Avalanche sign former Bruins centerman and team point leader to one-year deal
Photo credit: Bob DeChiara-Imagn Images
Colorado signed Georgii Merkulov to a one-year deal, and it is the second Boston Bruin the Avalanche have added in three weeks.
Merkulov led the 2025-26 Providence Bruins in points, posting 61 (24 goals, 37 assists) in 70 games for the AHL club that won the Macgregor Kilpatrick Trophy as the league's best regular-season team.
Three weeks earlier, Colorado acquired Fabian Lysell from Boston for Ivan Ivan, then re-signed him. Lysell and Merkulov have been teammates since 2022-23.
Sakic is buying the engine of the AHL's best team
This is not one move; it is a pattern. Colorado dealt Ivan Ivan, its own Calder Cup standout who put up 15 points in 17 Eagles playoff games, to start pulling Providence's top-six apart.
The bet is specific. Both Merkulov and Lysell scored heavily in the AHL but stalled in Boston's crowded system, combining for 23 NHL games across several seasons.
Merkulov was an AHL All-Rookie pick and an All-Star, yet Boston never handed him a defined NHL role.
Sakic is wagering that proven minor-league production translates once the logjam disappears. Reuniting two players who already share chemistry lowers the risk on that wager.
The Eagles just became a Providence transplant
The consequence nobody is tracking sits below the NHL roster.
Colorado's farm team is being rebuilt around imported Bruins scorers rather than homegrown prospects.
For Merkulov, 25, the ceiling question is real. He has 240 AHL points in 271 games and just 11 NHL appearances to show for it, so the Eagles are a proving ground, not a landing spot.
If either forward finally sticks in Denver, this quiet July becomes the month Colorado solved its bottom-six on the cheap.
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