Insiders around the league think the Avalanche will be prioritizing Nazem Kadri, Valerie Nichushkin and Darcy Kuemper over Andre Burakovsky. There is only so much cap space to go around. The cap crunch will likely result in Burakovsky hitting that free agent market and signing with a new team when Free Agency opens next Wednesday.
Burakovsky was the 23rd pick in 2013 is a point producer. He has averaged 0.79 points-per-game over his three seasons in Colorado, his 61 points in 2021-22 actually represents a (very small) step down at 0.76 points-per-game.
Burakovsky just finished a 2 year deal with the Avs with a cap hit of $4,900,000 per year. For his next contract he is looking for something in the neighborhood of $5-$7 million per season.
Boston has only $2,383,333 in cap space currently available. They do have a number of veteran forwards going into the final year of their contacts. Maybe GM Don Sweeney can move a Craig Smith, Nick Foligno, Erik Haula or Tomas Nosek to free up some additional cap space.
The Bruins will be in tough to start next season with a number of their star players starting on the IR list. Charlie MacAvoy, Brad Marchand, Matt Grzelcyk, and Mike Reilly all underwent surgeries that is expected to delay their starts to next season. The future playing status of captain Patrice Bergeron is unknown.
