{"id":441452,"date":"2024-06-25T11:12:06","date_gmt":"2024-06-25T15:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=441452"},"modified":"2024-06-25T11:12:57","modified_gmt":"2024-06-25T15:12:57","slug":"avalanche-come-to-terms-with-young-forward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2024\/06\/25\/avalanche-come-to-terms-with-young-forward\/","title":{"rendered":"Avalanche Come to Terms With Young Forward"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/mitteca01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-05-22_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Casey Mittelstadt<\/a> has a new contract in place with the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/avalanche\/\" target=\"_self\">Colorado Avalanche<\/a>. After being acquired from the Buffalo Sabres via trade, the Avalanche found their guy down the middle. Mittelstadt will remain with the Avalanche for the next three and will have an AAV $5.75 million. This is a great deal for both sides and a huge signing for the Avalanche overall.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.twitter.com\/pierrevlebrun\/status\/1805619079148904641<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Mittelstadt Signs New Contract with Avalanche <\/span><\/h2>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The Avalanche finally have their guy. After losing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/k\/kadrina01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-05-22_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nazem Kadri<\/a> to the Calgary Flames via free agency, finding someone to replace him has been a challenge. However, in a big trade with the Sabres they did manage to land their guy. Mittelstadt is a versatile player that can play both centre and wing, but primarily played centre this season. The trade ended up working for both sides and ultimately is a win for the Avalanche now given the Mittelstadt contract.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Between both teams, Mittelstadt scored 18 goals and 57 points. He brings a necessary depth to the Avalanche, who need an extra punch being <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/mackina01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-05-22_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nathan MacKinnon<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/r\/rantami01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-05-22_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mikko Rantanen<\/a>. Mittelstadt finished the year with 45 takeaways and did finish with a <a  href=\"https:\/\/moneypuck.com\/stats.htm\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">faceoff win percentage<\/a> of 47.7%. He became a player that is useful and can play in different situations. But most importantly, being depth down the middle. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In the playoffs, he went on to score three goals and nine points. Now that he\u2019s locked up he fills a void in the lineup. <\/span><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">What this Contract Means for the Avalanche <\/span><\/h3>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The Mittelstadt contract makes sense entirely for the Avalanche. This is a team that is capable of winning the Stanley Cup now and has players such as MacKinnon, Rantanen, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/makarca01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-05-22_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Cale Makar<\/a> playing at a high level. However, with the absence of captain <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/l\/landega01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-05-22_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Gabriel Landeskog<\/a> and the suspension given out to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/n\/nichuva01.html?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2024-05-22_hr\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Valeri Nichushkin<\/a>, the team needs reinforcements. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Mittelstadt provides a necessary depth down the middle but also a boost in production. Him doing so allows the pressure to be taken off the top line and give the Avalanche a secondary layer of scoring. This is a great deal for both sides and keeps the contention window very open in Colorado. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Main Photo: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Casey Mittelstadt has a new contract in place with the Colorado Avalanche. After being acquired from the Buffalo Sabres via trade, the Avalanche found their guy down the middle. Mittelstadt will remain with the Avalanche for the next three and will have an AAV $5.75 million. This is a great deal for both sides and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4194,"featured_media":441453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,4547,34,4548],"tags":[927,5781],"class_list":["post-441452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avalanche","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","tag-casey-mittelstadt","tag-colorado-avalanche-news"],"modified_by":"Levi Pike, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}