{"id":486173,"date":"2026-03-05T03:39:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T03:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/486173\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T03:39:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T03:39:12","slug":"colorado-avalanche-acquire-nick-blankenburg-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/486173\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Avalanche Acquire Nick Blankenburg \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Colorado Avalanche have acquired defenseman Nick Blankenburg<\/a> from the Nashville Predators, according to an official team announcement<\/a>. The Predators are receiving a 2027 fifth-round pick in exchange for the defenseman.<\/p>\n

The move continues Nashville\u2019s recent efforts to add future draft picks in exchange for roster players. Fourth-liners Michael McCarron<\/a> and Cole Smith<\/a> were dealt yesterday. In these three deals, the Predators have added a second-round pick, a third-round pick, and a fifth-rounder, albeit by bolstering the depth of Western Conference playoff contenders in the process.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In adding Blankenburg, the Avalanche have added a capable NHL defenseman who has enjoyed the best years of his professional career in Nashville.<\/p>\n

While the 27-year-old is undersized, standing 5\u20199\u2033 177 pounds, he plays at the kind of pace that will allow him to fit in seamlessly in Colorado. He has 21 points in 49 games this season, playing 17:57 per night with the Predators.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s appeared on both sides of special teams, serving as the team\u2019s second power play quarterback (behind star Roman Josi<\/a>) and is averaging 1:36 per game on the penalty kill. When Josi missed significant time last season due to injury, it was Blankenburg who stepped up and spent time quarterbacking the team\u2019s top power play unit.<\/p>\n

The way Colorado\u2019s defense is constructed, it is unlikely he plays as large a role. The right side of their defense is already well-stocked, with Cale Makar<\/a>, Sam Malinski<\/a>, and Brent Burns<\/a> already in the fold. With Devon Toews<\/a>, Josh Manson<\/a>, and Brett Kulak<\/a> on the other side, the Avalanche have an enviable collection of talent on their back end. Adding Blankenburg, presumably in the seventh-defenseman role, only adds to their stockpile at the position. If an injury hits, the team will have a quality player ready to step in and fill the role of the injured blueliner.<\/p>\n

From the Predators\u2019 perspective, the deal adds a draft pick for a pending UFA and concludes what has been a solid developmental success story for the Predators.<\/p>\n

Blankenburg was a great find for the team\u2019s hockey operations department in the summer of 2024. He had lost his NHL role with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2023-24, playing in the AHL for the first time in his career. He signed a two-year deal in Nashville that contained a two-way structure in its first year, something that ultimately didn\u2019t factor in too much as Blankenburg only played 13 games for the Milwaukee Admirals.<\/p>\n

The Predators were able to find an NHL role that was a fit for Blankenburg\u2019s skill set, and allowed him to occupy that role and rediscover his place as a full-time NHL player. A fifth-round pick isn\u2019t a massive return for Blankenburg, but it\u2019s still an additional draft pick to add to their rapidly growing stockpile. And the value of rewarding Blankenburg by giving him a chance to join one of the NHL\u2019s top teams cannot be discounted \u2013 if he plays well in Colorado, and gets into playoff games, he\u2019ll enter the free agent market on very strong ground.<\/p>\n

It might be curious to see Nashville trading away so many established players while they are in the midst of a playoff chase, but the reality is the Predators have one of the better track records across the league as developers of NHL talent.<\/p>\n

While elite talent has sometimes eluded them, they have, more often than not, been able to rely on their pipeline of talent from AHL Milwaukee to provide them with players capable of taking on specific roles as bottom-six players or third-pairing defensemen. The trades of the bottom-six forwards from yesterday will allow for greater opportunity for developing players such as Ozzy Wiesblatt<\/a> and Reid Schaefer<\/a> at the NHL level. The deals should also allow for promising center Fedor Svechkov<\/a> to re-join the NHL roster.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s trade accomplishes a similar role on defense. The Admirals have been led in scoring this season by a defenseman, 22-year-old Ryan Ufko<\/a>, and he could get a look in the NHL as a result of this trade. It could also mean greater opportunity for Justin Barron<\/a>, who the Predators acquired last season from the Montreal Canadiens.<\/p>\n

In any case, the Predators have not let this season\u2019s solid short-term on-ice results deter them from building towards a clear long-term vision. Their moves in recent days have seemingly been concrete steps forward in service of that vision, even if they might somewhat hurt their odds of reaching the playoffs this season.<\/p>\n

Photos courtesy of Mark Konezny-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Colorado Avalanche have acquired defenseman Nick Blankenburg from the Nashville Predators, according to an official team announcement.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[144,5,231,4,19340],"class_list":{"0":"post-486173","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-colorado-avalanche","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nashville-predators","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-nick-blankenburg"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116174492458248746","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}