As we are now just two days away from the NHL trade deadline, Colorado has made a couple more trades. This time around, however, they’re much bigger ones. First, the Colorado Avalanche are sending Ryan Johansen and a 2025 first-round pick to the Philadelphia Flyers for defenseman Sean Walker.
Obviously, it’s not exactly a secret that Johansen has struggled to find a place here in Colorado. He has logged just 23 points in 63 games with the Avalanche and was just unfortunately never really a good fit. We wish him all the best!
Sean Walker on the other hand has logged 22 points in 63 games for the Flyers. The 29-year-old is currently on an expiring deal and set to become an unrestricted free agent with a cap hit of $2,650,000. He’ll likely be slotting in where Bowen Byram would slot in otherwise, bringing us to the next trade.
Almost immediately after the Walker trade was announced, Colorado turned right around and traded defenseman Bowen Byram to the Buffalo Sabres for forward Casey Mittelstadt.
Mittelstadt is a 25-year-old center, who’s notched 47 points in 62 games so far this season for the Sabres. He carries a cap hit of $2,500,000 and unlike Walker, is set to become a restricted free agent at the end of the season, so Colorado will get first dibs to try and re-sign him in the offseason.
Mittelstadt’s name had previously been floated around as a possible trade target for the Avalanche, but it was seen as more unlikely to happen. Simply because he’s a young center that most teams probably would not be willing to part with during the season. We wish all the best to Byram as well!
With these moves now being done deals, Colorado has addressed one of their biggest needs ahead of the deadline and the playoffs, that need being a second-line center. Ultimately, they got an upgrade for the second-line center spot by getting Mittelstadt, and they managed to actually keep their defense depth chart deep by trading for Walker to slot in where Byram would slot in. If things really go South for your defense, like injuries rear their ugly head for example, you still have Caleb Jones and Sam Malinski, both whom can easily jump into the lineup if something happens.
All in all, it’s really hard not to feel really good about both of these moves. There are still two days left till the NHL trade deadline, so we’ll see if Colorado makes any other moves ahead of Friday.