The Colorado Avalanche offseason so far has been a clear shakeup of how management envisions this team's future and howit'ss going to be constructed. Moving off players like Ross Colton, Valeri Nichushkin, and Jack Drury for draft picks and young reclamation projects that can help the current roster.

With free agency starting just under 24 hours, the Colorado Avalanche are surely not done with how they want to continue adding to this roster. They have extended Brett Kulak and Brent Burns to round out the defense pairings, but with the remaining $5.6 million in cap space, who will they spend it on?

While $5.6 million might seem like a lot, with the cap continuing to go up, a lot of players are going to look for big raises, so here are some players I think the Avalanche could sign and not break the bank for.

Starting with a bounce-back candidate in Oliver Bjorkstrand, the right-shot winger could fit really well in the Avalanche middle-six and potentially on their second power play unit. With the Tampa Bay Lightning last season, he finished with 12 goals and 20 assists for 32 points, pretty low numbers for a player we have seen with the Seattle Kraken and Columbus Blue Jackets, who finished with over 20 goals and 50 points. 

With the Lightning, he was slotted on a checking line, which explains the limited production we saw last season compared to his previous totals, when he scored at a higher and more efficient rate. Despite the lower-scoring season, he still landed in the league’s 85th percentile in primary assists per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 this past season.

The main issue is how bare-bones this upcoming free-agent class is. What is Bjorkstand looking for in terms of AAV and for how many years? He's coming off a $5.4 million cap hit, which would take everything the Avalanche have, but if he would ask for less, say around $3-$4 million for a couple of seasons, I think that's something the Avalanche could entertain.

A player the Avalanche (and the NHL as a whole) are quite familiar with at this point. His main structure as a player fits the Avalanche bottom six quite well. His forechecking, puck retrieval, and physical prowess can lead to him forcing turnovers in the offensive zone. 

It worked well during his time with the Dallas Stars, where he finished with over 20 goals twice, and during his best season in 2023-24, he finished with 53 points. He was asked a bit too much to do when he signed with the Seattle Kraken, but when he was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets, he fit right back into that middle-six checking role he had with the Dallas Stars, finishing with 15 goals and 17 assists for 32 points.

Being a left-winger could fit in well with Zakhar Bardakov leaving for the KHL and Joel Kiviranta likely not re-signing, so you could either play him on the fourth line with the new additions of Fedor Svechkov and Zachary L’Heureux or move Parker Kelly down and have him with Nicolas Roy and Logan O’Connor.

While, yes, he might not be the fastest skater in the league, he's an example of what the Avalanche needed last season against the Knights: toughness. Svechkov and L’Heureux with Marchment can fill that gap to a T.

The impact he can have, with his ability to win puck battles and manage puck control, could play a big role for the Avalanche. Over the past two seasons, Marchment ranked 34th in five-on-five primary points per minute among the 371 forwards with at least 1,000 minutes. Coming off a cap hit of $4.5 million, it will be interesting to see what he might ask for, but at the right number, he could be a lock for the Avalanche.

The definition of what a reclamation project can do for the Avalanche, and at the right price. His last three seasons with the Kraken have shown he can be so much more, but with how he's utilized in the Kraken system, it never really reached another level. Only finishing with over 20 goals and 40 points once in those three seasons, he could be just the player the Avalanche target this summer.

If you look at his underlying stats, you will see it's not the best, but looking back at his usage with the Kraken, you can see why. Playing around 16 minutes a night, averaged just around a minute on the penalty and two minutes on the power play. Though he managed to finish 4th on the Kraken with 14 points with the extra skater, that being five goals and nine assists.

Of his 92 career goals, 77 came at 5v5, and something we saw last season was how crucial 5v5 was for the Avalanche. Not only that, but Tolvanen’s skill set includes playing fast and physical, as evidenced by 187 hits and 81 blocked shots. With those stats, he would have finished first in hits and fifth in blocks.

At 27 years old, they have the opportunity to unlock the true nature of this player, who already has a resume of playing on the power play and the penalty kill, and has shown good underlying numbers when it comes to goal scoring. 

Though the question remains at what the Avalanche might value him at and what Tolvanen and his camp might ask for. Coming off a cap hit of $3.45 million, being at that range for the Avalanche would be ideal and open the door for other moves.

A last-minute addition to the list, as the news just came out last night, as the Minnesota Wild did not send Bobby Brink a qualifying offer and will be a UFA tomorrow. Included in the deal from the Philadelphia Flyers during the 2026 trade deadline that saw him moved for David Jiricek. Last season, Brink played in 13 games and finished with two goals and two assists for four points.

A major factor in him not being qualified was that his initial qualifying offer was close to $4 million, which might have been too much for the Wild to pony up, especially with all the news and rumors that the Wild was looking to acquire more players like Dylan Larkin and extend Quinn Hughes.

Obviously, the Wild could not have qualified him for a different deal that might be longer-term but with a lower AAV. Still, if that contract doesn't come on July 1, it would be interesting to see if the Avalanche can jump on a young player who showed a lot of promise with the Philadelphia Flyers. A situation very similar to Gavin Brindley, a young, speedy, promising player with a lot of upside if the Avalanche can utilzie them right.