Colorado Avalanche sign Evan Rodrigues to one-year, $2-million contract
The Colorado Avalanche have signed forward Evan Rodrigues to a one-year, $2-million contract, DailyFaceoff’s Frank Seravalli reported Monday.
Rodrigues was one of the last “big names,” so to speak, remaining in the free agent market and now, he’ll have a chance to prove his worth with a show-me deal.
He fits the bill of the Avalanche nearly perfectly: a strong contributor on the score sheet, but also an analytics darling. He’s spent parts of the last three seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins scoring 27 goals and 58 points over 124 games. This past season, however, was his strongest in the league, scoring career highs in goals (19), assists (24) and points (43).
At even-strength, Rodrigues was a tremendous driver of play. According to hockeyviz.com, Rodrigues provided offense at an 11 percent rate above league average and defense at a seven percent rate above league average. While his finishing ability was four percent below league average last year, his setting up ability was league average.
Rodrigues will be a great addition in a depth role for the Avalanche who were still looking to off-set the losses of players like Nazem Kadri, Andre Burakovsky, and Nicolas Aube-Kubel.
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Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@oilersnation.com.