Avalanche Acquire Ovechkin & Carlson - Plus a Draft Recap

When the Philadelphia Flyers bowed out in game 7 of the Lemiuex Conference finals to the eventual cup champion Florida Panthers, Alexander Ovechkin knew his time in black and orange may have come to an end. "A lot of uncertainty, obviously we have a lot of guys that need raises here, I'm happy to be a Flyer but understand this is a business." The run with the Flyers last season capped off a 5 year stretch for Ovechkin where he had been to three cup finals, winning one with Dallas in 2020. On top of that, the now 38 year old Ovechkin had reached back to back conference finals with the Flyers. "It was a ton of hockey, but I love the game, I love scoring goals, I love the big moments."

Enter RFA period for the EHE - With the biggest news coming out of Columbus, where Flyers forward Jack Hughes would accept an offer sheet from the Blue Jackets to the tune of $10.5 million per season. The writing was all but on the wall for Ovechkin and the Flyers. Knowing it would be a bit of a salary cap juggling act for the Flyers, Avs GM Kirklan Lycar went to work. 

On December 29th Lycar would call a press conference to announce the deal. "The Colorado Avalanche are pleased to announce we have acquired Alexander Ovechkin from the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for a 2024 1st round pick, a 2025 3rd round pick and forward Brandon Saad." Lycar who is no stranger to making large deals, says this may be one of the biggest of his tenure, if not the biggest, quite certainly the most important as seemingly Lycar is all in on competing this season. "Ovi is a guy who brings a lot to the table, obviously the goal scoring, but it's more than that. When you look at who he is as a teammate and a leader, it's no surprise the deep runs his team's have made over the last half decade. He knows what it takes." 

The Avs who are no strangers to making big moves continued their push to add to the roster yesterday. In a move with the Boston Bruins the Colorado Avalanche have acquired John Carlson and Jakob Silfverberg in exchange for Sam Girard, Tomas Tatar and a 2024 2nd. "John is a big time player from the back end, to compete for a cup you need a guy like that to anchor you offensively back there, super ecstatic to bring him back to Colorado."

The move of course comes at a time where admittedly its been a "frustrating" free agency period for the Avs GM. We had a strong sense from his camp that Patty (Patrick Kane) would return, it didn't go our way, so time to move on." When asked to comment on his thoughts surrounding the league controlled Ducks ever so slightly edging out the Avs day 0 offer before Cole Bates swooped in at the last minute to beat both offers, Lycar declined to comment.

Moving on to the Avs 2023 draft class. "Short and sweet, two picks, two guys though that we are very confident in making an impact for the Avalanche." Making the most of the picks he has really has been the theme and one area where Lycar has seemingly flourished. This now marks five straight drafts dating back to 2018 where Jared Mitchell has given the Avs an A rating or better, while in 2018 and 2022 being the only team to earn an A+

First at 70th overall the Avalanche selected Denver Barkey. At the time of publication, Barkey sits 5th in OHL scoring with 52 points in 33 games. "Incredibly fun, skilled and shifty forward with high-end playmaking abilities, a constant motor, and isn't afraid to create offence by going to the hard areas, which isn't super common for a player of his size."

Next the Avs selected Bogdan Konyushkov at 94th overall, just like the Barkey pick this is being regarded as a steal. "Provided Bogdan decides to leave Russia, we have full confidence in him being a top 4 d man. A future with him and Lane (Hutson) is something we are really looking forward to." At time of publication Konyushov currently leads his team Torpedo Novgorod in time on ice while also leading all d men in scoring on his squad with 22 points in 45 games. "What Bogdan has been able to accomplish at his age in that league is nothing short of extremely impressive, he exudes skill and creativity, and plays with enticing physicality despite being a slightly smaller guy. We are ecstatic to watch him develop."