Predators trade longtime center to Avalanche

In 2021-22, it looked like Johansen had turned a corner as he notched a career-high 26 goals while recording 63 points. Those numbers weren’t exactly worth an $8M price tag but for the time being, he and Matt Duchene were giving Nashville at least decent production up the middle.  Unfortunately, that didn’t carry over to this past season as the 30-year-old managed just 28 points in 55 games before undergoing emergency leg surgery in February, ending his campaign prematurely.

For Colorado, this is a relatively low-risk gamble that Johansen can rediscover his offensive touch. They never truly replaced Nazem Kadri who left in free agency last summer, opting instead to largely go with internal options including J.T. Compher. Compher had a career year in 2022-23, picking up a career-high 52 points but he’s set to become an unrestricted free agent next month and will likely land a contract that’s worth more than what the Avs will be covering on Johansen’s deal.  At $4M, as long as Johansen can put up around 40 points while continuing to be above-average at the faceoff dot, he’ll provide ample value for Colorado and with the firepower they have, an uptick in production is certainly a possibility.

With this swap, the Avalanche have around $8.5M in cap room, per CapFriendly with at least six players to sign with that money.  However, that doesn’t account for Gabriel Landeskog’s injury that will cause him to miss the entire 2023-24 campaign so GM Chris MacFarland has roughly $15.5M still at his disposal over the coming weeks.

As for Nashville, this is an underwhelming return, to put it lightly, for someone that just a few years ago was one of the focal points of their attack.  But the Predators are clearly embarking on at least a partial rebuild after jettisoning several veterans at the trade deadline and in a flat salary cap environment, getting full value for Johansen would have been next to impossible. The move now gives them a little over $19.5M in cap room to work with, per CapFriendly, so if they want to be active in free agency to try to make it a quick retool, they’ll have the flexibility to do so.  Alternatively, if they want to take on a bad contract or two to add more assets, that will also be a viable option for them.

Notably, this swap now encumbers two of Nashville’s three allowable retention slots through the 2024-25 campaign as one is also being used on Mattias Ekholm. These retentions plus the buyout to Kyle Turris give the Preds $6.25M in dead cap for the upcoming season.

Galchenyuk’s inclusion in this trade is almost certainly just for contract-matching purposes.  Even though he’s a pending free agent, he still counts as under contract until July 1 as do all pending free agents.  For the time being, Nashville has 47 contracts on their books while Colorado sits at 45 so both franchises have some wiggle room in the coming weeks on that front.

Galchenyuk played in just 11 games with the Avs this past season, being held off the scoresheet in the process. The 2012 third-overall pick spend most of the year with AHL Colorado and was productive with them, picking up 42 points in as many games. He’ll almost certainly be heading for another two-way contract next season if he opts to stay in North America but after clearing waivers twice in the last two seasons, it’s possible that the 29-year-old looks to try his hand at playing overseas.