The Colorado Avalanche has two key components to roster building that have been missing for the past three offseasons: Clarity on a couple of integral players and salary cap flexibility.
Colorado has about $9.7 million in cap space now after trading Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood on Friday to the Columbus Blue Jackets. There are 4-6 open roster spots, but also internal candidates to fill some of those depth roles.
The Avs have more clarity on captain Gabe Landeskog’s future and don’t have an offseason filled with questions about Valeri Nichushkin. There is an opportunity for the Avs to do something very different than the previous few years, if they want.