Ben Meyers re-signs for one year

After the somewhat surprising signing of Nikolai Kovalenko the Colorado Avalanche had just one pressing bit of summer business left before the organization can officially head to the lake and that was getting their last remaining Restricted Free Agent in Ben Meyers under contract.

The depth forward who played 39 games with the Avalanche last season and scored four goals earned the one-year extension valued at the now league minimum $775k. Cap Friendly confirmed it as a one-way contract, which negotiating that fact could have been what delayed the signing.

Contrary to what has been widely reported, this signing does not impact the remaining salary cap space the Avalanche has left to play with. The organization prefers to only carry 21 players and any additional signing likely pushes one of Meyers or the newly acquired Frederik Oloffson off the roster, who are both making league minimum $775k at the NHL level and those cap hits can easily get buried.

One other interesting fact to note is that Meyers still has has a waivers exemption until he plays in 10 more NHL games (and Olofsson doesn’t have any exemption) before he reaches 60 NHL games played which makes him the easiest to move off the roster. Thus, the $2.8M cap space remaining is intact for another addition, or if GM Chris MacFarland can swing it, possibly two. Meyers will certainly still see his fair share of NHL play because there will always be injuries but there is still flexibility in his status despite receiving the one-way deal.