The Colorado Avalanche and forward Gabriel Landeskog were able to figure out their differences and finalize the terms of an 8-year contract extension just minutes before the deadline to do so passed. Landeskog will be staying in Colorado after signing a $63 million contract.
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Earlier in the afternoon Tuesday, the Colorado Avalanche were making another pitch to try and sign Landeskog to a new deal before the opening of NHL free agency on Wednesday morning. Previous reports were that the Avs were somewhere around $6 million times six years and Landeskog was none too happy about it.
After some of the emotion of that deal is now potentially removed, the Avalanche and Landeskog might be back at the table trying to work things out. Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman wrote on Tuesday, “Okay, working on some stuff. Biggest one is probably Landeskog…hearing 7×7 is on the table, and there are discussions about the possibility of eight years. We will see where this goes.” He added that the $7M x seven offer was from the Avs, the only other team that could have potentially offered that being the Seattle Kraken.
Further to that report, there is speculation that teams are willing to go higher than this. Rumors were that Landeskog was thinking around $9 million per season so this $7 million offer was still low compared to what he thought he could get on the market. Some believed another team would go as high as seven years times $9 million, so it was hard to imagine Landeskog leaving $14 million or so on the table.
The Deal With Colorado Eventually Gets Done
Despite the speculation that Landeskog could test the open market, there was always a sense he didn’t want to leave Colorado and that a deal could come together in the final hours. That’s exactly what happened. Time will tell if it’s a good deal for the Avs and if the player struggles in the final years of the new agreement.
There will certainly be more than a few teams upset that he’s not going to hit the open market.
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