Three ways The Colorado Avalanche improved going into the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft

2. The trade of Ryan Graves (front office solutions)

Hear me out, this trade was massive for Colorado, despite making minimal ripples on the national stage. When it comes to front office ramifications of trading Graves away, this could very well resemble the Matt Duchene trade in 2017, which is still paying off as prospects linked to the trade make it to the NHL (Sampo Ranta for example).

First off, in trading Graves, Colorado was no longer going to lose him in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft to the Seattle Kraken. With that risk gone, the temptation to protect four forwards and four defensemen went away as well. Being able to protect seven forwards has arguably left Joonas Donskoi and J.T. Compher as the best Avalanche players to be taken by Seattle in the Draft.

All three, Graves, Donskoi, and Compher have a salary in the range of $3.5 million. So if we assume that Seattle drafts one of those two forwards, and with Graves gone, that makes about $7 million in additional cap space. Money like that could mean the ability to smooth over relations with the current Unrestricted Free Agent Gabriel Landeskog. If you have not noticed, the Landeskog drama is currently haunting Avs fans everywhere. Every penny is going to help.