Avalanche bring back Nazem Kadri in trade from Flames
The Colorado Avalanche pulled off one of the biggest deals on trade deadline day, and it’s a familiar face.
Nazem Kadri, who helped the Avs win the Stanley Cup in 2022, is returning to Colorado in a trade from the Calgary Flames. The Avs sent a conditional 2028 first-round pick, a conditional 2027 second, top prospect Max Curran and Victor Olofsson to the Flames for Kadri and a 2027 fourth-round selection.
Kadri signed a seven-year, $49 million contract with Calgary in August 2022. Calgary is retaining 20 percent of Kadri’s contract, so the cap hit for the Avalanche will be $5.6 million for the next three seasons.
The 35-year-old Kadri has 12 goals and 41 points in 61 games for the Flames this season. He’s led Calgary in scoring each of the previous two seasons.
“Super excited,” Kadri said on TSN’s TradeCentre 2026 show. “The team at the very top of my list. Man, I can’t wait.”
The NHL’s trade deadline is at 1 p.m. MT, but deals can be announced later in the day as long as they were logged in the queue with the league office before that. General manager Chris MacFarland said the Avs “would leave no stone unturned” ahead of the deadline, and Colorado ended up being one of the busiest teams in the final two days.
Kadri was the Avs’ No. 2 center from 2019-22. He had a career-high 87 points for Colorado during the 2021-22 season, plus seven goals and 15 points in 16 Stanley Cup Playoff games to help the Avalanche to its third championship in franchise history.
Colorado traded for another center, Nicolas Roy, the day before, from the Toronto Maple Leafs. Just like last season, the Avs made a second swap on deadline day at the position. Last year, the Avs added Brock Nelson and then Charlie Coyle a day later just before the deadline.
The Avalanche depth chart at center now includes Nathan MacKinnon, Brock Nelson, Kadri, Roy and Jack Drury, not to mention Parker Kelly, Ross Colton and Zakhar Bardakov as further options.
Olofsson, signed to a one-year, $1.575 million deal in August, had 11 goals and 25 points in 60 games for the Avs. Curran who was a fourth-round pick in the 2024 NHL draft, had become arguably the club’s top prospect in a shallow pool. Colorado now has no picks in the first three rounds of the 2026 NHL draft, one second rounder in 2027 and a third-round selection in 2028.
The Avs also have arguably the best collection of talent and depth at the center position in the NHL.
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