Confirmed with Link: Avs sign Darren Helm, 1 year × $1M

[Muffin]

Jesus these boards are unbeatable right now. You’d think we signed him to a 6 year deal or something.

What’s not to like? 1M for 1 year, fast skater, good on face offs, good on pk and good defensively.

 

[Grigowski]

I'm ok with Helm for 1/1. Veteran, 4th line. And still a fast guy.

Better than PEB.

I'm more worried about our 2nd LW......

 

[Avs44]

I'm ok with Helm for 1/1. Veteran, 4th line. And still a fast guy.

Better than PEB.

I'm more worried about our 2nd LW......

Pretty certain Newhook is going to be locked into a top nine wing spot to start the year. I expect he’ll get a chance next to Kadri.

 

[Hasbro]

Is oils always pick him up on waivers in EHM.

Cheap, speedy and can play center.

 

[chet1926]

Not a bad signing, he's an upgrade over Bellemare who he will be replacing.

Some people will never be happy, but at the end of day he wins faceoffs, can still skate well, and can PK.

It's a 1 year 1M deal, get a grip people. He's better than the guy he is replacing.

 

[McMetal]

Value wise, it's a solid signing. He'll be worth that 1m and we needed someone to round out the bottom six. But I'm a lot more worried about the top six right now.

 

[tucker3434]

A positive WAR at a near buriable AAV is fine. Not gonna win us the cup but he isn't supposed to either.

 

[Avs44]

The bigger question is what does that mean for Compher?


Are we really going to end up running a
Nuke - Jost - Compher 3rd line?

Jost is the weak link…Nuke is awesome on the third line, I’m ok with Compher if he’s locked into the wing. I’m really disheartened that Sakic doesn’t seem to want to upgrade that spot. Put the likes of Danault there and suddenly I think we’d have a stellar third line. Nuke and a good defensive third line centre would be a pretty amazing shutdown duo.

 

[Northern Avs Fan]

They can now fill out a full lineup of forwards.

Landeskog - MacKinnon - Rantanen
Newhook - Kadri - Burakovsky
Nuke - Jost - Compher
Helm - Maltsev - LOC

It makes me wonder where they’ll go with their next move. Bottom pair RHD? Or maybe a Compher trade and bring a higher-end forward?

 

[Balthazar]

So he can PK and win faceoffs which is good. Can he still play center?? If he can that's a win. We need players who can play C.

 

[bohlmeister]

I like it. As long as he still has good wheels and can stay healthy.

 

[mcityguy1]

Should've signed himnto long term then trade him to Edmonton (Holland) loves older overpaid players.

1 year deal isn't bad he will help on pk he got some speed but cant stay healthy

 

[obZen]

Of course people find a way to complain about this.


Jfc some of you are unbearable today.

Seriously. People act like free agency is GMs walking into a candy store and just grabbing things off the shelf.

 

[shadow1]

I'm disappointed by this signing.

Aside from the fact that there were much better bargain options available this off-season - Ryan Dzingel ($1.1M), Matthias Janmark ($2.0M), Corey Perry ($1.0M), or Helm's teammate Luke Glendening ($1.5M) - Helm's game has been going in the wrong direction for years. For those saying he's good at face-offs, he's won 82 draws the last four seasons - he hasn't played center for years.

Furthermore, with what little cap space Colorado possesses at this moment, I was hoping it wouldn't be used on a fourth line plug. As of this writing, the Avalanche have lost top-9 forwards Jonas Donskoi and Brandon Saad this off-season, and nothing has been done to replace them.

 

[SoundwaveIsCharisma]

I'm disappointed by this signing.

Aside from the fact that there were much better bargain options available this off-season - Ryan Dzingel ($1.1M), Matthias Janmark ($2.0M), Corey Perry ($1.0M), or Helm's teammate Luke Glendening ($1.5M) - Helm's game has been going in the wrong direction for years. For those saying he's good at face-offs, he's won 82 draws the last four seasons - he hasn't played center for years.

Furthermore, with what little cap space Colorado possesses at this moment, I was hoping it wouldn't be used on a fourth line plug. As of this writing, the Avalanche have lost top-9 forwards Jonas Donskoi and Brandon Saad this off-season, and nothing has been done to replace them.

I don't think you understand how important it is to give JTC and Jost more chances, this is definitely the year they figure it out!

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

You literally said we might not make the playoffs 2 weeks ago? lol

That was before we signed Landy when it looked like we wouldn't be signing him.

I still dont like our team right now overall, but people complaining about a good signing like this or us not signing awful players like Perry is ridiculous.


Some people are making a point to complain about everything we do.

 

[nammerus]

Yet we could have had Kampf for a couple thousand more. Moving on.

With his wheels he's actually going to be effective on our PK. Also he's not a C anymore so I doubt we rely on him to take draws.

Helm-Maltsev-O'Connor isn't the worst 4th line, they all have wheels and forecheck well.

And Banting for cheaper.

 

[nammerus]

Add Nuke, Jost, and JTC for the 3rd line, and the bottom 6 might combine for massive 5 goals and 10 assists for the season!

Good thing we play amazing shut down defence and don’t give up leads in the playoffs.

 

[nammerus]

Jesus these boards are unbeatable right now. You’d think we signed him to a 6 year deal or something.

What’s not to like? 1M for 1 year, fast skater, good on face offs, good on pk and good defensively.

Are you that big a Sakic groupie? Good on face offs? He took 9 last year.

 

[SoundwaveIsCharisma]

Are you that big a Sakic groupie? Good on face offs? He took 9 last year.

He did win about 2/3rds of them though...so technically not wrong

 

[HartKinnon]

Not a bad signing, he's an upgrade over Bellemare who he will be replacing.

Some people will never be happy, but at the end of day he wins faceoffs, can still skate well, and can PK.

It's a 1 year 1M deal, get a grip people. He's better than the guy he is replacing.

I think we shouldn't expect help in faceoffs from Helm because he has played 176 games during last three seasons and has taken only 175 faceoffs in that span.

 

[RoyIsALegend]

I don't mind this at all.

Speed, bit of grit, PK ability, veteran leadership in bottom 6 to replace PEB/Calvy.

 

[Balthazar]

 

[BaconNater]

Sakic just punking ken Holland this week.. outbidding him on Kuemper now signing Helm before Ken offered up 5 x 2.5 per.

 

[UncleRisto]

Baugh tweeting Helm's PK clips from 2009.