One of the veteran players who finally got a chance to lift the Stanley Cup with the Colorado Avalanche this season is coming back for more. The team signed Andrew Cogliano to a one-year contract for 2022-23, keeping him from the open market. The deal will be worth $1.25M, according to Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff.
Cogliano, 35, played more than 1,100 regular-season games and 100 playoff games before arriving in Denver this season, acquired at the deadline for a 2024 fifth-round pick. He had never won it all before, despite coming close as recently as 2020 with the Dallas Stars, and it appeared as though he might miss the playoffs entirely after starting the year with the San Jose Sharks.
Instead, he’s now a Stanley Cup champion and when asked last week explained how it made him want to come back again next season. Speaking with Peter Baugh of The Athletic, he said:
"I really think it was a privilege to play for this team, and I still think that hopefully that can be an option moving forward, to be honest. It just felt right, and it was just enjoyable to play the game…When you win, you really get a feeling of some strong confidence, and you start thinking about doing it again and wanting to do it again and doing it with the guys on the team you feel strongly about."
He’ll now get that chance, returning to the defending champs on a reasonably priced one-year deal. The Avalanche are trying to sign some bigger names as well, but getting Cogliano back gives them an experienced, versatile, bottom-six option who can be trusted in the most important situations of a game. The veteran forward has long been deployed in a checking role but also managed to add three goals and six points in 16 postseason games this year, including two game-winners.
Not only that, but he underwent a hand surgery after the Western Conference Final against the Edmonton Oilers and still managed to make it back in time to play in five games of the championship series. That kind of commitment is exactly what Cogliano has shown throughout his entire career, playing the first 10 seasons without missing a single game and only seeing his iron man streak break due to a suspension in 2018.
The Avalanche will be able to rely on him as they try to complete a title defense, though the roster may not look the same. Even after his deal, the team still has nine roster players scheduled for unrestricted free agency.
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