Ross Colton trade has set the market for distressed assets
The offseason trade market got going in the NHL on Tuesday, and a pair of Central Division rivals and former co-workers got a deal done when Chris MacFarland and the Nashville Predators acquired Ross Colton from Joe Sakic and the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for a pair of third-round draft picks.
Goalies Magnus Chrona and Isak Posch also swapped teams in the deal, but the primary motivation for the trade was for the Predators to add an experienced, productive forward to their bottom six while the Avalanche cleared up $4 million in cap space in one move to give them just under $7 million in room, according to PuckPedia.
The rising salary cap means that fewer teams are in Colorado’s position of having to jettison quality players to clear room as there were in recent years under the flat cap, but the Avs aren’t alone. A baseline of two third-round picks for $4 million in space is a useful data point as other teams begin to explore the trade market in earnest.
On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed what the trade that sent Colton to Nashville reveals about the market for salary cap dumps this summer.
Tyler Yaremchuk: We’ll turn our attention to the trade market where yesterday the Colorado Avalanche sent Ross Colton to the Nashville predators a couple of smaller pieces going either way in that deal, but the bulk of it is Ross Colton who had one year remaining on his contract at four million dollars, goes to the Preds in exchange for a two third-round picks… Listen I’m not gonna sit here and give you this antiquated take on what Ross Colton means to the Nashville Predators or anything like that, but the fact he had one year remaining on his deal at $4 million. That’s not a small amount of money That’s not a small cap hit, yet goals in 72 games last year. You play under 10 minutes in each of Colorado’s final four playoff games. Like this was in a way a little bit of a distressed asset, and I give Joe Sakic full credit for managing to get two third-round picks, and I think what this trade tells us, Hutts, is that this is the trade market this year. In previous seasons, a team like Colorado, they might have either had to give away Ross Colton for free or they might have had to attach something to get out of that considering he’s coming off a pretty down season by his standards. Everyone has more cap space now, and the free agent class sucks, which means teams look at Ross Colton and say ‘Hey, I can’t really find a Ross Colton style of guy in free agency, so four million bucks? That’s nothing to me. I’ll actually give you something for him.’ I think, and I’ve said this line before, we kind of need to rewire our brains as we head into this summer because we’re no longer in that flat-cap world.
Carter Hutton: Yeah, I think that’s the biggest take here too, right? And I think you’re right is as we start to re-imagine free agency and summertime and contracts and everything that goes into it. These are those little trades that where you’re gonna maybe upgrade your team, and I also think there’s recency bias for MacFarland the fact that he knows them, right? He’s going to go to bat knowing that his demeanor and the way he carries himself, and also the feeling that like he thinks it’s probably an off year where he can come into the Preds. Then the other takeaway for me is like, where does he imagine his Preds team going now that he is there? And he’s on boots on the ground, so maybe this is just a little tweak that can help them out add some depth in that sense, but for the Colorado avalanche getting that contract off the books when they’re trying to win, and a guy that’s gonna play under those minutes at $4 million for that price. Works out pretty well for them.
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…