BUFFALO, N.Y. — The view from outside Denver on Valeri Nichushkin’s situation with the Avalanche is filled with fascination and conflicted feelings.
Nichushkin is suspended through at least mid-November and has re-entered the NHL-NHLPA Player Assistance Program. It is his third time in the program since the end of the 2022-23 regular season. For the second time in as many years, the Avs were left without one of their integral players in the middle of a playoff series it ultimately lost.
The Denver Post canvassed people from around the hockey community — agents, team officials, analysts — this past week during the NHL draft combine for thoughts on what might happen moving forward for Nichushkin and the Avalanche.
There was only one consensus: Everyone spoke of Nichushkin’s personal well-being as the first priority.
“The Avalanche know Nichushkin better than any outside person or pundit would,” said Jon Goyens, who coached several future NHL players in Quebec before joining TSN and Daily Faceoff as an analyst. “As a coach who always talked about putting the environment for the person first ahead of the player, you just hope he can find something that is sustainable for the rest of his life, let alone hockey.”
Thoughts on what might happen next on the hockey side for Nichushkin and the Avalanche were varied. One member of another team’s front office said there probably would be interest in giving Nichushkin another chance if Colorado wants to move on, but declined to say whether his club would.
A member of a different front office offered up the “only takes one” cliche, but it wouldn’t be his team. A simple question — What should the Avs do? — often led to more questions than potential solutions.
Nichushkin is currently in Stage 3 of the player assistance program, which carries a mandatory suspension of at least six months without pay. He will need to follow the terms of his treatment plan for the duration of his suspension and then gain reinstatement before he can return to team activities.
Both Samuel Girard and Nichushkin entered the program during the regular season and needed to be cleared twice — once to return to practice and again to play in games.
There has been confusion about what can or cannot happen in the future with Nichushkin and the Avs. This is a look at some of the outcomes that are (or are not) possible.
Contract termination
The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun reported that a league source told him shortly after the suspension was announced that nothing that had transpired to that point was grounds for the Avs to terminate his contract. If Nichushkin violates his treatment plan again, he’ll be placed in Stage 4. That includes a mandatory one-year suspension, and reinstatement is not guaranteed.
A trade
Could the Avs trade Nichushkin while he is suspended and in the player assistance program? Yes, and no.
A league source told The Post there are no restrictions from the NHL about trading a player in the program. There is a significant roadblock, though: Nichushkin currently has a full no-move clause as part of the eight-year, $49 million contract he signed July 11, 2022.
The no-move clause runs through June 15, 2025, when it converts to a 12-team no-trade clause, according to CapFriendly. Not only can the Avs not trade Nichushkin without him waiving the NMC, but they also would not be able to waive him or send him to the minors once he is reinstated.
Players with no-move clauses have waived them to be traded in the past, but it’s not common.
A buyout
Players who have no-move clauses are not exempt from contract buyouts. There are two buyout windows — every team has one that starts either on June 15 or 48 hours after the Stanley Cup Final ends. A second window is open later in the offseason for any team that has an arbitration filing.
Nichushkin has six years left on his contract. A buyout would leave dead money on the team’s salary cap for twice that time, so through the 2035-36 season. It would save the Avs more than $5 million in cap space the next two seasons, more than $3 million for two years after that and offer minimal savings for two more years before six extra seasons with nearly $1.7 million on the books, according to CapFriendly’s buyout calculator.
A reunion
Avalanche GM Chris MacFarland made it clear during his end-of-season news conference that a path back to playing for Colorado does exist. He reiterated that Friday at the NHL draft combine.
“We are operating as if he’s going to be available to play at some point when the six months is over,” MacFarland said.
There are obvious hurdles between now and then.
Nichushkin must complete this stage of the program and gain reinstatement, but it’s more than that. Jack Johnson’s comments after the Avs lost their second-round playoff series to Dallas were born from clear frustration. It’s not out of the question that other players on the club had similar feelings as the season ended.
Nichushkin will need to prove he can be trusted again, and that could take time. Him completing the six-month process could help sway his teammates once there is time to cool off and reset for next season.
The Avs have built a culture predicated on a high standard of work and accountability. Nichushkin has been accepted in that culture before, and even “welcomed back with open arms” after leaving the team during the 2023 playoffs.
Why? Because his work ethic and commitment to playing a winning brand of hockey have not been questioned and in fact have been lauded by the team’s leaders. But this is two seasons in a row where the Avs could not count on him at the most critical time.
Will Nichushkin’s availability issues eat away at his status with key figures in the organization? As captain Gabe Landeskog put it after the season ended, “That’s up to him.”
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