Avs bring Nazem Kadri back, boosting a top-ranked roster’s playoff push
Colorado fans and the avs are set to see a familiar Stanley Cup-winning center back in the lineup, a move that reshapes both Colorado’s immediate push atop the standings and Calgary’s longer-term asset plan. Friday at 3: 41 p. m. ET, the Colorado Avalanche completed a trade with the Calgary Flames to reacquire forward Nazem Kadri.
Nazem Kadri’s return changes the Avs’ stretch-run options
Kadri comes back to Colorado as a 35-year-old forward who has produced 41 points this season for Calgary, with 12 goals and 29 assists in 61 games. His arrival gives the Avalanche another proven scoring and playmaking option at a moment when Colorado sits first in the NHL standings at 41-10-9, holding a six-point lead over the Dallas Stars in the Central Division.
For Kadri, the move is also personal. He called Colorado “a team at the very top of my list” and said he “can’t wait, ” describing the trade process as a late-breaking development after repeated uncertainty about whether he would be moved. Kadri also thanked the Flames for working to make the deal happen, saying he was eager to “get to work and see my buddies. ”
The timing matters because the Avalanche are headed straight into a key divisional matchup. Colorado is scheduled to visit the Stars on Friday night at 8 p. m. ET, with the Central lead and conference positioning in play.
Calgary Flames send Kadri to Colorado Avalanche for Olofsson, picks
The Flames traded Kadri to the Avalanche on Friday, with Calgary receiving forward Victor Olofsson, unsigned forward prospect Maxmilian Curran, a conditional first-round pick in the 2028 NHL Draft, and a conditional second-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft. Colorado also received a fourth-round pick in the 2027 draft as part of the deal.
Kadri is in the fourth season of a seven-year, $49 million contract with a $7 million average annual value that he signed on Aug. 18, 2022. Calgary retained 20% of his remaining salary, a detail that affects how the contract is carried after the trade.
On the Avalanche side, the outgoing NHL roster piece is Olofsson, who has 25 points (11 goals, 14 assists) in 60 games with Colorado this season. The context provided also states he signed a one-year, $1. 575 million contract with Colorado on Aug. 20, 2025, and can become an unrestricted free agent, though the sentence in the source material is truncated before finishing the eligibility line.
Calgary general manager Craig Conroy described Kadri as competitive and focused on winning at this stage of his career, while framing the trade as consistent with the Flames’ direction. Conroy said the organization wanted to add assets and draft picks, and he emphasized the club’s intent to explore options for those picks—either using them to select players or potentially using them to acquire players.
Craig Conroy frames the Flames’ move as an asset reset
For the Flames, the trade lands during a season in which the team sits 15th in the Western Conference at 24-30-7. The context provided places Calgary 12 points behind the Seattle Kraken for the second wild card, underscoring the gap the Flames are trying to close as they retool.
Conroy said the goal is to “get back in the playoffs” and to move “in the right direction, ” with the picks and other pieces in the trade positioned as tools to speed up that process. He also pointed to Kadri’s age in explaining why Calgary chose to make this move now.
Kadri, who won the Stanley Cup with Colorado in 2022, returns with a playoff track record noted in the provided material: 44 points (19 goals, 25 assists) in 52 Stanley Cup Playoff games. His broader career totals are also extensive—751 points (319 goals, 432 assists) in 1, 046 regular-season games for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Avalanche and Flames after being selected by Toronto in the first round (No. 7) of the 2009 NHL Draft.
One immediate question for the avs is how quickly Kadri can rejoin the group after learning about the trade “pretty late, ” as he described it. If the Avalanche’s schedule holds as listed, Colorado’s next confirmed on-ice checkpoint is the visit to Dallas at 8 p. m. ET on Friday.
