Since we're still waiting on an official announcement on the rumored Patrick Bordeleau signing, the Avalanche have officially jumped into the free agent waters tonight by signing Swedish forward Joakim Lindstrom. He is available after having spent the last two years in the KHL and Swedish Elite League respectively. Lindstrom was originally a 2nd round pick by Columbus in the 2002 draft (the Avs drafted Johnny Boychuk in the 2nd round that year) and most recently played in the NHL with Phoenix in the 2008-2009 season. He scored 20 points in 44 games that year, on a team with future Avs Kevin Porter, Peter Mueller, Daniel Winnik and Ilya Bryzgalov (ha ha). I guess there's no shortage of Avalanche scouts in Glendale, and I'm sure that has nothing to do with the fact that it's pretty much the closest NHL city to Denver.
The scouting report on Lindstrom is that he's offensively talented but a bit fragile (he's listed at 6'0, 187). He led his SEL team in both scoring and penalty minutes last year, but the PiMs seem like an abnormality (and yes, one of his teammates last year was Adam Larsson). Adrian Dater is reporting that it is a 1-way deal for $600,00. A one-way deal means he makes the same salary regardless of whether he is in the AHL or NHL.
To me, that last wrinkle makes this a bit of an odd signing. If this was a two-way deal, I'd chalk it up to a nice addition of organizational depth. But, the fact that it's a 1-way deal seems to indicate that the Avalanche expect him to land a roster spot in the fall. He sounds like another 2nd-to-3rd line tweener winger...something the Avalanche already have an abundance of. Wait, he couldn't be a potential replacement for Tomas Fleischmann, could he?