Colorado Avalanche: News from around the NHL July 3rd, 2014

Sakic likes the way the Avs look after free agency.

Sakic, the Avalanche's executive vice president of hockey operations, said Wednesday the additions of forwards Jarome Iginla, Daniel Briere and Jesse Winchester, along with defensemen Brad Stuart and Zach Redmond, have improved Colorado's size, depth, experience and toughness.

"We saw how last year went and we had a tremendous year," Sakic said of the Avalanche's surprising first-place finish in the division, "but at the end of the year after our playoff loss to Minnesota we knew we needed to have a little more depth on our third and fourth lines, and we felt we needed to get tougher.

"We feel we got tougher, and for sure the experience factor -- leadership -- you can never have enough of that. We know our core guys are young. To bring in this leadership to help them along is huge. Now you're not relying on one or two or three guys to be leaders. We have a whole bunch of leaders helping our young guys. There were a lot of things we tried to accomplish, which we think we did."

Steve Moore attended court for the first time in his trial.

There was a new participant at Steve Moore's civil trial against Todd Bertuzzi and the former owners of the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday morning in Toronto: Steve Moore.

This was the first time Moore has attended his civil trial since it started in 2006.

His appearance comes as the trial moves into the final phase, appearing now before the actual trial judge after eight years of case management in a different court, in a different building in fact.

"This is our first appearance in front of the trial judge and this case is about Steve's life and him being here shows just how important this case is to him," said Tim Danson, Moore's lawyer.

Moore spoke casually but answered no direct questions about his case.

Cumiskey is back in the NHL.

Defenseman Kyle Cumiskey has agreed to a one-year contract with the Chicago Blackhawks and is returning to the NHL.

Meanwhile, Chuck Kobasew will play in Switzerland.

Veteran NHL player Chuck Kobasew has decided to leave the league and sign in Switzerland Germany (sic). Kobasew was the 14th pick overall in the 2001 NHL draft and has played over 600 games throughout his career in the league. He has signed with Bern of Germany’s Deutsche Eishockey Liga, the club announced Wednesday.