The Colorado Avalanche haven’t resolved their biggest issue in trading Matt Duchene, but they reportedly took care of a more direct deadline on Friday.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reports that the Avs have a two-year deal in the works for RFA defenseman Nikita Zadorov, while TSN’s Pierre LeBrun puts the cap hit at $2.15 million per season. That would result in a two-year, $4.3M contract for Zadorov.
The Denver Post’s Mike Chambers passes along word from Jared Bednar, who confirmed that a Zadorov deal is done.
Jared Bednar talks about Matt Duchene after confirming D Nikita Zadorov is under contract #Avs pic.twitter.com/CKzAD2HPB9
— Mike Chambers (@MikeChambers) September 15, 2017
Let’s take a quick look at Zadorov, then.
The 25-year-old was a first-round pick (16th overall in 2013) by the Buffalo Sabres, ultimately becoming a part of Colorado’s takeaway in the Ryan O’Reilly trade.
After being limited to 22 games with the Avs in 2015-16, he played in 56 last season, failing to score a goal while compiling 10 assists. He averaged a career-high 19 minutes and two seconds per game.
Zadorov is very much a “work in progress,” and he has the erratic “HERO Chart” to go with such thoughts.
While Zadorov has some work to do, it’s not an outrageous price tag, particularly for an Avalanche team that has huge needs on the defensive side.
Training camps seem like they’ve been a helpful next deadline for teams and RFAs who were trying to come to compromises.
That leaves Josh Anderson of the #BlueJackets and Andreas Athanasiou of the #RedWings as the only remaining RFA's yet to sign a new contract https://t.co/vu0cOuwhA9
— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) September 15, 2017