Nick Blankenburg’s latest stop has already turned into a pay raise.
After joining the Toronto Maple Leafs on a professional tryout, the former Colorado Avalanche defenseman earned a one-year, $1.4 million contract on Sunday. It’s the kind of turnaround teams hope for when they bring in a veteran on a PTO, and Blankenburg clearly did enough to convince Toronto he belonged.
For Colorado, the move closes the book on a brief but memorable stretch. The Avalanche picked up Blankenburg at the 2025-26 trade deadline to help shore up the blue line for the final push. He gave them depth on the right side and, in 12 regular-season games, chipped in two goals and one assist for three points.
He also dressed in five playoff games, and his biggest moment came in Game 2 of Colorado’s second-round series against the Minnesota Wild. That was when Blankenburg scored his first career playoff goal, with his parents in the stands to see it.
Colorado did not bring him back in free agency. Instead, the Avalanche shifted to Noah Juulsen, who spent the previous season with the Philadelphia Flyers, as part of their effort to add more defensive depth.
Blankenburg, meanwhile, found a new opening in Toronto and made the most of it. His new deal follows a career-best offensive season split between Nashville and Colorado, when he posted eight goals and 16 assists in the 2025-26 campaign.
In all, Blankenburg has played 178 NHL games and logged 18 goals and 40 assists. After a short run in Colorado that included one of the more meaningful goals of his career, he now gets another shot to carve out a role in Toronto.
In Other News...
Avalanche Roster Crunch Is Putting Two Bubble Spots In Focus
The Avalanche have already trimmed their camp significantly, placing six players on waivers and sending six others to the Colorado Eagles training camp as they work toward opening night. With the roster deadline closing in, the next moves are narrowing the picture fast, and Colorado is still expected to make two more cuts to get down to the 23-player limit.
One of those spots appears to be tied to goalie Trent Miner, who is likely headed to waivers, while defenseman Taylor Makar is expected to be reassigned to the AHL because of injury and his waiver exemption status. Even after the final moves are made, the Avalanche are planning to start the season with 22 players because of salary cap constraints, which means the last decisions are about more than just camp performance. [Read more 🡒]
Former Avalanche Fan Favorite Now Carries A Tough New Reality
Miles Woods stint with the Blue Jackets has taken a sharp turn since Colorado moved him and Charlie Coyle to Columbus in the summer of 2025 to open up cap space. Wood did not make Columbus roster this season, cleared waivers, and is now in a spot no player wants to be in: a useful veteran whose contract has become part of the conversation more than his on-ice role.
Now the Blue Jackets are reportedly folding Woods deal into trade talks involving Kirill Marchenko, looking for a team willing to absorb the contract. For Avalanche fans, it is a reminder of how quickly a familiar name can shift from crowd favorite to salary-cap wrinkle, with the next step depending less on his play than on whether another club is willing to take on the financial baggage. [Read more 🡒]
T.J. Hughes Just Forced His Way Into Colorados Biggest Early Debate
T.J. Hughes has turned a strong camp into a real opening-night opportunity, earning a spot on the Colorado Avalanche roster and a place on the top power-play unit to start the season. Head coach Jared Bednar made the call official after Hughes, an undrafted rookie out of Michigan, kept standing out through training camp and preseason, including a hat trick against the Winnipeg Jets.
For an Avalanche team that always has eyes on how its special teams will look, the early-season question now is how long Hughes can hold that role once the games count. Hes signed to a one-year, entry-level deal for the 2026-27 season, but first comes a season opener against the Los Angeles Kings, where hell get his first chance to show the camp buzz was more than just a hot stretch. [Read more 🡒]