Team Acquired Prospect Gavin Brindley, Selected Three Players in 2025 NHL Draft
This weekend, the Avalanche added several players to their organization both before and during the 2025 NHL Draft. Ahead of Friday’s first round, the Avalanche acquired prospect Gavin Brindley, the 77th overall pick in the 2025 Draft and a conditional second-round choice in the 2027 Draft from the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for forwards Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood.
Additionally, the team made three picks in the 2025 Draft. They selected defenseman Francesco Dell’Elce in the third round (77th overall), blueliner Linus Funck in the fourth round (118th overall) and forward Nolan Roed in the seventh round (214th overall).
“We value skating,” Avalanche Director of Amateur Scouting Nick Pryor said. “We value speed. That’s the way we want to play and we feel that Francesco, Linus and Nolan kind of fit the way that we want to play.”
Brindley was selected 34th overall by the Blue Jackets in the 2023 Draft and made his NHL debut on April 16, 2024, against the Carolina Hurricanes after two years at the University of Michigan. In 2023-24, he was named the Big Ten Player of the Year along and received First Team All-American (West) honors after posting 53 points (25g/28a) in 40 games.
“Going back to his draft year, he’s a high-motor, tenacious player that plays with really good pace,” Avalanche General Manager said about Brindley. “That book has just traveled and followed him to pro hockey, and when we were talking with [Columbus], he was a player that our pro scouts just piggybacked onto what our amateur side was seeing and thought it was a good player that plays the way we like to play.”
In his first full season as a pro in 2024-25, Brindley posted 17 points (6g/11a) in 52 regular-season contests with the AHL’s Cleveland Monsters along with making an appearance in four playoff games.
“He was an exciting player in his draft year,” Pryor said. “A ton of energy. A ton of passion. Very good kid. Very high-character kid.”
Dell’Elce, the team’s first draft choice in 2025, posted 24 points (7g/17a) along with a +18 plus-minus rating in 40 games in his first year at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
“With Fran, an older guy that we feel [that] he’s not far off from if his game keeps progressing in the right direction,” Pryor said. “And that’s exciting for us.”
In 48 regular-season contests for Lulea HF’s under-20 team in the J20 Nationell league in Sweden, Funck recorded 28 points (5g/23a) in addition to two points (1g/1a) in three playoff games.
“Linus is a 6’3” right-shot defenseman,” Pryor said. “He’s got a really good feel for the puck and puck skills for a bigger body. [He] moves well. Like most, I think his game needs to round out and improve on the defensive side and just continue to develop that two-way game. But he’s exciting for us because he’s big, he’s mobile and he can move the puck and we were really excited for where we got him.
“Nolan is a player that our scout Mike Battaglia has followed for a while, going back to White Bear Lake High School in Minnesota to Tri City in the USHL,” Pryor said. “And just a player that keeps getting better and better and better. A little bit older, but I think his development path is going in the right direction. He’s going to a good program at St. Cloud [State], and I think with his goal-scoring touch and his competitiveness, he’s going to give himself a chance as long as the development keeps going in the right direction.”
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