With a few days to spare in July, the Colorado Avalanche have all of their players under contract for the 2023-24 season.
The question is…do they make additional tweaks from here?
On Wednesday, the Avalanche announced they’ve re-signed Ben Meyers to a one-year contract. Meyers was their last remaining restricted free agent to sign.
His cap hit in the NHL next year will be the league minimum, $775,000. Full details of the contract will likely be released in the next day or two, but I’m sure the delay in signing had to do with negotiating how much Meyers would make in the AHL if he isn’t on the NHL roster.
With the Meyers signing, the Avalanche now sit at a 21 man roster. With Gabriel Landeskog headed to LTIR, that leaves them with just over $2 million in cap space. It’s important to note that with the use of LTIR, they will not be able to accrue cap space as the season goes on.
Meyers ended last season with 4 goals in 39 games, and has yet to assist on a goal in 44 career NHL games. Given his NHL experience, one would have to assume he has a leg up on the competition to lock down a roster spot in training camp, but he’ll have to earn it. There are still some questions as to what he is at the NHL level, but at just 24, he has room to grow.
Meyers was highly sought after out of the University of Minnesota, but was up and down as a rookie. The process was usually solid, but he struggled to finish off chances he would get. There is still plenty of reason to believe he has more to give at the NHL level.
From here, expect the Avalanche to monitor the free agent market. There are still good players available, and as the summer goes on, those players may take less than they initially expected.
That could work out well for Colorado.
Stay tuned to CHN as more news continues to come in.
For immediate updates, follow me on Twitter (@evanrawal) and the new Threads (Evan.rawal).
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