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Avalanche three of four trade deadline acquisitions leave town

Posted on by darion

Last season, the Colorado Avalanche signed four contracts before the NHL trade deadline.

Three of those four players have already left town.

Brandon Duhaime, Yakov Trenin and Sean Walker left in free agency on Monday, leaving Casey Mittelstadt as the only player to take over the team at the deadline to re-sign with the Avs. This deal was concluded last week.

The loss of Duhaime and Trenin will hurt the Avalanche’s fourth line, while Walker was considered a solid top-four NHL defenseman.

Duhaime is reportedly headed to Washington, Trenin to Minnesota and Walker to Carolina.

Walker will reportedly earn around $5 million per season from Carolina, which is clearly too much for the Avalanche, who are struggling with a difficult salary cap situation due to uncertainty surrounding Valeri Nichushkin and Gabriel Landeskog.

Trenin making $1 million more than Jonathan Drouin is also a surprise, so Colorado did well to bring back the forward for $2.5 million on Monday morning. Duhaime would be a good depth piece to keep, but he was clearly looking for a new challenge.

In the playoffs, the three players combined for just two points. Trenin and Duhaime had one each, and Walker had zero. Their postseason production was the reason they were brought in, and the three have largely failed to deliver.

Now, as free agency ramps up, Avalanche general manager Chris MacFarland will be on the hunt for new depth pieces. Such is life for a team that competes for a title every year.