After 1st-Round Series Loss, Colorado Faces Decisions About Their Roster

By Jordan Long

The Colorado Avalanche season ended last night in game 7 of the first round of the NHL playoffs.  Seattle beat them 2-1.  Colorado is now in the offseason with questions about their unrestricted free agents.

            Two players who may decide to retire are Darren Helm and Eric Johnson.  Helm is 36 years old.  He played in 11 games this season for the Avalanche.  He wasn’t productive with zero points.  Helm should walk away from the game.  He has played 16 years in the NHL with Detroit and Colorado.  In that time, he scored 119 goals and added 147 assists for 267 points.

Helm appeared in 103 postseason games, scoring 13 goals and 13 assists.  Helm has also won 2 Cups, one with Detroit in 2008 and one with Colorado last year.  It would make sense for him to retire.  He clearly couldn’t skate at a high level this year.

            Erik Johnson is another who could call it a career.  Johnson finished his 15^th  season in the NHL.  In 63 games for Colorado this year, Johnson totaled 8 assists.  He is not an offensive defenseman but he can still score, putting in 88 goals and adding 249 assists in his career. Johnson has also played in 55 playoff games with 5 goals and 8 assists.  Johnson might come back because he is 34 years old.  He still has something left.  Colorado could bring him back on a team-friendly deal if that is the case.

            Looking at other free agents, J. T. Compher and Evan Rodrigues are the two big ones Colorado needs to keep. Compher is one of their better secondary scorers.  He is usually on the second or third line depending on where Head Coach Jared Bednar needs to place him. 

 This year Compher scored 17 goals and added 35 assists for 52 points.  Of those, 5 goals and 9 assists came on the power play.  In the playoff series loss to Seattle, Compher scored 1 goal and added 1 assist.   Colorado must find a way to keep Compher because he can go up and down the lines and be successful. 

Rodrigues is another secondary scorer Colorado must re-sign. Rodrigues was in his only season with Colorado.  The Avalanche wanted him to be a big part of the offense.  Rodrigues ended up with 16 goals and 23 assists for a total of 39 points. In the postseason he had 1 goal and 4 assists.

The Avalanche will look at ways to improve the team.  They know next year they want to advance further than their disappointing first-round loss.  Colorado has plenty of time to fix their team.  General Manager Chris MacFarland and President of Hockey Operations Joe Sakic will have decisions to make the roster better.