Colorado Avalanche re-signs Vladislav Kamenev

The Colorado Avalanche announced Tuesday morning that they have re-signed forward Vladislav Kamenev to a one year contract. The 22-year old scored two goals and three assists in 23 NHL games last season before suffering a season-ending shoulder injury in December.

After coming over from the Nashville Predators as a part of the Matt Duchene trade, Kamenev has now missed the majority of his only two seasons with the Avalanche organization. As a result, he has fallen down the depth chart, but the hope is that he can stay healthy and contribute to the team’s bottom-6 this season. With the departure of Carl Soderberg, Kamenev will have the opportunity to fill out the lineup as both a defensively responsible center and a key part of the penalty kill.

The team has announced that the contract will be for one year but they have not yet given the financial terms of the deal. Given his lack of arbitration rights and the fact that he has missed so much time over the last two seasons, it likely this contract will carry an AAV that isn’t much above the league minimum.

Not only is Kamenev going to need to prove himself after playing in only 45 total games over the last two seasons, but he is going to have to choose a new number. Newly acquired center Nazem Kadri announced last week that he will be wearing No. 91 - the number worn by Kamenev last year.

This signing that only Mikko Rantanen and A.J. Greer remain as unsigned restricted free agents.

** Update: the contract is worth $750k