Devon Toews is officially a Colorado Avalanche player. The 26-year-old defenseman was picked up from the New York Islanders earlier this month for second-round draft picks in 2021 and 2022.
As a restricted free agent, bringing Toews to Colorado gave the team the exclusive permission to negotiate a new contract. An arbitration hearing was scheduled for Saturday, October 31, but general manager Joe Sakic and his team have avoided that with a four-year $4.1 million average annual value (AAV) deal. The deal sees the defenseman pick up $2.35 million next season and $5.9 million in 2023-24, the deal’s last year.
Toews put up 28 points in 68 games during the 2019-20 regular season, with 22 of them coming at even strength. He also played on the Islanders power-play unit and averaged 20:31 of ice time as the Islanders made it to the extended playoffs. Toews added 10 points in 22 postseason games as the Islanders went to the Eastern Conference Final before losing to Stanley Cup Champions, Tampa Bay Lightning. He again averaged over twenty minutes of ice time during the 2020 playoffs.
Toews will unlikely see as much power play time with the Avalanche as Cale Makar and Samuel Girard quarterback the first and second units. However, it does give head coach Jared Bednar another option to try to kickstart an area of his team that has struggled given the talent available. With a 3.5 Defensive Point Share (DPS) last season, Toews finished just behind Ryan Graves, and Ian Cole and the former Islander could see penalty kill time with either or both this season.
“We’re excited to have Devon under contract for the next four years… As I said when we acquired him, Devon is a smart, two-way, puck-moving defenseman who is a durable defender and is excellent in transition.”
Avalanche GM Joe Sakic
