Avalanche GM sounds alarm on the biggest potential threat for the upcoming season
Photo credit: Heavy.com
Colorado Avalanche general manager Chris MacFarland sounds the alarm on the biggest potential threat that could derail the team's 2025-26 season.
If the Avalanche knew what they know now, Mikko Rantanen might still be in burgundy and blue. Instead, the 2015 first-rounder is long gone, and his departure still stings.
Chris MacFarland reveals what the biggest threat is for the Avalanche this season.
Dave Benson from Heavy.com writes that with Rantanen's free agency looming, the Avs dealt him in a three-team trade for Jack Drury and Martin Necas. Carolina quickly flipped him to Dallas, where the Stars signed him to an eight-year, $98 million deal.
"But that painful exit isn't the 'if they only knew' that NHL insider Frank Seravalli was talking about. In June, the NHL and NHLPA unveiled a new Collective Bargaining Agreement that will reshape the financial landscape starting in 2026. Among its key features: a steady climb in the salary cap, from $88 million in 2024-25 to $113.5 million by 2027-28.
Translation: teams that thought they were squeezed for space might have had more wiggle room than they realized. And that's where the Avalanche find themselves déjà vu all over again." -Benson
Translation: teams that thought they were squeezed for space might have had more wiggle room than they realized. And that's where the Avalanche find themselves déjà vu all over again." -Benson
As Seravalli noted on Bleacher Report, the parallels to Rantanen's saga are clear, especially with Kirill Kaprizov reportedly rejecting an eight-year, $126 million offer from Minnesota.
«I'm fascinated by what's happening with Martin Necas and the Avs, because they're right back in the same situation they were at this time last year with Mikko Rantanen. I think you could have gotten Rantanen done at just a shade south of 8×12. Do that deal as opposed to now potentially paying Marty Necas, if he has another north of point per game season, this is just numbers, he's gonna be in that 10 million dollar a year range, which, man you're just right back at square one. Not an easy situation to be in.» -Seravalli
If the Avs can't extend Necas, trade talks will creep in. Moving the Rantanen return less than a year later would be an awkward admission the cycle never broke, and cost them one of the few weapons brought in to support MacKinnon's prime.
"General manager Chris MacFarland knows the optics. He also knows the stakes. Colorado isn't in a rebuild - they're in win-now mode, with MacKinnon and Cale Makar entering their best years. Trading Necas to avoid another Rantanen situation would protect the asset column but damage the roster in the short term." -Benson
The Avs again face the same dilemma: win now while planning for the future. Necas wants top-line money, and Colorado must decide if he's worth it, or risk watching another star thrive elsewhere.
For now, he starts the season as a key piece, but the contract question looms over every shift.
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SEPTEMBRE 19 | 22 ANSWERS Avalanche GM sounds alarm on the biggest potential threat for the upcoming season Do you think this can be Chris MacFarland's last season as GM of the Avalanche? | ||
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