The Colorado Avalanche has made a pair of moves in a seismic roster shakeup ahead of the NHL trade deadline later this week.
Colorado traded Bo Byram to the Buffalo Sabres for forward Casey Mittelstadt, the team announced, in a swap of top-10 picks that helps fill the Avalanche’s biggest need but also sends out one of the top young defensemen in the league.
Mittelstadt, 25, has 14 goals and 47 points in 62 games for the Sabres this season. He had 15 goals and 59 points in a breakout campaign last year. He could be the latest answer to who is the No. 2 center behind Nathan MacKinnon for the Avalanche.
“We believe so,” Avs general manager Chris MacFarland said. “I think he’s their leading scorer, but he’s got good hands. He’s a very good playmaking center with really good vision. We think the last two years, his game has taken a jump. He’s gotten stronger with experience, and we think there might even be another level to his game.”
Colorado had hoped Ryan Johansen would be that guy after trading for him this past offseason, but the Avs sent him to Philadelphia along with a 2025 first-round pick in a separate trade Wednesday after that experiment did not work out.
Mittelstadt is a pending restricted free agent who is in the final season of a three-year, $7.5 million contract. He was the No. 8 pick in the 2017 NHL draft.
Of the five centers who have been traded recently for a significant return — Mittelstadt, Elias Lindholm, Sean Monahan, Alex Wennberg and Adam Henrique — the newest member of the Avs is the only one with team control beyond this season.
“Yeah, it was huge,” MacFarland said. “When Joe (Sakic) and I and the staff look at it, it’s obviously a premier position in the middle of the ice. Where were we getting the next … our 2C? We do believe Calum Ritchie has that potential, but he’s still very young and we want him to cook and come when he’s ready to thrive not survive at the NHL level.
“So I think getting a player in this age bracket with the controllability was really important. Trading a Bo Byram, you’re not trading him unless you’re getting something that you’re really excited about in an important slot in your lineup. It was a hard decision but we feel it was the right one.”
Byram, 22, has 20 points in 55 games this season while averaging 19:51 of ice time. He was the No. 4 pick in the 2019 draft.
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