Avalanche sign Georgii Merkulov to one-year contract

The Colorado Avalanche announced on Monday evening that they have agreed to terms on a one-year, two-way contract with AHL veteran forward Georgii Merkulov.

Merkulov, a 25-year-old who initially signed with the Boston Bruins‘ organization as an undrafted free agent, has proven himself to be an impactful scorer at the AHL level throughout his career in Providence.

The 5-foot-11 native of Ryazan, Russia is coming off a 2025-26 campaign that saw him rack up 61 points on 24 goals and 37 assists in 70 regular season games played. That followed a more assist-heavy 2024-25 season (15 goals, 39 assists, 54 points in 59 games) than his lone 30-goal effort at the AHL level, which came in 2023-24 as he posted 65 points in 67 contests.

Over the past three seasons, the former Ohio State Buckeye has made a combined 11 appearances with Boston at the NHL level, recording one assist.

Merkulov figures to provide valuable scoring punch to an Eagles team that finished second place in the Pacific Division a season ago with a record of 41-20-6-5.

The Avalanche have had an eventful offseason after winning the Presidents’ Trophy with historic regular season before bowing out with a sweep in the Western Conference Final.

General manager Chris MacFarland departed for an elevated president of hockey operations role with the Nashville Predators, prompting Joe Sakic to reassume the duties as general manager he held before promoting MacFarland to the role a few years prior.

Back in the GM chair, Sakic has emphasized getting younger and cheaper around the margins, dealing Jack Drury and Ross Colton to his former colleague and the Predators to add 23-year-olds Fyodor Svechkov and Zachary L’Heureux to the mix in the bottom six.

Sakic also landed veteran winger Jaden Schwartz out of unrestricted free agency to provide valuable offensive depth to the lineup.