Defenseman Christian Wolanin, a former fourth-round draft pick of the Ottawa Senators, has signed on as a free agent with the Colorado Avalanche. The deal carries a salary of $850,000 at the NHL level with the Avs and $400,000 in the AHL with the Eagles.
Wolanin hopes to earn a job with the same NHL team his father, Craig, won a Stanley Cup with in 1995-96. The elder Wolanin was selected third overall in the 1985 NHL Draft and in 1990 was traded to Quebec straight up for Hall of Famer Peter Stastny.
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Of Craig’s 695 career NHL games, 364 of them were with the Avalanche/Nordiques from 1990-96.
Christian joined the Senators at the end of his University of North Dakota days in 2018 and played 10 games with Ottawa right out of the gate. In 2018-19, he was primarily in Belleville for the first half of the season, then joined the Senators full time in the new year, putting up 12 points in the club’s final 30 games.
New Sens head coach D.J. Smith said he had Wolanin pencilled in as an everyday player for 2019-20, but then Wolanin slipped and fell on the ice, tearing his labrum on day one of training camp. He was out for four months, and then he returned roughly in time for COVID to hit.
In 2020-21, he was in and out of the lineup, playing in only 15 games for Ottawa before being traded to the Los Angeles Kings for Michael Amadio. The Sens didn’t know what they had in Amadio and allowed him to walk in free agency that summer.
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In all, Wolanin has seen 86 regular-season games’ worth of NHL action and posted 23 career points with the Vancouver Canucks (2022-23), Buffalo Sabres (2021-22), Los Angeles Kings (2020-22) and of course, the Senators (2017-21)
Now 31, Wolanin played 53 games for the AHL’s Providence Bruins last season, scoring 7 goals and 31 points.
His best AHL season came in 2022-23 when he had 55 points and won the Eddie Shore Award for the AHL’s best defenseman. He led all AHL defensemen that year in assists and points with Abbotsford. Two years later, he helped them win a Calder Cup.
Wolanin represented Team USA at the World Hockey Championships twice (2019 & 2021), winning the bronze medal in 2021.
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By Steve Warne
The Hockey News
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