The Colorado Avalanche have signed Cody McLeod to a three-year extension. The financial terms of the deal were not immediately available.
(UPDATE: He’ll reportedly earn $3.5 million over the life of his new contract)
McLeod was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent after completing his three-year/$3.1 million deal. He doesn’t do a lot offensively, but he’s a physical forward who has recorded at least 100 hits and 100 penalty minutes in each of his last four campaigns.
He’s one of the first signings in what’s sure to be a busy off-season for the Avalanche. With McLeod locked up, the Avalanche still have just four forwards signed to one-way contracts. They have an army of players scheduled to become restricted free agents, including Matt Duchene, Steve Downie, Peter Mueller, and Erik Johnson.
Fortunately, they have plenty of cap space to work with. According to capgeek, they had just $23,458,333 committed to nine players prior to the McLeod deal.