DENVER (AP) – The Colorado Avalanche added a big-name scorer in Jarome Iginla shortly after losing a fan favorite in Paul Stastny.
The Avalanche signed Iginla to a three-year, $16 million deal on Tuesday, bringing in a forward with 560 career goals.
Iginla played last season with the Boston Bruins and had 30 goals in 78 games. He will be counted on to help fill the scoring void left by Stastny, who signed a four-year, $28 million deal with division rival St. Louis earlier in the day. Stastny spent his entire career with Colorado after being picked in the second round of the 2005 draft.
Iginla is a six-time All Star who turned 37 on Tuesday. He’s played in 1,310 regular season games with Calgary, Pittsburgh and Boston.
”Jarome’s track record speaks for itself,” Avalanche Hall of Famer turned executive Joe Sakic said. ”He is one of the top goal scorers of all time, as well as a great leader. His addition will bolster our offense.”
The Avs have been rather busy since Monday, orchestrating two trades for veteran players.
First, the team picked up veteran forward Daniel Briere from Montreal for right wing P.A. Parenteau and a fifth-round pick in next year’s draft.
On Tuesday, Colorado acquired defenseman Brad Stuart from the San Jose Sharks for a second-round pick in 2016 and a sixth-rounder in 2017.
The 34-year-old Stuart will bring more tenacity to the Avalanche’s blue line. He was third on the Sharks in blocked shots (114) and hits (122) last season.
Gabriel Landeskog knows full well the kind of wallop Stuart can deliver. The Colorado captain missed a month after suffering a concussion in January 2013 following a huge hit by Stuart as Landeskog brought the puck up the ice.
Stuart may be called upon to mentor defenseman Nick Holden, who signed a three-year extension that runs through the 2017-18 season.
The Avs are coming off a season in which they tied a franchise record with 52 wins in Patrick Roy’s first year behind the bench. They captured the Central Division title and returned to the postseason for the first time since 2009-10, before being eliminated by Minnesota in seven games.
Their turnaround led to quite a few postseason awards, too, with Roy taking home coach of the year, Nathan MacKinnon being named the top rookie and Ryan O’Reilly capturing the Lady Byng Memorial Trophy for gentlemanly play. Semyon Varlamov also was a finalist for outstanding goaltender, which went to Tuukka Rask of Boston.
Sakic was hoping to return the nucleus for another run, but wasn’t about to break the bank to make that happen. Sakic said two weeks ago the team had a salary structure in place, setting the financial bar in deals with Varlamov, Matt Duchene and Landeskog.
These days, Sakic is attempting to work out a long-term deal with O’Reilly, a restricted free agent who led the team with a career-high 28 goals in 2013-14.
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