The Colorado Avalanche made a couple of moves today that will ensure they have some weight during the season. They have re-signed both Jason Polin and Matt Stienburg to one-year contracts.

Matt Stienburg saw his NHL debut this last season, playing eight games for the Avalanche before being suspended. A bad hit against the boards on Erik Černák led to a two game suspension. Stienburg has a style of play that will do the Avalanche a lot of good on the fourth line. He is rough on the opposition’s body and will drop the mitts with almost anyone. This includes former Avalanche Nikita Zadorov for his first NHL fight.

Stienburg saw only five games with the Colorado Eagles during the regular season, sitting out with an upper-body injury. He returned to play only three games in the playoffs for the Eagles and tallied one goal and two assists all year.

Polin brings a very similar style of play that Stienburg does to the game. Polin can bring on the hits, but can also rack up the points. Two separate injuries sidelined the former Hobey Baker Finalist this last season. He broke his hand a second time and suffered an upper-body injury that kept him out for another month. When Polin is healthy, he has been a constant scoring threat for the Eagles. He had 11 goals and eight assists in just 39 games for the AHL club. In two games with the Avalanche, Polin had no points. The previous year, Polin played in seven games and notched his first NHL goal.

Locking these two players up for the Avalanche will benefit their depth a great deal. If the Avalanche need to call one of them up for just one game to be an impact player, now they can. We can plan on both Polin and Stienburg to be on the third and fourth lines when they get called up by the Avalanche.