On Friday (Jun. 27), the Colorado Avalanche and Columbus Blue Jackets swung a trade. The Blue Jackets acquired Miles Wood and Charlie Coyle in exchange for Gavin Brindley, a conditional 2027 second-round pick, and the 77th overall selection in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft.
Full trade:
To Avs:
Prospect Gavin Brindley
3rd Rd pick tomorrow (77th overall),
conditional 2nd-round pick in ‘27To CBJ: Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood
No salary retained
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) June 27, 2025
Here are some grades for both teams after another big trade before the draft.
Columbus Blue Jackets: B-
The Blue Jackets have a ton of money to spend this offseason and have enough that taking on $7.75 million on two bottom-six forwards shouldn’t come back to haunt them. Wood and Coyle will both likely play on the third or fourth line, and considering how strong they have proven to be in depth roles with previous teams, this is a solid move for them.
If the Blue Jackets were strapped to the cap, this move wouldn’t have made much sense, but considering they seem to be poised to make a playoff run next season and have plenty of money lying around, this is a solid trade. Giving up two draft picks and a prospect is a hefty price for two depth forwards, but for a team looking to get back into contention, sometimes you have to spend more than usual to build a winning team.
Wood and Coyle can both play solid two-way games and should be able to elevate their game in a new home. Coyle has some playoff experience that will be valuable if the Blue Jackets can get back there. Through 126 career playoff games, he has scored 26 goals and added 27 assists for 53 points, which comes out to a 0.42 points-per-game average. Wood has 25 playoff games under his belt, where he scored five goals, so he’ll be comfortable as well when the postseason comes around.
Colorado Avalanche: A-
This is a solid trade for both teams, but I would have to say the Avalanche come out on top. They were able to bring in two high draft picks and a solid prospect while being able to free up enough cap space to either take a run at re-signing some of their pending free agents or making a splash in free agency. Both Jonathan Drouin and Ryan Lindgren were believed to be heading to free agency due to the Avalanche’s money issues, but now, they might be able to afford bringing one of them, or both of them, back.
Related: Avalanche Should Target These 3 2025 Free Agent Forwards
The Avalanche are trying to contend this season and want to have a deeper run into the postseason while they push to try and win another Stanley Cup, which makes this trade look odd on the surface, but it makes sense. Coyle and Wood don’t have a key spot in the Avalanche’s lineup going into next season, so them becoming cap casualties to make room for other players they view as more valuable makes perfect sense.
The 2025 NHL Draft will be interesting and bring plenty of speculation over the next couple of days, and both the Avalanche and Blue Jackets will be active as they try to make moves that make them a true contender heading into the 2025-26 season. Time will tell how both teams go about trying to continue improving their roster, but this trade is a positive one for both of them, something you don’t see often.
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