Joe Sakic was certainly efficient in his return to general manager duties for the Colorado Avalanche.
The Avs made a pair of signings in the first hour of free agency Wednesday. Combined with a trio of trades leading up to the 2026 NHL draft, Sakic appears to have assembled the roster Colorado is ready to roll into training camp with.
“We wanted to give ourselves some flexibility,” Sakic said. “You don’t win on July 1. We learned that a long time ago. … We want the ability to add at the deadline for whatever the type of player where we feel we need at that time to help our group, help put us over the top. We’re very comfortable with the group we have going into the season.
“We won’t rule anything out, but as we sit here today, we’d like to give ourselves as much flexibility as we can during the year.”
Veteran additions
Colorado’s big move of the day was signing veteran forward Jaden Schwartz to a three-year, $9.75 million contract. The deal will have an average annual value of $3.25 million per season through 2028-29.
Schwartz, 34, is a Colorado College alum. He played two seasons with the Tigers from 2010-12.
“We thought Jaden Schwartz would be a great fit offensively in a top-nine role,” Sakic said. “(He can) kind of go anywhere in the lineup, gives us depth, brings that championship pedigree. Great guy, kind of fits our identity and the way we like to play.”
A 5-foot-10, 185-pound wing, Schwartz had 11 goals and 26 points in 50 games for the Seattle Kraken this past season. He has 233 goals and 553 points in 861 career games across 15 seasons with the Kraken and, originally, the St. Louis Blues.
The Avalanche also signed depth defenseman Noah Juulsen to a two-year, $2.2 million contract. Juulsen, 29, had a career-high 10 points last season in 52 games with the Philadelphia Flyers.
Juulsen was a first-round pick in 2015 by the Montreal Canadiens. He’s a right-handed defenseman, which means the Avs now have righties and two lefties among the top seven options on the depth chart.
“We wanted a different type of seventh (defenseman),” Sakic said. “We know who’s going to play. (Juulsen) brings that size, physicality, a PK guy that we were looking at.”
Colorado began the day with 11 forwards, six defensemen and two goaltenders signed to one-way contracts. After adding Schwartz and Juulsen, the Avs will have a little less than $1.3 million in salary cap space, .
Schwartz was a first-round pick by the Blues in 2010. His best NHL season came with the Blues in 2014-15, when he had 28 goals and 63 points. He also had 12 goals and 20 points in 26 postseason games during St. Louis’ run to the Stanley Cup in 2019.
He just completed a five-year, $27.5 million contract with the expansion Kraken, which he signed in 2021. Schwartz scored the first Stanley Cup Playoffs goal in Seattle in 104 years when he opened the scoring in Game 3 against the Avs in 2023. Schwartz had two goals and five points in that series, as the Kraken upset the defending champion Avalanche in seven games.
If this is it, the Avs have subtracted Valeri Nichushkin, Ross Colton and Jack Drury from a team that won the Presidents’ Trophy with a franchise-record 121 points and reached the Western Conference Final. Their replacements will likely be Schwartz and some younger unknowns.
Among the 12 forwards on one-way contracts are recent additions Fedor Svechkov and Zachary L’Heureux. The Avs also have a handful of young forwards, most notably Gavin Brindley, Taylor Makar, and T.J. Hughes, who could challenge for a job during training camp.
“We have some cap space, a little bit of cap space that we’re just going to try and accumulate over the course of the year,” Sakic said. “We’ll see how much money we can save for the deadline.
“We’ll go with 12 forwards, but we feel we’ve got some really good young prospects that are ready to get some opportunities, get some games, so we wanted to give those guys every opportunity.”
FOOTNOTE: The Avs also added a few depth options later in the day on Wednesday. Forwards Adam Beckman and Vinnie Hinostroza were signed to two-year contracts, while defenseman Domenick Fensore inked a one-year deal. Fensore helped the Chicago Wolves beat the Colorado Eagles in the Western Conference Final of the AHL’s Calder Cup Playoffs this past season.
