This one's a shocker. Tyler Arnason has signed a two-year deal with the Avalanche. Salary hasn't been announced yet, but I'm assuming somewhere between $1,000,000 and $2,000,000. While I don't dislike Arnason, I felt we needed to upgrade our toughness and faceoff percentage...and his spot seemed like a perfect place to go looking for an upgrade. His 2 hits (yes, 2) and 43.8% leave a bit to be desired. Overall, the Avs ranked 22nd in the league in faceoffs last year, and, at this point, seem to be returning all 4 centers from last year. In other words, don't expect that to change much.
Unless the plan is to play Arnason at center, it looks like the Avalanche are all full up the middle. This would seem to lessen the chances of Peter Forsberg coming back to Denver. On the flip side, with our centers full and money to burn, it would seem like we are positioned to make a run at Ryan Smyth.
EDIT: Rocky Mountain News is reporting 2 years, $3.35 Million. That's a 1.675 million cap hit. Not terrible. Again, my issue is more with the roster spot than the money.