Jaden Schwartz is returning to Colorado. He’ll just be a little farther north this time around.

On Wednesday, the Avalanche signed the 34-year-old Schwartz to a three-year contract that will carry a cap hit of $3.25 million on the opening day of NHL free agency. Schwartz spent two years with Colorado College from 2010-2012 and won a Stanley Cup with the St. Louis Blues in 2019.

Schwartz has played 861 career NHL games over his 15-year career. He has spent the last five seasons playing for the Seattle Kraken, where he played 50 games last season, amassing 11 goals and 26 points. The 5-foot-10 forward brings speed and versatility to the Avalanche lineup but has struggled to stay healthy over the course of his NHL career.

Without a ton of room to maneuver under the cap, Schwartz is the “big splash” for the Avalanche in free agency.

“We thought Jaden Schwartz would be a great fit offensively in a top nine role,” General Manager Joe Sakic said. “(Can) kind of go anywhere in the lineup, give us depth. Brings that championship pedigree. Great guy, kind of fits our identity, the way we like to play … we’re confident we got the right fit for our group.”

The Avalanche traded away forwards Jack Drury, Ross Colton and Valeri Nichushkin this summer, so Schwartz will help bring depth to the lineup. With the additions of young forwards Fedor Svechkov and Zachary L’Heureux, both of whom require waivers to go to the AHL, the Avalanche have 12 NHL forwards on their roster.

It doesn’t sound like they’ll be making any more additions unless something changes.

“We have a little bit of cap space that we’re just going to try and accumulate over the course of the year, see how much money we can save for the deadline,” Sakic said. “We’ll go 12 forwards, but we feel we got some really good young prospects that are ready to get some opportunity, get some games, so we wanted to give those guys every opportunity.”

The Avalanche have just under $1.3 million in cap space with 21 players on the roster.

That 21st player is defenseman Noah Juulsen, who the Avalanche signed to a two-year contract that will carry a cap hit of $1.1 million. The 29-year-old spent last season with the Philadelphia Flyers, picking up 10 points in 52 games. He sits seventh on the depth chart with the Avalanche. Juulsen is another right-handed defenseman, bringing Colorado’s total to five.

“We wanted a different type of seventh (defenseman). We know who’s going to play,” Sakic said. “Brings that size, physicality, PK guy that we’re looking at.”

The Avalanche have historically been a team that pounces on any free agents still on the market late in the summer. While that could happen again this year, it sounds like they have a pretty good idea of what their team will look like to start the 2026-27 campaign.

“We’re very comfortable with the group we have going into the season,” Sakic said.

Notable

• An Avalanche team representative confirmed to The Denver Gazette that the team extended qualifying offers to Zakhar Bardakov and Fabian Lysell. Bardakov is expected to return to Russia but by extending a qualifying offer to him, the Avalanche retain his rights if he ever decides to come back to North America.
• Lysell was acquired last weekend for Ivan Ivan and the Avalanche are hoping a change of scenery will do him well. “Former first-round pick,” Sakic said. “Skilled, quick and we’re hoping in our system that he can pop.”
• Sakic confirmed that the Avalanche have less room to work with this season because of Brent Burns’ bonus money from last season that will take up around $2.3 million of cap space.