After the trade of defenseman Samuel Girard to the Pittsburgh Penguins on February 24th, the Colorado Avalanche have plenty of cap space to make a move. The big question is, what do the Avalanche really need? It depends on who you ask. Some will say forward depth, and some will say defensive depth. This year, we at Hockey Mountain High will break down our trade list into three lists: centers, wingers, and defensemen. This year, there is no need to make any moves for a goaltender, so we will not be predicting a move at that position. We will start our trade center list today with the centers giving at least two trades and one hopeful trade.

Vincent Trocheck

Avalanche trade rumors have linked Vincent Trocheck to the team since before the Olympic break. Rumors have especially heated up after the break ended with the center being tied to teams like Minnesota, Carolina, Winnipeg, and Utah, to name a few. Trocheck is a two-way center and penalty-killing specialist, much like Brock Nelson. He is part of both special teams for the New York Rangers and could play on the third line for the Avalanche. The American Gold Medalist has three years remaining on his contract at a cost of $5.63 million. In 45 games with the Rangers, he has 12 goals and 26 assists.

Trocheck would bring speed and some grit to the third-line that would be useful. Bringing him into the Avs would allow the Avs to slide Jack Drury to the fourth-line and Parker Kelly over to the wing. Trocheck has won 57.4 percent of his faceoffs this season, while Drury has won 58.9 percent. Kelly has the worst faceoff percentage of all, with 34.2, so moving him to wing would be beneficial.

Nazem Kadri

We have talked about Nazem Kadri and how he would no longer be a good fit for the Avalanche. Others seem to think otherwise. After the Girard trade, Colorado certainly has the cap space to handle Kadri on the roster at $7 million for the next three years. But Kadri is not the same player that the Avalanche had during the Stanley Cup run in 2021–22. He could drop back into the lineup pretty easily, having played in Colorado for three seasons. His shooting percentage has significantly dropped from 11.3 percent during the Cup run to 7.5 percent now (Kadri is shooting more, though). One bonus could be that they bring Kadri into the second power play unit, or maybe even the first to re-energize it. Also adding a left-handed shooting forward to the top power play unit on the right side would work wonders for the Avalanche.


Erik Haula

The Finnish Bronze Medalist would have a lot to bring to the table for the Avalanche. He has not officially been linked to any trade rumors with Colorado, he is one player we hope they get. Haula plays on both the power play and the penalty kill for the Nashville Predators besides the second-line. With only nine goals and 21 assists, he doesn’t score much. What he does is hit. In each of his last four seasons, he has had over 90 hits (101 last year). He could bring the Logan O’Connor factor back to the bottom-six with some Stanley Cup experience to boot (2017 with VGK).

The Cost

The Avalanche currently have three fifth-round picks and four seventh-round picks to work with. To sweeten the deal, the Avalanche could include players like Ross Colton and Joel Kiviranta. This would help clear about $5 million in the cap besides the $8.7 million. Colorado is pretty solid up the middle, but every club can use that something extra.