The Daily Faceoff Show: Can the Avalanche keep the band together this summer?
In today’s episode of The Daily Faceoff Show, Frank Seravalli and Mike McKenna debated which of the National Hockey League’s 16 playoff teams from 2022 will undergo the most changes before the beginning of the 2022–23 regular season.
Mike got the ball rolling by taking a look at the situation surrounding the Western Conference Champions.
Mike McKenna: I’m actually going to go right off the top and look at the Colorado Avalanche, who are going to be in the Stanley Cup Final moving forward here. But they have 10 unrestricted free agents currently on their roster. Only three of them were rentals: Cogliano, Manson, Sturm. Who knows what the future is, there. But when you look at the other seven UFAs: Kadri’s gonna command a huge amount of money. You’ve got Darcy Kuemper looking for a new contract, Burakovsky, Nichushkin. Those are big pieces that will be attractive on the free-agent market. You’ve also got Helm, Jack Johnson, Ryan Murray. So, I think there’s gonna be a lot of turnover in Colorado, the team will just look very different, but this is the price you pay when you’re trying to win a Stanley Cup and you’re loading up. Frank, I’m guessing you’ve got somebody different to take a look at, here?
Frank Seravalli: Well, the Boston Bruins would be the easy answer, because of the surgeries and “will Patrice Bergeron come back?” What other roster moves do they make? And I wanted to push back a second on the Colorado Avalanche — I do think they will look different, but I think they’re gonna try and keep a lot of the same pieces. I think some people are gonna be surprised at what they’re able to accomplish.
A), No. 1 priority is gonna be to get an extension done with Nathan MacKinnon so you know what you can actually spend in years prior, as he enters the final year of his deal. But Chris Gear did a really good job a couple months back on DailyFaceoff.com of breaking down the math on how they can actually keep a guy like Kadri and how they can keep some of these other players that are part of their mix. A big key is gonna be someone like Erik Johnson, he’s got one more season and then you’ll have some cap flexibility that comes off the books from him. I think they find a way to keep someone like Artturi Lehkonen, who’s played so well as a restricted free agent and come in. […]
I think the Minnesota Wild are gonna look a little bit different, Kevin Fiala, [85]-point scorer, No. 2 on our “Trade Targets” board. There’s gonna be a whole host of teams, but the Minnesota Wild have some interesting decisions to make.
You can watch the full episode here: