Winger Joonas Donskoi is having a career year after choosing Colorado in free agency.
A little more than a year after choosing the Avalanche, Finnish winger Joonas Donskoi can unequivocally say free agency went well for him.
Donskoi, who played in the Western Conference finals last season with the San Jose Sharks, is preparing for the upcoming playoffs with a team many believe can win the Stanley Cup. The Sharks, meanwhile, are beginning to rebuild from a lastplace finish in the conference.
Donskoi agreed to a four-year, $15.6 million contract with Colorado on July 1, 2019. With a $3.9 million annual cap hit, he is the Avs’ fifth highest-paid forward behind Mikko Rantanen ($9.2 million), Nathan MacKinnon ($6.3 million), Gabe Landeskog ($5.5 million) and Nazem Kadri ($4.5 million). He has a careerhigh 16 goals, sixth-most on the team, in just 65 games. He had 14 goals in 80 games in his fourth and final year in San Jose. On May 8, 2019, Donskoi eliminated the Avalanche with a game-winning goal in Game 7 of their second-round series.
“I’m happy with my decision,” Donskoi said on a Zoom call Wednesday during Day 3 of Avalanche training camp at Pepsi Center. “(Colorado) was a familiar team to me and I felt like it would be a good fit for my game style. I’m extremely happy I was able to make the deal and come here, and play with guys like Cale (Makar) and MacKinnon and, you know, Mikko and Landy (Landeskog). I’m happy with my decision and I’m extremely excited to get into the playoffs.”
The Avs will continue to train in Denver until July 26, when they travel to Edmonton and Rogers Place, host of the Western Conference’s playoff hub. Donskoi has played throughout the lineup with the Avs but is currently on the third line as the right winger with center J.T. Compher and trade-deadline rental Vladislav Namestnikov.
Donskoi is paid like a top-six forward but doesn’t mind logging slightly fewer minutes for a team that is so deep offensively. Despite all the injuries to key players this season, the Avs finished fourth in goals-per-game at 3.37.
“We have four good lines who can all score goals and play offensive and play good hockey. I really like our lines right now,” Donskoi said.
Footnotes. Avs coach Jared Bednar, who did not talk to reporters Wednesday, said Monday that he will tinker with his lines throughout training camp and probably into August. He continues to experiment with Andre Burakovsky, another firstyear Avs winger who began training camp Monday as the second-line left winger with Kadri and Valeri Nichushkin. Burakovsky is now on the first line with MacKinnon and Rantanen, dropping Landeskog to the Kadri line. Burakovsky doesn’t prefer one line over the other. “I’m finding a lot of chemistry with both Naz and Nate through the season. I just want to be out there playing,” he said. … In addition to Donskoi and Burakovsky, the Avalanche made defenseman Nikita Zadorov available on a Zoom call Wednesday. Zadorov and his wife and daughter spent two months in Florida during the pandemic. He skated with a large group of fellow Russians, including Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin. “It was fun. There weren’t many drills, mostly playing scrimmage all the time but still fun to skate with Ovi (and others),” Zadorov said. “It was just the first step in the right direction.”