Sakic’s gamble pays off as Avs ink Landeskog to 8-year deal
Jul 27, 2021, 10:43 PM
Things came down to the wire a bit, but Joe Sakic’s gamble paid off in the end.
The Colorado Avalanche announced late Tuesday that forward Gabriel Landeskog had re-signed with the club to the tune of eight years and $56 million.
The Avs captain had been set to become an unrestricted free agent at 10 p.m. MT on Tuesday, meaning even if Colorado were to re-sign him after that deadline, they could only offer him seven years on his contract.
News of Landeskog’s deal for eight more seasons in burgundy and blue broke about a half-hour before that deadline.
The only other team that could have offered Landeskog eight years was the Seattle Kraken, whom had a 72-hour period before last week’s expansion draft to work out a deal with the star forward.
Seattle instead opted to select forward Joonas Donskoi from the Avalanche, paying off Sakic’s bet of leaving his team’s captain unprotected from the expansion draft.
Landeskog’s deal comes on the heels of defenseman Cale Makar inking a six-year, $54 million extension with the Avs over the weekend.
With both Makar and Landeskog under contract, Sakic can now turn his attention to securing a deal with goaltender Philipp Grubauer, who is slated to become an unrestricted free agent as well.
As of Tuesday night, no agreement between Colorado and Grubauer had been made, reports Fan Avalanche Insider Adrian Dater, who added there’s still a “gulf” between both sides.
