The Colorado Eagles have brought in a player with a track record of putting the puck in the net, signing Francesco Arcuri to an AHL two-way contract for the 2026-27 season.
Arcuri, a former Dallas Stars sixth-round pick, joins Colorado after a strong year with the Idaho Steelheads. The 24-year-old center posted 22 goals and 21 assists in 60 ECHL games during the 2025-26 season, and he made his mark in key moments too. He tied for the Steelheads’ team lead with seven power-play goals and finished second on the club with seven game-winning goals.
At 6-foot-1 and 185 pounds, Arcuri has spent most of his pro career in the ECHL. In 154 career games at that level, he has put up 119 points, scoring 57 goals and adding 62 assists. He has also had a short look in the AHL, appearing in five games for the Texas Stars.
Colorado is betting that his latest season can be a springboard toward a bigger role at the next level.
Before turning pro, Arcuri built an impressive offensive résumé in the Ontario Hockey League. He split four seasons between the Kingston Frontenacs and Kitchener Rangers, producing 185 points in 197 OHL games with 89 goals and 96 assists. His biggest scoring burst came in 2021-22, when he piled up 34 goals and 40 assists.
Dallas drafted Arcuri in the sixth round, 177th overall, in the 2021 NHL Draft. Now he gets another chance in the Avalanche organization to turn that scoring touch into more consistent AHL production.
The Eagles will begin their 2026-27 season on the road against the Tucson Roadrunners on Oct. 3, then return home to face the Abbotsford Canucks in their Blue Arena opener on Oct. 9.
For Arcuri, it’s another shot to move up the ladder and prove he belongs beyond the ECHL level.
In Other News...
Avalanche Fans Have A New Blue Line Name To Watch Closely
A new name has started to surface on Colorados blue-line radar in Alex Gagne, the 23-year-old left defenseman who landed at No. 20 on the Avalanches Top 25 Under 25 list for 2026. Gagne spent the 2025-26 season with the Colorado Eagles in the AHL, where his role was built around steady minutes and penalty-kill work, the sort of assignment that often tells a coach more about a defenseman than point totals ever will.
His profile is also the kind that tends to travel well in an organization hungry for dependable depth, especially when a players college background has already earned him a reputation for leadership. For Avalanche fans, the interest now is less about where Gagne has been and more about how close he might be to forcing his way into the conversation for NHL help when the season opens. [Read more 🡒]
Avalanche Face A Familiar Pressure That Could Define This Season
After winning the Presidents Trophy and getting back to the Western Conference Final last spring, the Avalanche enter this season with a familiar kind of burden: expectations. Colorado has spent the past few years living at the sharp end of the NHLs contention race, and that kind of success naturally invites a harder question than most teams face, which is not whether they can make the playoffs, but whether they can keep that level from slipping.
The warning sign is right there in recent league history, where a Presidents Trophy season has sometimes been followed by a sudden drop-off, even to the point of missing the playoffs entirely. Colorado knows the other side of that equation too, with recent postseason exits still fresh enough to remind everyone how thin the margin is at this level. The target remains the same as ever, though, and for the Avalanche it is not simply another strong regular season but a run that puts them back in the Stanley Cup conversation. [Read more 🡒]
