Morning Flurries: Which Av is on the move?

A look at the names recently in the rumor mill.

With less than a month to go until the fireworks of July 1st and free agency, the rumor mill has kicked back into action. Naturally, the Colorado Avalanche have been featured especially after spending the bulk of their cap space on a Brock Nelson extension.

Last week started off with some buzz around the recently acquired Martin Nečas and how contract talks might progress this summer. With one year until he hits unrestricted free agency there is urgency to get a contract done sooner than later if both he and the team are interested in a long-term commitment.

Right after the three-year Brock Nelson extension was announced this little nugget on another Avalanche center was presented. Perhaps paying Charlie Coyle $5.3M to play on the third line isn’t ideal for either party.

As always, the proposed solution to any salary cap or roster problem is just trade defenseman Samuel Girard. After five years in the rumor mill, is his time in Colorado coming to an end?

There’s always rumors every offseason, the task is to filter through the noise to see what might be rooted in facts. The lack of cap space, especially after giving it all to Nelson, does seem to be pumping up the frequency and visibility of these rumors. With every veteran that gets moved out to create depth they still need to get replaced so a fire sale seems unlikely. So the noise likely stems from a lot of speculation but also the Avalanche could be trying to gauge the market on their tradable players and these names are getting a lot of chatter.