Colorado Avalanche trade Ross Colton to Predators

One of the long-awaited moves by the Colorado Avalanche has finally happened as the team has traded forward Ross Colton to the Nashville Predators.

Here are the full details:

In 2025-26, Colton had nine goals and 16 assists in 73 games of the regular season. The year prior, he had 16 goals and 13 assists in 61 games, so the drop in production was very evident. In fact, the Avalanche reportedly had prior discussions about trading Colton, but nothing materialized until Tuesday afternoon.

I have talked about several of the Avalanche’s recent additions being non-factors in the postseason, and unfortunately, Colton was one of those players. He had just three goals and six assists in 23 playoff games over the past three seasons with Colorado. His drop in play has been disappointing because I had high hopes for him. However, despite my thinking that he could play higher on the depth chart—perhaps with Nathan MacKinnon—he never did after the 2024-25 season.

The move to trade Colton does a couple of things for the franchise. First of all, it clears up $4 million in cap space. The Avalanche, as shown in the post above, also traded away goaltender Isak Posch while acquiring goaltender Magnus Chrona.

They also acquired two draft picks—the 2026 third-round pick they previously owned, as well as a 2027 third-round pick. That isn’t a terrible return in my opinion, as the Avs were in need of some draft capital. It’s possible they use one of those picks to use in a trade for someone else, but if I had to guess, I think that they’ll want to keep the selections to add players to their prospect pool.

The Avalanche are in a clear window for winning. There can’t be much messing around over the next couple of years, because that window could become shut with the snap of a finger. Whatever the future holds for the Avalanche, trading away Colton seemed inevitable. I am very curious to see what they end up doing with the acquired cap space.