Valeri Nichushkin to Columbus on Thursday. The Avs used some of the salary cap space created Friday to sign defensemen Brett Kulak and Brent Burns to new contracts.
“We weren’t friends,” Sakic said of making deals with MacFarland. “No, I mean, it was good. He did what he thought was best for his group. I thought we did what was best for our group. Those decisions for us really were cap decisions.
“We couldn’t have brought everybody back. You see where we are now after the two signings today with Kulak and Burns. Cap’s not at ($110 million). It’s ($101 million) for us, and so we had to do things to free up cap space while accumulating draft capital which hopefully tomorrow we can get some good prospects in our system. We’ve got a lot more draft picks now next year that we can use during the year or trade deadline or whenever to try and help our team.”
The cap ceiling for the 2026-27 is $104 million, but the Avs have nearly $2.3 million in dead money because Burns signed a one-year, bonus-laden contract last year. That allowed Colorado to exceed the ceiling last year, but also means the bill is due this season.
With the moves Sakic has made, the Avs currently have 11 forwards, six defensemen and two goaltenders on one-way contracts. They also have about $5.6 million in cap space to work with.
“There’s things we’re going to look to do, but it’s going to be with players that we feel are a good fit for us for what we’re trying to do,” Sakic said. “Hopefully it works out. If it doesn’t work out, we’re going to have a good amount of cap space and draft capital for things to happen during the year. So there’s no panic on our end. We’re not rushed. If we’ve got to start out with some kids this year to see what they’ve got, what they can do, we’re perfectly happy with that as well.”
Sakic did say he’d like to sign two more forwards and another defenseman. If the forwards don’t materialize, the Avs do have some interesting young forwards in the organization. Two of the guys who are among the 11 now arrived Wednesday.
Fedor Svechkov and Zachary L’Heureux were both first-round picks in the 2021 draft. They’re both 23 years old. They’ve both played mostly in fourth-line roles for Nashville.
“We liked getting the two younger players that can immediately go on your roster,” Sakic said. “Svechkov, he’s like a (Jack) Drury. He’s not quite at Drury’s level yet, but we think he can get there. We do see a similar player that could play that role.
“L’Heureux, he’s going to be exciting for us. He’s type of player that we were looking for. … We probably wish we had that player in the (2026) playoffs. He’s going to bring a lot of enthusiasm, excitement, physicality and he goes to the net. He’s always around that net, so we’re excited to have both of them.”
