The Colorado Avalanche have acquired defender Kurtis MacDermid from the Seattle Kraken. MacDermid was recently an expansion draft pick, leaving the Los Angeles Kings. In exchange, the Kraken will receive a fourth-round selection in the 2023 NHL Draft. Kevin Weekes was first to report the move Tuesday afternoon.
**Breaking News** @SeattleKraken trade D Man MacDermid to @Avalanche for a 4th Rd pick on 2023.@espn @NHL @NHLNetwork #TSNHockey #HockeyTwitter
— Kevin Weekes (@KevinWeekes) July 27, 2021
Avalanche Acquire Kurtis MacDermid
MacDermid was a marginal player in 2020-21. He contributed just two goals and four points in 28 games on top of 46 hits and 35 blocks. He accumulated his numbers while skating an average of 13:21 per game. MacDermid also failed to make much of an impact from an advanced perspective with a 43.0 percent Corsi For and -7.1 relative Corsi. There were really no redeeming aspects to the season for the Sauble Beach, Ontario native.
MacDermid was undrafted, but joined the Los Angeles Kings organization prior to the 2015-16 season and played with their AHL affiliate in Ontario. The 6-foot-5 blueliner has played in portions of four NHL seasons, appearing in 118 games. Despite the long road to the league, he has managed to collect six goals, 17 points, and 244 hits mostly as an old-school checking defender. He will likely fulfill the same role if he makes the roster in 2021-22.
What This Means
This move is extremely confusing for Colorado. It would seem they are attempting to replace Ryan Graves with this move, but they have far better options in-house if that is the case. Kurtis MacDermid offers basically no value even from a purely physical standpoint. His analytics are weak, even if he will only play third-pairing minutes. He is very cheap, but his cap hit of $875,000 still eats into the money that could be better spent on some combination of Gabriel Landeskog, Philipp Grubauer, and Brandon Saad.
However, this is also a franchise that managed to uncover such moderately productive gems as Jacob MacDonald in the past year. It also turned Graves, a player with no NHL experience, into a quality skater. It is highly likely that this move does nothing to advance the team, but the price is low enough to take the risk.
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