It would have been a mistake to give up on Carl Soderberg, the old-man Avalanche who had three points and a career-high plus-4 rating in Wednesday’s 7-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets.
Colorado’s oldest player, 33, was thought to be over-the-hill to begin the 2017-18 season, when he was a healthy scratch in the opener at the New York Rangers. At the time, Soderberg was arguably only still with the Avs because of his $5 million guaranteed annual salary and his $4.75 million cap hit through the 2019-20 season. The cost to potentially buy out his contract was to steep.