General manager Joe Sakic says re-signing Mikko Rantanen is a priority this offseason.
Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic would prefer to sign star right winger Mikko Rantanen to a long-term contract, which would take the player into free agency at the end of it.
“But if it has to be short-term, it has to be short-term,” Sakic said Tuesday.
A short-term deal would be two or three years and make Rantanen a restricted free agent when it expires.
“We want to make sure we have him signed,” Sakic said. “Don’t ask me the time-frame. There’s a lot of players in that same situation, a lot of great hockey players who are all coming up. We’ll just see how all the players and agents handle that.”
Rantanen, 22, is a restricted free agent coming out of his three-year, entry-level contract which carried a modest annual cap hit of $894,167. He finished the regular season second on the team with 87 points, despite missing the last eight games with an injury, and led Colorado in the playoffs with 14 points and tied for first with Nathan MacKinnon with six goals.
Rantanen ranked fifth among NHL right wingers in scoring in the regular season, and if he’s to be paid like one of the world’s best at his position, he will command an annual salary of $7.5 million or more. MacKinnon is the Avs’ top-paid player, at a team-friendly $6.3 million.
The Avalanche has 26 expiring organizational contracts, including RFA defensemen Nikita Zadorov and Ryan Graves and RFA forwards J.T. Compher, Alex Kerfoot and Vladislav Kamenev. A handful of other players are unrestricted free agents, including goalie Semyon Varlamov, whom Sakic said will test the free agent market when it begins July 1.
Sakic also commented on the following topics:
— MacKinnon will not require shoulder surgery after being injured early in Game 7. “Just rest,” Sakic said.
— Coach Jared Bednar will be offered a contract extension, but Sakic doesn’t regard that as a priority. Bednar completed his third year with the team last week. He originally signed a three-year contract when hired, and was given a one-year extension late last season.
— Sakic expects the Avs to be “more aggressive” July 1 in the free agent market than in the past, adding, “We already have targeted players in mind if they become available that we’re going to want to talk to about joining our club.”
Sakic spoke in depth about Colorado’s 8-0-2 run to clinch a playoffspotinGame81ofthe82game regular season and its 7-5 record in the playoffs, including eliminating the Western Conference No. 1-seed Calgary Flames in the first round. The Avs made the playoffs for the second consecutive year and made it to the second round for the first time since 2008.
“We saw the growth in the last couple years here,” Sakic said. “You see the Pepsi Center, the playoff atmosphere — the atmosphere all year. I think there’s a lot of excitement about this team and we have to keep building and try to get it to the next level.”
He added: “The end goal is to be a champion, win a Stanley Cup. But the process from the group — there was a lot of growth, especially in the playoffs. I was really happy with our mindset, the attitude. We got in the playoffs, which was great, but the whole mindset was to win, and focus on that.
“As great as the end of the year was, we still didn’t accomplish the end goal. We have to find a way to get better and it starts here in the offseason.”
Footnotes. Avs forward Tyson Jost has joined Team Canada for the World Championship in Slovakia, and depth goalie Pavel Francouz — an American Hockey League all-star with the Colorado Eagles — has agreed to play for the Czech Republic. … Colorado on Monday signed 2016 draft pick Adam Werner, a 6foot-5 Swedish goalie, to a twoyear entry-level contract. Werner played for Farjestad BK of the Swedish Hockey League last season, posting a 15-6-3 record with a 2.02 goals-against average and .926 save percentage.