Colorado Avalanche make another trade

For someone who has developed a reputation of being patient and not making many trade, Joe Sakic has been awfully busy this week. Early Saturday morning, the Colorado Avalanche General Manager pulled the trigger on his third trade since the draft. This time he added another defender that will likely fill out the left side of the depth chart in the AHL with the Eagles.

The Avalanche have acquired defenseman Jacob MacDonald from the Florida Panthers in exchange for forward Dominic Toninato.

MacDonald spent most of last season with the Springfield Thunderbirds (AHL), where he led all team defensemen with 14 goals and 43 points in 72 games. He began the season with the Panthers, but despite scoring a goal in his NHL debut, he only hung around for three NHL games before being sent down to the minors.

A former Toronto Maple Leaf draft pick, Dominic Toninato joined the Avalanche as a free agent in the summer of 2017. The 25-year old was a decent 4th line fill-in when necessary but was replaced in the role by Sheldon Dries last season. He ends his time with the organization having tallied three points in 39 NHL games over the last two seasons.

The deal likely signifies the end of David Warsofsky’s time with the organization as MacDonald will be a younger option to fill the same role. It might also confirm the reports that the Avalanche are interested in bringing in Ryan Carpenter when the free agency market opens on Monday. Moving out Toninato eases the logjam at the bottom-end of the center depth chart.

Carpenter is a very low-maintenance player that would be brought in to fill a 4C role and take a lot of the penalty kill minutes that were given to Carl Soderberg last season.

Joe has been busy but let’s hope this is just the start and that he can make a big splash next week.