Avalanche offseason reset: What’s next with Brock Nelson signed, Logan O’Connor injured? ...Middle East

Chris MacFarland got the biggest part of his holiday shopping done early this year.

While the NHL creeps toward crowning its champion for the 2024-25 season and prepares for its annual spending spree three weeks from Tuesday, MacFarland and the Colorado Avalanche crossed the No. 1 item off the offseason list this past week by signing center Brock Nelson to a three-year, $22.5 million contract.

The No. 2 center behind Nathan MacKinnon has been an ongoing issue since Nazem Kadri left for Calgary after the 2022 Stanley Cup run. Nelson, who turns 34 years old in October, should give the Avs the most stability at that spot than the club has had in four years.

“We were able to work something out, and we’re very excited about that,” Nelson said Tuesday on Altitude Sports Radio. “I’ve enjoyed my time here. I think it’s a special group with a lot of special players and talent that has the opportunity to do something special.”

The other big piece of Avs roster news came two days later. Key depth forward Logan O’Connor is expected to miss the start of next season after undergoing a second hip surgery in 15 months. The official timeline is 5-6 months, which would set a potential return for mid-November or December.

That timeline means the Avalanche could put O’Connor on long-term injured reserve to start the season. As Avs fans are familiar with by now after the past three seasons with captain Gabe Landeskog, that means Colorado could begin the season with a roster that is more expensive than the salary cap ceiling, which is set at $95.5 million for 2025-26.

Signing Nelson to a contract with a $7.5 million annual price tag ate into nearly all of the club’s available cap space, but the O’Connor surgery could give MacFarland and his staff a little more time and a little more flexibility to put the final pieces of the roster puzzle together before opening night in early October.

Here’s where the depth chart stands right now, with salary cap figures in millions (click here to view in mobile):

The Avs currently have $1.975 million in cap space available, according to CapWages. That includes O’Connor’s $2.5 million, but does not include the two-way contracts of Ivan Ivan and Keaton Middleton.

Someone from the current roster was going to have to leave town before the O’Connor surgery news, because Sam Malinski still needs a new contract at minimum. If O’Connor’s cap hit is moved to LTIR, that would up the available space to $4.475 million, with 3-5 roster spots to fill.

AFP Analytics projects a two-year pact for Malinski at just shy of $1.8 million per season. That would leave room for three guys who combined to cost less than $900,000 each.

To create more space, the Avs would still need to move one or more of the 17 guys signed to one-way contracts for next season. All of them have some level of trade protection except for Cale Makar and Martin Necas. The former is going nowhere, obviously.

Necas has one more year left on his current deal and is eligible to sign an extension July 1. He could be both the most valuable trade chip the Avs have outside their established core, but also one of the best values in the NHL this season if he produces another year with 85-plus points.

Moving Necas or any of the other guys in the top half of the roster, including a different top-six forward or one of the second-pairing defensemen (Samuel Girard or Josh Manson) would create a big hole to fill, and likely with a contract that offers less bang for the buck.

Ross Colton currently has a full no-trade clause, but that shifts to a modified no-trade clause July 1. The simplest way to create a little more space would be to buy out Miles Wood, who has four years left on his deal.

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When he’s healthy, Wood is a valuable bottom-six player, but he’s missed one and a half of the past four seasons with injuries and played only once in the playoffs after the club got fully healthy.

A buyout would save the Avs just shy of $1.8 million for next season and just short of $1.3 million for the next three years. It would also be $708,000 in dead cap space for the following four years, but the cap ceiling will likely be approaching $120 million by then.

That would push Colorado’s cap flexibility to nearly $6.3 million immediately, or about $3.8 million plus O’Connor when he’s ready to return.

The Avs got a big piece of their business out of the way. If Colorado still wants to do anything else beyond filling out the roster with some bargain bin shopping, trading a significant player looks like the only avenue.

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