The Avalanche has been added to their back end as they have acquired Patrik Nemeth of the Red Wings in exchange for a fourth round in 2022. Both teams have announced the transaction.
The 29-year-old is certainly familiar with Colorado, as he spent two seasons with them in 2017-18 and 2018/19. There he had the best years of his career offensively (15 and 10 points respectively), while in his second season he was more physically present with 137 hits. That helped him earn a two-year $ 6 million deal with Detroit in the summer of 2019 in order to help stabilize their back end. Colorado won’t take that full price tag, however, as The Athletic’s Peter Baugh reports (Twitter link) that the Red Wings will keep the maximum 50% (or $ 1.5 million) of Nemeth’s deal.
In his first season with Detroit, Nemeth recorded just over 22 minutes a night, but his playing time has dropped significantly this season to 6:24 p.m. a night, scoring two goals and six assists in 39 games. However, he is still a physical player with the ability to kill penalties and block shots, elements the Avs haven’t had much to do with this season. Erik Johnsonongoing injury problems and trading in the early season of Ian Cole to Minnesota.
It’s likely that Nemeth will play an even more limited role with the Avs as he plans to play their third pair. But now that he’s already familiar with the system, he should have a more seamless transition to their lineup than most acquisitions, although he won’t be debuting for a few more days as he’s currently out with a hand injury. As for Detroit, this is the first of their three allowable withheld salary trades, a number that could very well increase between now and Monday’s trading deadline, and they are earning themselves halfway through the round; they already have three fourth-round selections in the 2022 NHL Entry Draft.
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