Brock Nelson is back for three years

A continued heavy investment at $7.5M per year.

The Colorado Avalanche got their man and they intended to keep him signing Brock Nelson to a three-year contract extension worth $7.5 million per year. After the hefty price paid to obtain the 33-year-old center the organization couldn’t let him walk quickly finding common ground on a contract before he hit unrestricted free agency at the end of the month.

Nelson was still able to keep up production when he arrived from the New York Islanders at the trade deadline with 13 points in 19 games, though many were expecting more than four assists in the seven-game first round series loss to the Dallas Stars. At this price point the Avalanche hope Nelson has another 30 goal season in him. Another task will be elevating the second line which has seen continued analytic pitfalls since the departure of Nazem Kadri and the decision to not pay him $7M per year. Nelson, too, saw his expected goals percentage fall below 50% in Colorado, which will have to be monitored and corrected with the right wingers on his line.

This move is just the first in what projects as a busy summer for the Avalanche. Committing the bulk of their available cap space leaves just $1.2M on paper to replace Jonathan Drouin, Joel Kiviranta at forward and Ryan Lindgren on defense as well as a new contract for Sam Malinski. Other roster players will have to be sacrificed in order to make it work with Nelson now the third highest paid player on the team. But one piece of the puzzle is now locked in for the Avalanche.