The Tampa Bay Lightning have traded forward Ross Colton to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for a second-round pick in the 2023 NHL draft.

NHL draft day is mere hours old, and we already have our first trade. 

The Tampa Bay Lightning got the draft festivities started with a bang on Wednesday, sending the signing rights to forward Ross Colton to the Colorado Avalanche in exchange for the 37th overall pick in the 2023 NHL draft.

Colton, who is a pending RFA, is in need of a new contract for the 2023-24 season. 

It's a shrewd move for the Avalanche, who have been aggressively shuffling their forward depth over the past few days – first by acquiring Ryan Johansen from the Nashville Predators at 50 percent retained of his salary and then shipping youngster Alex Newhook to the Montreal Canadiens for a first-round pick. 

Colton now joins an Avalanche roster that presents a real shot for him to compete for the club's second-line center role. The 26-year-old will almost certainly see more ice time than the 12:21 per game he averaged for the Lightning last season, and that extra runway could very well see Colton build on the 16 goals and 32 points he racked up in 2022-23. 

Not to mention, Colton brings positional versatility to the table that the Avalanche desperately need, having proven capable of playing both center and the wing, killing penalties, and winning 52.1 percent of his faceoffs over his three-year career. Starting more than half of his shifts in the defensive zone last season, Colton can also handle difficult matchups and gives the Avalanche yet another Swiss Army knife to place in their arsenal. 

With Colton now in the fold, the Avalanche are expected to move on from free-agent center J.T. Compher, who will hit the open market as one of the top players available. 

The Lightning, on the other hand, sit with a mere $450,000 in cap space at the moment, according to PuckPedia. They simply could not afford to pay Colton what he is likely asking for, making the talented forward a cap casualty.