Colorado Avalanche Cap Space: Examining the Avs' salary in the off-season

The Colorado Avalanche were stunned in the first round of the playoffs and have been active in the off-season in hopes of winning another Stanley Cup.

To kick off the off-season, the Avalanche dealt with a major blow as captain Gabriel Landeskog will miss the entire 2023-24 season (after missing last year as well due to an injury).

Although missing Landeskog is a big blow, Colorado gains more cap space by adding him to LTIR, so after the first wave of free agency, they have $6.8 million in cap space.

Colorado Avalanche go the trade route

The Colorado Avalanche kicked off the off-season by acquiring Ryan Johansen at 50% retained from the Nashville Predators for nothing. Then, they traded Alex Newhook to the Montreal Canadiens for a first and second-round pick and flipped that second-round pick to the Tampa Bay Lightning for Ross Colton.

Acquiring Johansen and Colton was key for the Avalanche:

"We're trying to help our team get back to competing again. We've got to get back to competing again. We've got a great core, but depth is everything. We're trying to do whatever we can to help our group and change things up a little bit," Avalanche president of hockey operations Joe Sakic said about acquiring Johansen and Colton (via NHL.com).

After making the trades, the Colorado Avalanche didn't have a ton of cap space but still made some solid depth signings. The Avalanche signed Miles Wood to a six-year deal worth $2.5 million per year and also signed Jonathan Drouin to a one-year deal worth $825,000.

Drouin was junior teammate and linemates with Nathan MacKinnon so GM Billy MacFarland says he wouldn't be surprised to see Drouin play on MacKinnon's line.

“I believe Drouin’s skillset will definitely play well with our other skilled players,” MacFarland said (via NHL.com). “I can easily envision him getting looks with Nathan, (Ryan) Johansen, whomever (coach Jared Bednar) wants to see in the top-six.

"He’s going to have to earn that ice time to stay there, but I definitely think it’s a skill swing. His hands and his ability to make plays is certainly not in question.”

Finally, Colorado also inked Bowen Byram to a two-year deal worth $3.85 million as he was an RFA. Signing Byram to a bridge deal always made the most sense, especially with the limited cap space.

Ultimately the Colorado Avalanche still needs to sign RFA Ross Colton to a new deal. But, once they do that, they will likely have a bit of cap space to add a bottom-six forward.