Next summer, if the Avalanche are involved in salary arbitration, I'll make sure to be away on vacation with my family when the hearing is scheduled to take place, virtually guaranteeing an agreement will be reached before the case is heard or before a decision is rendered.

It happened two years ago when the Avalanche elected to take Ryan O'Reilly to arbitration. Shortly before the hearing was to take place, the sides agreed to a two-year, $12 million contract. It was hardly a lovefest, however; the Avalanche sent O'Reilly to Buffalo last summer with one year remaining on his deal.

On Sunday, two days after Tyson Barrie's arbitration took place (four days after we got back from our trip), the Avalanche signed him to a four-year, $22 million contract. He will make $5 million this season, $5.25 million in 2017-18, $5.75 million in 2018-19 and $6 million in 2019-20 for a salary cap hit of $5.5 million.

The Avalanche also signed Mikhail Grigorenko to a one-year, $1.3 million contract two days before his scheduled arbitration hearing. We can't take credit for that one because we were still in town.

The Barrie transaction is a good one for both sides. The Avalanche managed to stay within their self-imposed salary structure, Barrie gets some nice raises from the $3.2 million he made last season, his deal is in line with other similar defensemen, and neither side has to be concerned about future negotiations for a while.

It's also a longer contract than either argued for in arbitration. The Avalanche asked for a two-year, $8.25 million deal while Barrie's Newport Sports Agency sought $6 million for one year.

Now Barrie, 25, has to keep improving his offensive numbers -- he had 13 goals and 36 assists in 78 games last season after posting 12-41-53 in 80 games the previous year -- and become a better all-around defenseman. He'll never be great in his own end and isn't expected to overpower anybody with his 5-feet-10, 190-pound frame, but he can't be a liability, either.

“It’s some security,” Barrie told the Denver Post. “It’s nice not to play for a deal every year. With that being said, I have a long way to go as a player, and I know that. There’s another level to my game that I’m looking to take it to and really become that next-level defenseman in this league. This deal represents that, and it’s something I’m going to take pride in.

“It’s simple, I become an all-around defenseman. Obviously, the offense is there. But I want to be relied upon to play against the top lines every night and not just be the guy who goes out when you need a goal. That’s something we’re going to work on, and I think I’m getting better at it. I always want to be better, and I think I’m in the position to do that.

”I’m ready to move past (the hearing) and move on and have a good relationship going forward. There are no hard feelings on my side. I’m looking forward to joining the guys in September.”

Barrie's signing leaves the Avalanche around $1 million under the NHL's $73 million salary cap for the upcoming season.

They've now locked up the six "core" players for the next several seasons: Erik Johnson and Nathan MacKinnon (seven each), Gabriel Landeskog (five), Barrie (four), and Matt Duchene and Semyon Varlamov (three each).

*****

Now I've got to get cracking on NHL.com's 30-teams-in-30 days Avalanche package that is scheduled to run Aug. 10.



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