January 25, 2025 | 5:17pm ET
TheFourthPeriod.com
AVS WILL CONTINUE TO MONITOR TRADE MARKET
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Avalanche GM Chris MacFarland
After trading away superstar Mikko Rantanen on Friday and adding forward Martin Necas and centre Jack Drury, the Colorado Avalanche will continue to keep tabs on the trade market and see if any other opportunities pop up.
The Avs made the decision to trade Rantanen after it became clear they would not be able to sign him to a new contract, GM Chris MacFarland admitted on Saturday. Rather than lose Rantanen for nothing as an unrestricted free agent in July, the team opted to pull the trigger and bring in Necas and Drury.
But yesterday’s move does not mean the club is done dealing.
“We’re going to continue to look to improve the group,” MacFarland said earlier today.
While the Avs created $1.025 million in salary cap space with Friday’s transaction, giving them a total of $5.616 million in LTIR overage cap space, they have to remain cognizant of the fact captain Gabriel Landeskog may return this season.
MacFarland acknowledged that “nothing’s changed” on Landeskog’s front – “Gabe is continuing to grind. There’s nothing in the near horizon, that’s for sure,” he said – the team needs better clarity on his immediate future before they attempt to make another major move.
“We still have a serious unknown on that. We don’t have that information today,” MacFarland said. “We have to operate in many different lenses and look at it from many different perspectives. I think one of the areas that it’s clear, we’re not deep enough. You’ve got to be deep to go four rounds.”
The Avalanche have been in the market for a second-line centre and they would like to address that position at some point. It’s possible they fill that need later this season, if it is determined that Landeskog won’t be able to hit the ice for the balance of the regular-season.