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Avalanche Add Wood, Drouin, Bring back JJ |
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The Avalanche were busy enough building up the roster in the first few days of free agency, bringing in some intriguing boom or bust pieces. Let's take a look at the potential of these players.
Jonathan Drouin
LW
Ht: 5'11"
Wt: 198 lbs
Age: 28
Career Stats: 485 GP 77 G 204 A 281 P
Drouin has had a rough career overall, with a lot of controversy, injuries, and other distractions that have seem to have derailed his career. Looking back, it started right in Tampa, who drafted him 3rd overall.
1) TBL sent the playmaker back to juniors to learn how to play center, after playing on Nathan MacKinnon's wing during his Halifax Mooseheads career. Square peg, round hole?
2) Drouin Benched; Tampa Coach Cooper calls out Drouin's defensive play. "There is more than one net in a rink. There's two. You have to be able to play in front of both."
3) Cooper scratches Drouin for Jonathan Marchessault (2 GP in the NHL) in the playoffs.
4) Stuck in Tampa's bottom 6. This is tough, but it seems like his career was off to a rough start.
(source: The Hockey News. https://thehockeynews.com/news/the-events-that-led-to-jonathan-drouins-trade-request)
After this, Drouin requested a trade, and was moved Montreal in a big trade, with Mikael Sergachev going back the other way. Sergachev eventually turned into one of Tampa's better defensemen, and Drouin, the French Canadian former 3rd overall talent from Ste-Agathe, QUE was pegged as the next big talent for Montreal.
Drouin started off well for the Canadiens, but he injured his wrist in a game against the Washington Capitals, and needed surgery. Then he needed surgery on his other wrist which seems to have given him trouble with his shot. Later, he would be benched for a game versus his previous team, Tampa, for being late for a team meeting.
He also had some issues with anxiety and insomnia, leading him to miss a lot of time with the Canadiens as well.
It's not been an easy road for Jonathan, some of it self inflicted, some not.
This is a fresh start. A reset of sorts. Playing in a less high pressure market in Colorado, against being a French Canadian playing for the Canadiens. A team that has recently won a Cup, and knows what it takes to win. All of this, paired with a reuniting of Jonathan Drouin and Nathan MacKinnon, former QMJHL teammates, leads me to be hopeful for a resurgence of sorts for Drouin. I'm more than willing to give him his shot here, and see how it works out. For his and the Av's sake, I hope it works out well!
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Avalanche sign Miles Wood to a 6 year contract for 2.5 AAV
Miles Wood
LW
Ht: 6'2"
Wt: 195lbs
Age: 27
Career Stats: 402 GP 78G 70 A 148 Pts
Miles Wood has been on the radar for the Avalanche for a few years, according to Chris MacFarland, and while he had hip surgery at the end of 2021, he is feeling 100% and is ready to go. Wood is a speedy winger who crashes and bangs well, sometimes going over the edge and taking ill timed penalties. The team must see some potential in the player to fit well with the group. In my discussions with Devil's fans, they seem to enjoy the player, but say he lost some speed with his hip surgery and have shown concerns on his tendency to take penalties at the worst times.
For my money, I don't love the term. It's long, and worrisome. Luckily, the cap hit is so low, and will only seem lower as the cap goes up over the next few years. That said, if he fits well, he could make a terrorizing line with Ross Colton.
I would also put trust in the Avalanche Pro scouting team, as they seem to have the ability to bring in players that have fallen out of favor with their former teams due to cap, performances, or lack of growth (Graves, Toews), have underperformed despite having talent (Nichushkin, Burakovsky), or need a chance to take the reigns and don't have that with their current teams (Grubauer, Georgiev), and turned them into solid NHL players that contribute.
I'm going to trust in the process, but I've got some great excitement on the potential of the team. There are plenty of risks in the moves they've made, don't get me wrong, but there is a great potential reward.
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Avalanche re-sign Jack Johnson
Easy deal here! $775,000 for 1 year, he knows the system, is popular in the room... I'm happy to bring him back for another year.
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We're all anxiously awaiting the next step, as the team still has a few holes to fill up, or potential moves they could make. Stay Tuned!
Colorado Avalanche Blogger • 
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