There are a lot of moving parts with the Colorado Avalanche salary cap right now. They are trying to keep their core together from the team that won the Stanley Cup in 2022. The reality is that season is getting farther away in the rearview mirror, and contracts expire. Keeping all those players around can be somewhat difficult within the salary cap’s confines.
The team has done a great job re-upping deals for a number of its stars – extending the contracts of Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Devon Toews, Valeri Nichushkin, Artturi Lehkonen, and even captain Gabriel Landeskog (even though he hasn’t played in two seasons). However, role players are vital to that success, too, and Logan O’Connor emerged as a consistent bottom-six force for the Avalanche in 2023-24. The club already brought back Jonathan Drouin for another season after his breakout season, and they have to take a serious look at locking up O’Connor for a few more seasons, as well.
O’Connor’s Impact With Avalanche
O’Connor was a standout for the University of Denver, and was signed by the Avalanche in the summer of 2018 as an undrafted free agent. After shining with the Colorado Eagles of the American Hockey League, he made his NHL debut on New Year’s Eve in 2018. He only played in 43 games across his first three seasons, but then played 81 games for Colorado during its most recent Cup-winning campaign in 2021-22. He tallied eight goals and 16 assists that season, emerging as a penalty-killing force.
O’Connor was one of four Avs players to appear in all 82 games in 2022-23, posting an almost identical stat line to the season before (nine goals, 17 assists). Last season looked like it would be O’Connor’s breakout season before he was shelved in March thanks to knee surgery. In 57 games, he posted a career-high 13 goals on the way to 25 points. Most notably, he scored three short-handed goals – all in the span of three games – as his penalty-killing prowess was on display most of the season.
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This was a fantastic undrafted find for Colorado that has improved every single season. The surgery was unfortunate, especially since the Avalanche were without one of their top penalty killers for the entirety of the playoffs. O’Connor averaged just a few seconds under 15 minutes of ice time last season, and those minutes were missed. The Avs had the 12th-best penalty kill last season at 79.9 percent. That number dropped nearly a full five percentage points to 74 percent in games O’Connor didn’t play in. He might not make the All-Star Game like some of his teammates, but O’Connor’s impact can be found in almost every box score his name appears in.
Avs Also Face Rantanen Dilemma
The most important order of business over the next 12 months will be to get superstar forward Mikko Rantanen to remain in an Avalanche uniform. Rantanen is also in the final year of his contract – one that pays a whopping $9.25 million this season. The bad news for Colorado is that number is only going to go up. After back-to-back seasons with more than 100 points, Rantanen is emerging as one of the best offensive players in the NHL, and in franchise history. It might take some magic from general manager Chris MacFarland, but that contract weighs heavy on Colorado’s future.
That contract will be a massive number, which is saying quite a bit for a team that already has three players making more than $9 million per season. O’Connor and Rantanen are on completely different levels of salary at this point in their careers, and keeping one shouldn’t mean having to ditch the other. The Avs can certainly afford to keep a proven role player like O’Connor in the mix – and almost have to. He’s another one of Colorado’s finds from when Joe Sakic was general manager, and it’s important to keep him in the fold as O’Connor is still in the prime of his career.
Related: Avalanche Need to Extend Rantanen Before Offseason is Over
Led by the likes of MacKinnon and Makar, the Avalanche should continue to be competitive for years to come. That changes drastically if the team isn’t able to bring back Rantanen. There’s also the question as to whether Landeskog will ever return to his previous form, and no one will be able to predict anything that’s going to happen with Nichushkin after his last couple of seasons. Addressing the Rantanen contract sooner rather than later will help clear up some of that picture and deliver some stability.
Keeping Colorado’s Competitive Window Open
Despite all the uncertainties surrounding Colorado this offseason, the team still looks to be as dangerous as ever entering the 2024-25 campaign. It’s after this season that more questions will pop up if some of these contracts don’t get done before the puck drops. O’Connor has been a solid player in the bottom six for the past three seasons, and it looks like there could be more to come from him.
Bringing back O’Connor won’t break the bank. He’s making just $1.05 million this season, and that number should only increase marginally. His steady improvement over the course of his NHL career has shown that he might wind up being a well-priced bargain to bolster Colorado’s depth. Along with your core of stars, guys like O’Connor are what every team is searching for – a solid player that fits in with your scheme and delivers when those stars need a rest. He was threatening to post his first 20-goal campaign last season, and that’s a great number for a bottom-six talent.
Even if O’Connor never gets better than what he currently is, that’s a player the Avalanche need in their ranks. He fits in with their style, is their best player when they’re a man down, and delivers a lot of speed and energy when playing 5-on-5. O’Connor delivers everything the Avs ask of him and understands his role on the roster. We see role players as difference-makers in every postseason and at 27, O’Connor has the makeup to be one of those players for years to come.
