Miles Wood’s path from Avalanche fan favorite to salary-cap casualty has taken another sharp turn.
The Colorado move that sent Wood out in the summer of 2025 was never going to be an easy one for fans to swallow. He had signed a six-year, $15 million deal in Colorado, and when the Avalanche brought him in, there was a real belief he could stick around for a while as part of the Roaring 20s line. But the cap crunch forced the club’s hand, and the Avs shipped out Charlie Coyle to the Columbus Blue Jackets with Wood included in the deal.
At the time, it was one of those transactions that made sense on paper but still left a bruise. Now, with two of the three members of that line gone - first Wood, then Ross Colton - the Avalanche’s approach looks far more calculated in hindsight. Colorado kept working through its cap problems methodically, and Wood became one of the pieces moved out to make the math work.
The tough part for Wood is that the Blue Jackets have treated him the same way the Avalanche did: as a contract they’d rather not carry.
He did not make Columbus this season and landed on waivers, only to clear. For a 31-year-old trying to stay in the league, that’s a hard blow. Instead of getting a fresh start somewhere else, Wood is now stuck in limbo.
That situation got even more complicated with the Blue Jackets using him as a condition in discussions around Kirill Marchenko. Columbus has been fielding calls on the Russian forward, especially after rumors surfaced that he is unwilling to re-sign with the team. According to insider Elliotte Friedman, the Blue Jackets are telling interested teams they’ll need to take on Wood’s contract if they want Marchenko.
Wood can still be useful as a role player, but finding a team with $2.5 million in cap space for a fourth-line grinder is no small ask. The result is a bleak spot for the former fourth-round pick from 2013, who now looks like a cap dump all over again.
For now, it does not look likely that he’ll get a shot to play in the NHL in Columbus this season. Maybe another team will see value in a veteran presence at a manageable price. Until then, one of Colorado’s former fan favorites is left waiting, with only the possibility of a reunion in Colorado somewhere down the line if the cap picture changes enough to make it possible.
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