Another important member of the Colorado Avalanche core has been signed to a massive contract.
The organization announced Friday morning that Devon Toews and the club have reached an agreement to extend his contract by seven years. At the conclusion of this season, Toews would have become an unrestricted free agent; however, he is currently under team control through 2030–31. A league source told The Denver Post that the agreement is worth $50.75 million overall, or $7.25 million per season.
Toews told reporters in Los Angeles, “(I’m) happy.” “Although it took the entire summer, I’m glad we were able to come to an agreement and find a compromise. We’re pleased to stay in Colorado and to be with the Avs for an additional seven (years)—family, everything.
Over the previous three seasons, Toews has been among the top 14 players in the Norris Trophy vote. Even though Cale Makar is unquestionably the team’s best defenseman, in none of those seasons has any other NHL team’s “No. 2” player finished ahead of Toews in the Norris voting. With this deal, the Avs may have one of the top 1-2 punches in the league for the next four seasons at the very least.
For the 2024–2025 NHL season, Toews is presently projected to be the 29th-highest paid defenseman in the league. Given that Moritz Seider, Noah Hanifin, and Brandon Montour all require new contracts, he might actually fall down the list.
Sharks coach David Quinn declared Friday morning, “Joe (Sakic) is a magician,” following his learning of the contract’s specifics. “(Toews) is an excellent skater and a genuinely honest player with versatility.” He can move the puck well. He stands up. He has fantastic gaps and a great stick. He is capable of making an offensive contribution. He’s a truly underappreciated player in this league, in my opinion.
If Toews had not received an agreement by July 1st, the market would have been substantial for the seasoned defensemen. When Toews was declared an unrestricted free agency, he signed a deal for more over $7 million a season, making him the fifteenth active defenseman to do so.
Of the remaining 14, three made it to market. In 2020, Alex Pietrangelo signed a seven-year contract with Vegas worth $8.8 million. In 2021, Dougie Hamilton signed a $9 million, seven-year contract with New Jersey. Carolina paid $7.75 million for the two-year services of Dmitry Orlov.
Orlov is older than Pietrangelo, Hamilton and Toews were at the time they signed and is also not in their class as a defenseman. Pietrangelo and Hamilton are pretty good comparables for Toews, both as players on the ice and what kind of money he might have been able to get on the open market.
“We both had our positions and you just try to find something that’s in the middle,” Toews said. “I want to win and I want this team to win, so if I’m able to give a little to help the cause, it’s what I want to do.”
While this deal will be universally praised as a long-term win for the Avalanche and its ability to keep a championship-worthy core together, there will still be work to do in the short-term to keep Colorado as a top contender within the constraints of the salary cap.
The Avs now have nine forwards, five defensemen and goaltender Alexandar Georgiev under contract for 2024-25. That includes captain Gabriel Landeskog at $7 million. Both he and the club have publicly expressed hope that he’ll be able to return to full health by next season.
Those 15 players would cost $84.872 million against the salary cap, according to CapFriendly. The cap ceiling this season is $83.5 million, but early projections from the NHL have it rising by several million dollars next year. Even with the first significant bump since before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Avs will need to get creative to fill out the roster.
Players on one-year contracts like Jonathan Drouin and Tomas Tatar will likely be hard to keep, particularly if they have success this year. New versions of them on cost-conscious deals could be needed. Young players on cheap entry-level contracts like Jean-Luc Foudy, Ondrej Pavel, Nikolai Kovalenko and Sam Malinsnki could be valuable depth options.
The following year is when the cap gymnastics could hit another level, because it will be time for new contracts with Mikko Rantanen and Bo Byram. Rantanen might not get a huge raise from his current deal ($9.25 million cap hit), but if Bryam stays healthy he will — and the Avs will definitely want to keep him.
It could make other good, important players more expendable but that’s how the salary cap system works in the NHL. The priority for the best teams is to keep the inner-circle core players first and worry about the rest of the roster second.
Toews has earned his place in that group. An Avs team with Nathan MacKinnon, Rantanen, Makar and Toews would have both a high ceiling and a high floor for the rest of the decade. And if Landeskog can make his way back to the player he was before this injury, he’s in that group as well.
“We prioritized getting a deal done with Devon at the beginning of the season,” Avs general manager Chris MacFarland said in a statement released by the organization. “He is a vital component of this team’s core and has emerged as one of the best defensemen in the NHL.”
