The Colorado Avalanche have been playing incredible hockey as of late, posting a 7-2-1 record in their last 10 games. GM Joe Sakic decided to add a quality depth player to his already contending team earlier today, as he dealt a 2021 4^th round pick to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for Vladislav Namestnikov. The Avalanche will have to absorb all of Namestnikov’s $3.25 million salary in this deal, as Ottawa will not be retaining any salary here. Following this move, Sakic and the Avalanche still have $5.4 million in cap space and are rumored to still be involved in plenty of trade discussions.

In 56 games played this season (2 with NYR, 54 with OTT), Namestnikov has 13 goals and 12 assists for 25 points. As a pending unrestricted free agent, the 25-year old Namestnikov has a career AB score of +0.90 across a 5-year sample size, which is perfect for a depth player like he will probably be in Colorado. Namestnikov is coming off a -1.36 score last season but has three positive seasons in his career, including a +3.78 score with the Lightning in 2015-16. This season, Namestnikov has a penalty taken/drawn ratio of 13:7, and a giveaway/takeaway ratio of 23:22, with a -7 +/- rating. Under new coach DJ Smith, he is playing about the same number of minutes as his previous career average of 15 minutes a game and has been somewhat effective in that role.

Colorado is certainly not done dealing yet, as they are still looking to acquire forwards to help their team make a long playoff run. The Avalanche are still very injury-plagued, as Nazem Kadri, Mikko Rantanen, Colin Wilson, Matt Calvert, and Philipp Grubauer are all currently on injured reserve. Colorado currently doesn’t have their 2^nd or 3^rd round picks this season as a result of the Andre Burakovsky trade (2^nd rounder), and the Derick Brassard trade deadline deal from last season (3^rd rounder).

It will certainly be interesting to see what else Avalanche GM Joe Sakic decides to do before the trade deadline, as it is now just about two hours away. Perhaps he makes a deal with Montreal, as he has had scouts attend multiple Canadiens games over the past several weeks to scout forwards Max Domi and Tomas Tatar. Much more to come, as Colorado still has the potential to make a big splash in the final moments of this 2020 trade deadline.