After signing Brock Nelson, the Avalanche have some big roster decisions to make

The Colorado Avalanche got a major piece of business done on Wednesday when they announced that they agreed to terms on a three-year contract extension with center Brock Nelson.

The Avalanche paid a premium to pry Nelson from the New York Islanders at the 2025 trade deadline, and with the signing, general manager Chris MacFarland has found a long-term solution for the second-line center vacancy that has plagued the team since Nazem Kadri departed.

On Wednesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Insider and President of Hockey Content Frank Seravalli discussed the implications on the team’s salary cap situation and roster build moving forward that the Nelson signing will have in Denver.

Frank Seravalli: Maybe a little bit of a surprise here, that for a guy that really wasn’t impactful, that they were so aggressive in getting a deal done. Three times $7.5 is a pretty significant commitment for a guy who’s 34. So, look, he’s got the size. He definitely has the range to his game where he can be a positive impact contributor even if he’s not scoring… but I thought that his regular season arrival and playoff run really hurt his marketability in this year’s free agent class.

Tyler Yaremchuk: They now have just $1.2 million in cap space with 12 forwards, 5 defensemen and 2 goalies under contract. $1.2 million to basically sign two players can’t happen, so something is going to have to give there for Chris MacFarland.

Frank Seravalli: I’ll give you some ideas. Sam Girard is a guy that they’re talking about potentially moving on the back end. I think they’ve talked about Charlie Coyle so far, another guy who I don’t know if he fit in all that well. And then what do you do with Martin Necas? Are you paying him, and if you’re not, you’re in the same spot that Carolina was previously, and that’s going to be very expensive. Any one of those three guys could be moved to create some salary cap flexibility.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…