Colorado Avalanche: 3 Players With Expiring Contracts

With the off-season almost completed, it feels right to take a preview into next year's. In this segment, we will be looking at three players from each team who have expiring contracts. Both restricted and unrestricted free agents are eligible for discussion.

In this piece, we will be focusing on the Colorado Avalanche. Colorado has plenty of key players who will be in need of new contracts next off-season. Although re-signing them all would be fantastic, they have to be careful because Nathan MacKinnon's contract expires after the 2022-23 season. Therefore, they have some tough decisions to make.

Nazem Kadri C (UFA): Nazem Kadri has one year left on his current deal. In 56 games this past season, he scored 11 goals and recorded 32 points. It was another solid year for him in terms of his two-way play, but his success was overshadowed by his third postseason-ending suspension in four years. It will be intriguing to see if Colorado opts to re-sign him. If Alex Newhook has a breakout season and Tyson Jost gets his offensive numbers up, it could make Kadri expendable. We will have to wait and see what occurs.

André Burakovsky RW (UFA): André Burakovsky has taken his game to a new level since being traded to the Avalanche. During the 2019-20 season, he scored 20 goals and had 45 points in 58 games. This past season, he followed that up with 44 points in 53 games. Ideally, Colorado would love to keep him around, but it will all depend on his asking price. If he puts up another strong offensive campaign, he certainly could land himself a large raise on the open market.

Darcy Kuemper G (UFA): The Avalanche traded for Darcy Kuemper after Philipp Grubauer signed with the Seattle Kraken. Kuemper had a down year this past season, as he had a 10-11-3 record and .907 SV% with the Coyotes. Still, those numbers were not bad, but one has to remember that he had a .928 SV% and .925 SV% the two previous seasons. Playing on a much stronger team with Colorado should help his numbers go back up, though. If he impresses in his first season with the Avalanche, one has to assume they will re-sign him next off-season.