Adding three or four solid defenders back to your roster heading into the playoffs is helpful, right? Well, If you are the Colorado Avalanche, it means making some tough decisions come playoff time. It’s safe to assume that Cale Makar and Devon Toews will be the top pairing or at least among the top-four defensemen to hit the ice in the first round. That leaves four defensive slots open for seven available defenders. Jared Bednar and Colorado will have to choose from the following:
Jack Johnson ($750k AAV)
Kurtis MacDermid ($875k AAV)
Bowen Byram ($894k AAV)
Ryan Murray ($2.0-million AAV)
Josh Manson ($2.05-million AAV)
Sam Girard ($5-million AAV)
Erik Johnson ($6-million AAV)
I put them in order of smallest to most significant cap hit so that we can think of them in terms of value to start this thought process. Without considering anything else, If we went simply by the numbers, the pairings would look like this:
Cale Makar – Erik Johnson
Samuel Girard – Devon Toews
Josh…
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