Carl Soderberg’s future with the Colorado Avalanche was eventually going to come under question considering he had a year left on his contract and he is a soon-to-be 34-year-old forward on a team geared toward getting younger.

Now those particular set of questions don’t matter. Soderberg was traded Tuesday to the Arizona Coyotes for defenseman Kevin Connauton and a third-round pick in the 2020 NHL Draft. Soderberg had one of the strongest seasons of his career having scored a personal-high 23 goals and finishing with 49 points. Connauton finished with eight points in 50 games while averaging 18:21 of ice time last season.

Moving on from Soderberg, however, creates a whole new set of questions regarding what this means for the Avalanche both in the short term and long term.

What was the biggest motivating factor behind moving Soderberg and receiving Connauton plus a pick in return?

Money. Money. Money.

Remember when Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic addressed reporters at his end-of-season news conference? He said the Avs were going to be more aggressive in free agency. Stating such an edict is one thing. Following through on that plan means having the necessary funds available.

Soderberg will make $4.75 million in 2019-20 whereas the 29-year-old Connauton will earn $1.375 million. It comes out to Sakic saving $3.375 million and pushes the Avalanche’s salary cap space to $38.9 million. That is currently the highest-projected figure among all NHL teams, according to CapFriendly.

The Avalanche have a number of financial decisions to consider. It starts with their six-player restricted free-agent class consisting of J.T. Compher, Ryan Graves, Vladislav Kamenev, Alexander Kerfoot, Mikko Rantanen and Nikita Zadorov. Originally, it started off as a seven-player group but the team did not extend a qualifying offer to Sven Andrighetto, a source told The Athletic.

And then there is determining what to do with the team’s five unrestricted free agents.

Freeing up this sort of cap space allows Sakic and his front office staff a bit more flexibility when it comes to securing RFAs but it also makes them a major player in free agency, which starts July 1. Whomever the Avalanche target is going to command a large sum given the current state of the market. Kevin Hayes, for example, signed a seven-year deal with the Philadelphia Flyers for a $7.14 million cap hit while Jeff Skinner stayed with the Buffalo Sabres on an eight-year pact worth $9 million annually.

Signing a forward who can supplement the team’s secondary scoring efforts beyond Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and Rantanen has remained a priority for the Avalanche.

Now they have the financial freedom to do that and sign their RFAs at what both sides deem to be a reasonable price.

What will the Avalanche do with Soderberg’s ice time and who fills in for him on special teams?

This question has a lot of moving parts and it begins with assessing exactly what Soderberg contributed to the lineup.

He was this team’s chief penalty-killing center as he was fourth in the NHL among forwards in short-handed ice time, according to data from MoreHockeyStats. There is also a matter of replacing the 23 goals and 49 points while also finding someone who was versatile enough to log minutes on the second-team power-play unit as well.

All those items further strengthen the argument Soderberg was this team’s most important forward beyond those on the top line.

Whomever the Avalanche sign in free agency will surely be a forward who has a history of being a consistent goal-scoring option who produces scoring chances for himself and others around him. Figuring out if that same player will be asked to contribute in a penalty-killing role, however, is the unknown variable that makes this question tougher to answer.

Sakic said in a statement that, “This trade allows some of our young centermen to have a chance to play a more prominent role on our team while adding an experienced defenseman to our roster.”

Namely, it allows Tyson Jost along with Compher and Kerfoot a chance to receive more minutes. All three have been identified as young players who need to take the next progression in order for the Avs to follow through on becoming a legitimate Stanley Cup contender that becomes an eventual Stanley Cup champion.

Compher, in terms of those young forwards, was already being groomed to be Soderberg’s heir apparent in regards to being a top penalty-killing option. He went from logging 97 short-handed minutes over 69 games in 2017-18 to receiving 125 minutes throughout 66 games during the 2018-19 season.

Compher was handed more responsibility in short-handed situations during the postseason as he received an additional two minutes more than Soderberg in the team’s run that ended in a seven-game Western Conference semifinal series against the San Jose Sharks.

There is also the possibility the Avalanche could pass some of that responsibility on to Sheldon Dries, Logan O’Connor or Kamenev. Dries played 40 games with the Avs last season and recorded 39 minutes on the PK whereas Kamenev, who sustained a second straight season-ending injury, had 16 minutes in 23 games. O’Connor, who signed as a college free agent with two-way prowess a summer ago, did not receive any PK time in the NHL but was often used in short-handed situations with the Colorado Eagles in the AHL.

Soderberg’s replacement will have players familiar with the team’s PK scheme in the form of Matt Calvert and Matt Nieto, who are under contract.

Don’t the Avalanche already have a logjam of defensemen? Why did they need another?

Ian Cole and Erik Johnson are both coming off surgery and it appears they may not be ready for the start of the season, a source told The Athletic.

Cole required surgery on both of his hips while Johnson underwent a procedure to fix his shoulder. That left Bednar and the Avs without two defensemen who combined to serve as the team’s third defensive pairing against the Sharks in the playoffs. Adding an experienced option in Connauton somewhat softens that blow from a depth standpoint.

The Avalanche still have Mark Barberio, Tyson Barrie, Samuel Girard, Graves, Cale Makar and Zadorov but there are still a few items worth addressing. Girard and Makar were the team’s top defensive pairing in the playoffs but Makar has yet to feature in a regular-season game whereas Graves has 26 games of NHL experience.

Having Connauton gives the Avalanche someone who could play in a third-pairing role alongside either Barberio or Graves for more depth on the back end.

And then there’s the value Connauton provides on the penalty kill, which takes an even bigger hit with the absence of Cole and Johnson.

Johnson was fifth in the NHL among all skaters in short-handed ice time whereas Cole was 12th. Unrestricted free agent Patrik Nemeth was seventh in that category and it appears he was already set to leave the Avalanche given the aforementioned crowd of defensive options.

Connauton’s 8,273 seconds of short-handed ice time is more than what Barrie, Girard, Graves and Zadorov had last season.

The Avalanche will still have primary puck-moving options in Barrie, Girard and Makar but adding Connauton reinforces what is going to be an area of extreme importance considering Cole and Johnson are injured, Nemeth appears gone and Soderberg went in the other direction.

Knowing Cole and Johnson are going to be sidelined to start the year could implore the Avalanche to take an even closer look in training camp with prospects Bowen Byram and Conor Timmins.

Byram, who went fourth to the Avalanche, was considered to be the best defensive prospect in the draft. There is a possibility that he could impress Bednar and his staff enough to warrant playing time based off what he does in the preseason. Timmins is harder to assess. He is slated to participate in development camp and used last season to recover from a concussion. He spent the first half of the season rehabilitating with the Avs and used the latter portion of the year to continue those efforts with the Eagles.

Eagles coach Greg Cronin told The Athletic in late May that Timmins is “unequivocally very confident” of playing in the NHL next season.

(Photo of Carl Soderberg: Ron Chenoy / USA Today)