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The Colorado Avalanche made another big trade late Thursday night, picking up Brock Nelson from the New York Islanders. After trading away Mikko Rantanen and picking up Ryan Lindgren, they made this big splash. Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar spoke with Aarif Deen of Colorado Hockey Now about Nelson's game after the deal.
“Huge add. Huge add. … He's always been a trusted 200 ft player. If you look at his history, he's scoring 30+ goals most years too. To get a player of that caliber is hard to do.”
Nelson has scored 30 goals in each of the last three seasons but is not on pace to break that boundary this year. As the Avalanche's second-line center, he could see a ton of goals come his way. He has also been killing penalties for the Islanders but Colorado's kill is significantly better than New York's.
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The Avalanche have traded Rantanen and a bevy of picks to overhaul their depth this season. Ryan Lindgren, Jimmy Vesey, and Nelson are all gone but it cost a lot. They gave up four picks and four players total for the two moves with the two New York teams. But getting secondary scoring behind Nathan MacKinnon was worth the price.
Daily FaceOff's line combinations tool has Nelson playing on the Avalanche's second line with Jonathan Drouin and Valeri Nichushkin. That is a solid, veteran line that can score with the rest of the Western Conference's great teams. Islanders general manager Lou Lamoriello reportedly had multiple trades to choose from, likely from other West contenders.
Brock Nelson could make his Avalanche debut on Hockey Night in Canada when Colorado hosts the Toronto Maple Leafs. He won't play against his former team for the remainder of this season. Nelson will be an unrestricted free agent on July 1.
