The New York Islanders made a terrible mistake when they sent Devon Toews to the Colorado Avalanche for two second-round picks. Now, the Islanders have an aging core that used to be really good and Toews is a part of an Avalanche team that already has one Stanley Cup with him while looking to add more.
Following this season, Toews was set to become an unrestricted free agent. He is Colorado’s clear second-best defenseman (behind only Cale Makar) but was making the fourth most money on their blue line. Everyone knew that he was going to get a significant raise.
He will make $4.1 million against the cap for the rest of this season but every team in the league would have given him a lot more than that if he reached July 1 without a new deal. Luckily for the Colorado Avalanche, that is not going to be the case.
Not only did they get him extended, but they also got him extended on a very team-friendly deal. On Friday, we learned that Toews was handed a seven-year extension worth $7.25 million.
The Colorado Avalanche and Devon Toews agreed on a seven-year deal.
With some of the recent deals signed by defensemen much younger and far less proven than him, it is clear that Joe Sakic and his staff got themselves a really nice deal done. This will keep him with the Avalanche for the rest of his very good years in the NHL.
At this point, you can consider Toews to be a top-20 NHL defenseman. There might even be people that have him ranked higher than that. Either way, nobody is arguing that he is magnificent.
He is also an amazing partner for Makar. Not everybody is suited to have that kind of responsibility. That pair is relied on for offense but they also get some pretty hard matchups as a result of their skills.
At this point, Toews might be Makar’s wingman to make a Team Canada roster. The duo have been so good together and Toews deserves credit as well. The Islanders never would have predicted that he’d become a player like this when they sent him off.
Now, the Stanley Cup is all they need to focus on. Toews joins Makar, Mikko Rantanen, Nathan MacKinnon, and a few other good players on this team as guys who are locked in for a long time.
They will just need to fill in the cracks along the way for the next few years as their core is set and very good. We’ll see what they can do this year. Congrats to Toews on the contract, he deserves it.