Avalanches have been added to their backs as they have acquired Patrick Nemeth of the Red Wings in exchange for a fourth-round selection in 2022. Both teams have announced the deal.
The 29-year-old is familiar with Colorado as he spent two seasons with them in 2017-18 and 2018-19. It was there that he had the best years of his career offensively (15 and 10 points, respectively), while he presented himself with more physical presence in his second season, achieving 137 hits. This helped him win a two-year, $ 6 million deal with Detroit in the summer of 2019 with the goal of helping stabilize his back-end. Colorado, however, will not assume this full price, as reported by Peter Baugh of The Athletic (Twitter link) that the Red Wings retain the maximum 50% (or $ 1.5 million) of the Nemeth deal.
In his first season with Detroit, Nemeth recorded just over 22 minutes per night, but his playing time has dropped markedly this season until 6:24 p.m., while scoring two goals and six assists in 39 games. parties. Still, he’s still a physical player with the ability to kill penalties and block shots, elements the Avs haven’t had as much of this season. Erik Johnsonproblems with persistent injuries and early season trading Ian Cole in Minnesota.
Nemeth is likely to play an even more limited role with the Avs as he is estimated to be participating in his third pairing. But with him already familiar with the system, he should have a smoother transition to his training than most acquisitions, though he won’t debut for a few more days as he currently has a hand injury. As for Detroit, this is the first of its three allowable pay-as-you-go transactions, a number that could very well increase by Monday’s trading deadline and which they earn themselves in the middle of the round to do so; they now have three fourth-round picks in the 2022 NHL draft.
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