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Avs sign Beauchemin, Comeau; Sakic: 'They want to win' |
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Rick Sadowski
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UPDATED:
New Avalanche defenseman Francois Beauchemin, who on Wednesday signed a three-year, $13.5 million contract as a free agent, is looking forward to being paired with Erik Johnson.
"I like to play a hard game, a physical game," Beauchemin, 35, said on a conference call. "(Being ) paired with Erik, do a great job complementing each other, making that breakout pass to get out of our zone. That's been my game for 10 years and I'm going to keep doing that."
The Avalanche also signed left wing Blake Comeau, 29, to a three-year, $7.2 million contract. Comeau will play on the third line and kill penalties.
Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic said on a conference call that he believes he filled two of the team's most pressing needs -- a left defenseman to pair with Johnson and a gritty depth forward capable of scoring in double figures.
"We've got leadership, we've got toughness, guys that play full 200-foot games," Sakic said. "These guys want to win. They don't just want to come here to play hockey, they expect to win. It's all about expectations and compete level."
The 6-foot-1, 207-pound Beauchemin played in 64 games for Anaheim last season, when he had a career-high 11 goals, along with 12 assists and 48 penalty minutes while averaging a team-most 22:44 in ice time. He had a plus-17 plus/minus rating and blocked 107 shots.
Beauchemin, who won the Stanley Cup with the Ducks in 2007, had nine assists and two penalty minutes in 16 playoff games this past season while logging 25:24 in ice time.
He's the second left defenseman acquired by the Avalanche in the past six days. Nikita Zadorov was acquired Friday from Buffalo in the multi-player trade that sent Ryan O'Reilly to the Sabres.
From Orange County Register beat guy Eric Stephens:
"The biggest thing is we were looking for somebody to play with EJ for top minutes, play against the other team's top lines," Sakic said. "We looked at all the free agents out there and there's only a handful we knew could play (that role). Francois did a tremendous job for Anaheim and I know he's excited to come here and do the same thing."
(I would have preferred defenseman Andrej Sekera, 29, who signed a six-year, $33 million contract with Edmonton. But the $5.5 million cap hit was too much for the Avalanche and Sakic said he didn't want to "handcuff" the team with long-term deals because he still needs to sign Johnson, Tyson Barrie and Nathan MacKinnon to new contracts, along with Mikhail Grigorenko and other restricted free agents with qualifying offers. See below.)
A third-round pick (No. 75) by Montreal in the 1998 NHL draft, Beauchemin has 60 goals, 159 assists and 394 penalty minutes in 673 regular-season games. He has 10 goals, 29 assists and 78 penalty minutes in 97 playoff games.
"You look at the organization leading with (coach) Patrick Roy and Joe Sakic, those players were idols for me growing up," Beauchemin said. "I watched them play, know how great they are. Great persons as well. You look at the Avalanche organization the last few years, they've been able to take steps forward to bringing a championship team back. I was really excited to see them want me with this club. As soon as they talked with my agent, the negotiation went really well. I was really excited to get that done today."
Beauchemin said it is "hard" to leave the Ducks, with whom he's spent most of his career.
"Hard for myself and hard for my family," he said. "I never really felt that Anaheim wanted me back for a couple more years. We negotiated all year long. So for me, as soon as we talked with Colorado, giving me a three-year deal, having to move my wife and kids, knowing we're going to be there for three years, we're all really excited about that."
So now the Avalanche have a couple of defensemen, Beauchemin and Brad Stuart, with plenty of mileage. Stuart, who turns 36 in November and has two years left on his contract, has played 1,050 regular-season games and 142 in the postseason.
Is Sakic concerned? "Not at all," he said. "You can't have enough veterans."
Comeau, who is 6-1 and 202 pounds, had 16 goals, 15 assists, 65 penalty minutes and a plus-6 rating in 61 games last season with Pittsburgh. He had one goal and eight penalty minutes in five playoff games. He has 88 goals, 107 assists and 288 penalty minutes in 483 career games.
"He's a versatile player, he can go up and down your lineup, he plays a north-south game, he skates hard, he hits hard, he's a puck possession guy and he's good on the penalty kill," Sakic said. "He can also get you 15 goals. He's a guy we really targeted from the get-go. You can put him anywhere in your lineup."
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Barring a trade or unexpected development in training camp, the Avalanche will start the season with eight defensemen: Barrie, Beauchemin, Nate Guenin, Nick Holden, Johnson, Zach Redmond, Stuart and Zadorov.
"As of right now this is the eight we're going with, but we're always looking to explore our options to improve our hockey club," Sakic said. "If something comes up, whether it's in the next couple days or throughout the summer or training camp, if there's something we can do to improve our club we're always looking to do that. We're very happy with what we have right now."
Defense prospects include Chris Bigras, Will Butcher, Stefan Elliott, Mason Geersten and Duncan Siemens. The Avalanche selected defensemen Nicolas Meloche, Andrei Mironov and Sergei Boikov in the 2015 NHL draft.
No surprise that the Avalanche chose not to re-sign center Daniel Briere or defensemen Jan Hejda and Ryan Wilson. Sakic simply said the team was "moving on."
The NHL official list has the Avalanche having tendered qualifying offers to restricted free agents Elliott, Grigorenko, Andrew Agozzino, Sami Aittokallio, Mat Clark, Freddie Hamilton and Calvin Pickard to retain their rights. Joey Hishon not listed, but that has to be an oversight. Sakic said last week he'd be qualified, which makes sense.
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