The salary cap isn’t the friend of the Colorado Avalanche right now. After knocking a number of draft picks out of the park in recent years, the other side of that double-edged sword is starting to cut into the Avs roster. Still potentially sitting in a window to make another championship run, Colorado is going to have to make some tough decisions this summer.
One player that should be a priority for the Avalanche is Casey Mittelstadt – who the team acquired in a trade deadline deal with the Buffalo Sabres. The 25-year-old was a major contributor down the stretch and during the postseason, filling a gap at second-line center the Avalanche had been trying to fill for years. His price tag is about to go up, but the Avs will have to get creative to make sure he stays on the roster going forward.
Mittelstadt Proved His Worth to Avs
After spending his first six-plus seasons in Buffalo, Mittelstadt was shipped to Colorado in a swap for defenseman Bowen Byram. That was a hefty cost for the Avalanche, but Mittelstadt came through. In his 18 regular-season games in Colorado, he posted four goals and six assists. In 11 playoff games, he added three goals and six assists. The biggest impact was that he provided consistency at the second-line center – a spot Colorado has struggled with since Nazem Kadri left in free agency following the team’s Stanley Cup win in 2022.
Casey Mittelstadt, Colorado Avalanche (Photo by Michael Martin/NHLI via Getty Images)
Playing in his first postseason, Mittelstadt didn’t just look like he belonged, he also scored points at crucial parts of games. His first goal of the playoffs came in Colorado’s 7-6 loss in Game 1 of the first round against the Winnipeg Jets. The Avs may have lost, but it was an exclamation point that showed the Avalanche were coming. He added five assists over the final three games of that series as Colorado advanced. He had a pair of goals against the Dallas Stars in the second round, including one that sparked Colorado’s 5-3 win in Game 5. The teams were tied 2-2 entering the third period before Mittlestadt scored just 1:12 into the final stanza to set up a three-goal period to earn the victory.
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It wasn’t just the points, but it was the consistency he scored them with. Mittelstadt didn’t go scoreless in back-to-back games throughout the playoffs. He also looked better and better as he got used to his new teammates and Colorado’s playing style. It’s hard to keep good players around, especially with the rigidity of the NHL salary cap. The Avalanche have plenty of free agents on their roster, but Mittelstadt is one that showed how well he fits with his play down the stretch.
What Will Mittelstadt Cost?
Even though Mittelstadt may have certainly proved his worth, now it’s time to find out what Colorado thinks he’s actually worth from a monetary standpoint. He was only making $2.5 million last season, but it’s been projected by Evolving Hockey that he could demand a three-year deal averaging $5.78 million per season. That’s not the most lucrative deal out there, but it certainly isn’t cheap for a team bumping its head on the salary cap. Colorado likely could afford it, but the issue is figuring out how it fits with some of the other negotiations coming on the horizon.
Homegrown picks Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, and Gabriel Landeskog have all gotten lucrative extensions, and Mikko Rantanen is in line for another payday – and he is clearly the team’s top priority as he enters the final year of his deal. The Avalanche have also extended Valeri Nichushkin, Artturi Lehkonen and Devon Toews in recent years, making things under the cap pretty snug. All of those players are at the core of Colorado’s roster, and every one of those extensions was completely understandable.
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While the Avalanche’s cap situation makes things difficult, the issue is the cap space with other teams. Mittelstadt is a restricted free agent, meaning the Avalanche can sign him to a standard contract while other teams can only sign him through an offer sheet. If another team does so, the Avs will have to make the choice to match the offer sheet to keep Mittelstadt or he will be allowed to sign with another team.
That makes it important for the Avs to lock him up before July 1, if they can come to an agreement. It’s not out of the realm of possibility for some rebuilding franchise to swoop in and hand out an offer sheet to Mittelstadt that is simply too rich for Colorado’s blood. They only have six forwards, four defensemen, and two goaltenders under contract going into free agency, so there are a lot of spots to fill entering 2024-25. Mittlelstadt should fill one of those openings, even if it means lightening the depth in other spots.
If the last two seasons have shown the Avalanche anything, it’s that second-line centers are difficult to find. They have a pretty good one in the room right now in Mittlestadt, and they shouldn’t let him go. He’s been nothing but consistent since arriving, and was a steadying force when lineups had to be bounced around in the playoffs. A lot of uncertainty will surround Colorado’s top-six at the start of the season as the Avalanche are staring at a lot of dead money counting against the cap – particularly in the early stages of next season.
Landeskog insists he’ll return at some point next season, but hasn’t played since the Cup-clinching victory in 2022. It’s impossible to know when Nichushkin will be back after getting slapped with a six-month suspension for violating the terms of the league’s player assistance program. That six months is the minimum amount of time he’ll be sidelined, so who knows when he could be approved to return. The team has held press conferences where they assured fans that Landeskog would be back, and said they weren’t going to give up on Nichushkin.
Colorado shouldn’t throw in the towel on Mittelstadt, either. Byram was a coveted asset in the organization, and by dealing him, the Avs already paid a steep price to get Mittelstadt in Denver. He’s done everything to fill that gaping hole in the middle of the lineup, and they would be well served to make room for him on their list of great extensions over the past few years. Avalanche fans will never forget Kadri’s overtime goal in the Stanley Cup Final, and Mittelstadt could emerge as a similar threat at the second-line center spot. He just needs Colorado to lock him up with a contract so he can prove it.
