Colorado’s first move in NHL free agency Saturday was a daring one. The Avalanche and Miles Wood have agreed to a six-year contract with an average annual value of $2.5 million.
Wood, a fourth-round draft pick in 2013, has spent his entire career in the Devils’ organization as a bottom-six wing, accumulating 148 points in 402 games for New Jersey. He scored 27 points in 76 games last season.
With the six-year deal, the only Avalanche players who will be under contract longer than Wood are Nathan MacKinnon and Valeri Nichushkin. Wood won’t be an unrestricted free agent again until 2029, the same summer as Gabriel Landeskog.
The Devils granted Wood permission to speak with other teams before July 1, according to a report from Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman on June 27. Wood is coming off a one-year deal with a $3.2 million salary cap hit. He turns 28 in September.
A relentless skater who fits the style of Colorado’s bottom six, Wood has had trouble staying out of the box for much of his career. He had 76 penalty minutes in 2022-23 despite averaging only 12:06 per game on the ice, adding to a total of 427 penalty minutes in his eight NHL seasons.
The 6-foot-2 left-handed shooter was born in Buffalo and raised in Massachusetts. He played one year of college hockey at Boston College under Jerry York, the winningest coach in NCAA hockey history.
Wood joins Ross Colton, Ryan Johansen and Jonathan Drouin as offseason newcomers to the Avalanche’s forward corps. The Avs entered free agency aiming for one-year contracts to maximize the brief window in which $7 million extra are available to them in long-term injured reserve cap space. But Wood was a fascinatingly abrupt long-term investment in the middle of the nickle-and-diming.
Avs UFAs leaving
As expected, the Avalanche officially lost longtime defenseman Erik Johnson and center J.T. Compher when free agency opened.
Johnson signed a one-year, $3.25 million deal with the Buffalo Sabres, nearly halving the $6 million average annual value of his previous contract in Colorado. Compher signed a five-year contract with the Detroit Red Wings at a $5.1 million AAV, a pay bump from his $3.5 million in Colorado.
Johnson, a 2011 trade acquisition from the St. Louis Blues, was Denver’s longest-tenured professional athlete. Compher was coming off a career year with 52 points and a 13th-place finish in Selke Trophy voting.
Center Lars Eller also landed elsewhere, on a two-year deal with the Pittsburgh Penguins worth $2.45 million AAV. Eller spent half a season in Colorado after getting traded at the deadline by Washington.
Goalie Jonas Johansson signed a two-year contract with the Lightning at a $775,000 AAV. He almost signed with Swedish club Farjestad BK earlier this offseason, but the transaction was canceled. Colorado picked up Johansson off waivers in October 2022, and he appeared in two NHL games for the Avalanche, winning both.
