Columbus acquires Charlie Coyle with a plan
Aaron Portzline of The Athletic: The Columbus Blue Jackets put forth the idea that they were going to make a splash. Naturally, that is just what they did in acquiring Charlie Coyle from the Colorado Avalanche. Coyle was a solid middle-six player for Boston until he was traded at the deadline last season. As a member of the Avalanche, he scored 13 points in 19 regular-season games. Coyle’s ice time tumbled late in the Dallas series, which had some wondering.
Now, things started to make sense as Colorado shed more than $7.5 million in salary. That is because Miles Wood went with the deal as well. Wood never truly fit in with the Avalanche. Injuries limited him to 37 regular-season games last season. He is an effective bottom-six player who can provide energy.
Meanwhile, Coyle is the centerpiece of the deal as the pivot plays a great two-way forward. For the first time in their 25 years, the Blue Jackets have a pretty good 1-2-3 punch at the center position.
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The Columbus Blue Jackets truly have something. With a healthy Boone Jenner and Sean Monahan, Columbus expects to rank better than 27th on face-offs (47.8%). Coyle is one of the better penalty-killing forwards in the league, which should help with a bottom-third penalty kill (77%).
With few goaltenders available, does Columbus look to Rasmus Andersson, perhaps on the blue line? There is the option of mostly standing pat as well. Either way, the next several days will be very telling.
The Colorado Avalanche have salary cap options
Corey Masisak of The Denver Post: So, the Colorado Avalanche have cap space. Colorado has some clarity with Valeri Nichushkin and Gabriel Landeskog. Also, they have $9.6 million in cap space with about 4-6 depth positions. The Avalanche can even be a cap-accrual team if necessary.
Now, Chris MacFarland does not have to jump into free agency for the sake of doing so. It is rare for Colorado to have this luxury of sorts. Colorado eventually has to add a forward and possibly add a 4/5 defenseman. Again, for a change, time is on the side of the Avalanche.
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With that space, Colorado concerns itself more with what the roster looks like on April 15th as opposed to October 15th. One thing to keep an eye on is ultimately how the Avalanche builds its prospect pool. That is something for down the road. Right now, the Avalanche desire is to make an impact in the short term.
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