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Avs hope to re-sign Stastny in summer; acquire Berra, will carry 3 goalies |
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Rick Sadowski
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The Avalanche didn't do a whole lot on NHL trade deadline day, a good thing in my opinion. No reason to mess with a team that has exceeded all expectations and is in the hunt for first or second place in the Central Division.
Center Paul Stastny wasn't traded and the Avalanche acquired Swiss goalie Reto Berra from Calgary in exchange for a second-round pick in the 2014 NHL draft.
Avalanche executive vice president of hockey operations Joe Sakic told the Denver Post: "We are very happy that Paul's still here. His agent (Matt Keator) wants to deal with it, they want to deal with it, in the summer. They know we want him back."
Stastny is in the last year of a five-year, $33 million contract valued at $6.6 million per year and will be eligible to become an unrestricted free agent July 1.
The Avalanche will carry three goalies -- Semyon Varlamov, Jean-Sebastien Giguere and Berra -- for the rest of the season. The team has been concerned about Giguere's back problems (he's missed two games this season) and wanted a goalie with NHL experience as insurance in the event either Varlamov or Giguere sustains an injury.
Giguere, 36, is in the final year of his contract and it seems pretty obvious that he won't be re-signed. Berra, 27, is on an entry-level contract worth $850,000 according to capgeek.com and also will be eligible for unrestricted free agency. But the Avalanche is certain to re-sign him after parting with a high pick.
Berra won't be the first Swiss goalie to wear an Avalanche uniform. Remember David Aebischer?
“I had a great time,” Berra told Calgary reporters of his time with the Flames. “It's a great organization. It's great fans, great city and they gave me the opportunity to make my first step into the NHL, so I'm really thankful for that.
“On the other hand, I'm really excited to go to Colorado. Great team and probably a great city, too, a great hockey town, too, and a really famous coach (Patrick Roy). When I was a child in Switzerland, he was probably one of the biggest.”
The Avalanche also has two goalies with Lake Erie in the American Hockey League:
Sami Aittokallio and Calvin Pickard.
Berra, who is 6-feet-4 and 194 pounds, is in his first NHL season and played in 29 games for the Flames. He has a 9-17-2 record with a 2.95 goals-against average and .897 save percentage, not exactly great numbers. But the Flames have the second-worst record in the Western Conference and Berra will have the luxury of working with Avalanche goalie coach Francois Allaire, who has done wonders for Varlamov.
“With this acquisition we feel we have further solidified our goaltending situation, for the present and future,” Sakic said in a statement. "He has already shown he can be successful at the NHL level and we are excited about what he can bring to our team."
Berra, a native of Bulach, Switzerland, played one game for the Swiss Olympic team at the Sochi Games, stopping 30 of 31 shots in a 1-0 loss to eventual silver medal-winning Sweden.
Berra was originally a fourth-round pick (106th overall) in 2006 by St. Louis, which traded him to Calgary with defenseman Mark Cundari and a 2013 first-round pick in exchange for defenseman Jay Bouwmeester on April 13, 2013.
Before this season, Berra spent his entire career in Switzerland.
The Avalanche also signed defenseman Cody Corbett to a three-year entry-level contract. Corbett, 20, had 16 goals and 40 assists in 58 games with the Edmonton Oil Kings of the Western Hockey League this season.
Corbett, who is from Lakeland, Minn., is 6-1, 194 pounds. In his third season with the Oil Kings, he had 29 goals and 95 assists in 183 games.
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