Jaden Schwartz is back in the mix in Colorado, and the Colorado Avalanche moved quickly Wednesday morning after free agency opened to sign the veteran forward to a three-year, $9.75 million contract. The deal runs through 2028-29 and gives the Avalanche a 34-year-old wing with a track record that stretches across 15 seasons.
Schwartz brings 233 goals and 553 points in 861 career games, along with 11 goals and 26 points in 50 games for the Seattle Kraken last season. The Avalanche did not wait long to make their first free-agent move, and the contract value works out to $3.25 million per season.
Colorado College to the NHL
Schwartz also gives Colorado a player who knows the program from the inside. He is a Colorado College alum who played two seasons with the Tigers from 2010-12, then moved into the NHL after the St. Louis Blues made him a first-round pick in 2010.
His best NHL season came with the St. Louis Blues in 2014-15, when he scored 28 goals and finished with 63 points. Four years later, he added 12 goals and 20 points in 26 postseason games during St. Louis' run to the Stanley Cup in 2019.
Seattle Kraken and the Avalanche
The recent Seattle chapter gives this signing its sharpest edge. Schwartz completed a five-year, $27.5 million contract with the expansion Kraken that he signed in 2021, then scored the first Stanley Cup Playoffs goal in Seattle in 104 years in Game 3 against the Avalanche in 2023.
He had two goals and five points in that seven-game series when Seattle upset the defending champion Avalanche, and now he joins the same team that eliminated him. Colorado gets a 5-foot-10, 185-pound forward with playoff history and a scoring résumé that fits a middle-six role without forcing the club to overpay for it.
The fit is straightforward on paper: a shorter-term deal, a manageable cap hit, and a veteran forward who can slot in without changing the core of the roster. What Schwartz’s ice time and lineup role look like once camp opens is the next piece Colorado has to sort out, but the first move is already in place.
