NHL Free Agents: The 9 Worst Signings in Colorado Avalanche History

The Colorado Avalanche have had a history of making bold moves in order to give the team the best possible chance to win.

The Avalanche haven't really been quite as active in free agency until the past five or six years.

Though there have been many trades and signings that did work out quite well for the Avalanche over the years.

At the same time, just like every team, there have been some signings that haven't panned out quite the way the Avalanche had hoped.

Here is a list of the nine worst signings that the Avalanche have made in their history, in no particular order.

Ryan Smyth

I will be the first to say that I was very happy when the Avalanche signed Ryan Smyth. It was the team trying to show the fans that they still thought they could win before moving into full-fledged re-build mode.

He's a great leader who works his butt off every single second of every single shift. In that sense, it was a very good signing.

What made Smyth's signing bad was the contract itself. Smyth was 31 years old when he signed a five-year contract worth $31.25 million. This was worth $6.25 million on the salary cap, which was never something he lived up to.

Over the two seasons that he played in Denver, one of which saw him play only 55 games, saw him tallying only 40 goals.

Part of this was that the team as a whole was on the decline and just hadn't admitted it yet, the other part was that the Avalanche got him after he had hit his peak.

Once the Avalanche saw his production did not live up to his contract, he was traded to L.A., and the official re-build began.

Smyth is a good player who is very effective, but the contract that he was signed to in Colorado was ridiculous.

David Koci

David Koci came over to the Avalanche in 2009 from the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Koci was largely useless as a forward, tallying only two points in his whole two seasons with the Avalanche.

His primary function was supposed to be as an enforcer, but Koci was never really able to do an effective job at that either. Of course, the fact that he averaged only about three-and-a-half minutes of ice time in his time with Colorado.

This signing was made even worse when he was re-signed after one season of uselessness, only to provide the exact same thing the next year.

Over the past two seasons, it seemed the Koci's best use came when Colorado coach Joe Sacco had somebody that he wanted to send a message to. The, "I'd rather have Koci's three worthless minutes on the ice than have you play a whole game."

Sure, his contract was nothing, but it was basically money thrown straight down the drain based off of how infrequently Koci was on the ice.

Tyler Arnason

Really, as soon as this picture was taken of Tyler Arnason, the Avalanche should have known that nothing good was going to come out of this.

Arnason had a good first two years in the NHL, but things fell apart for him very quickly after that.

In his three years with the Avalanche, Arnason never once broke the 20-goal mark and only had five goals in 71 games his last season with the Avalanche.

What was more strange, Arnason even was designated an alternate captain. Captain personality here?

It couldn't have been leading by example, that's for sure. Arnason was one of the worst signings in the history of the Avalanche, bar none.

Patrice Brisebois

Patrice Brisebois seemed like a pretty decent get when he came over to the Avalanche right after the lockout ended.

He put up okay offensive numbers in his first season but wasn't very solid defensively.

After an injury plagued second season with the Avalanche, the Avalanche cut their losses and Brisebois returned to Montreal to finish off his career.

Brisebois had an okay start but ended up being another bust signing for the Avalanche.

Brad May

Brad May was a bad signing for several reasons.

First, he never really fit the mold of the team, never produced for the team, didn't really play tough, was horrible in his own end.

He also only averaged about eight minutes of hockey per night, played only 54 games.

The worst part about all of this is that Brad May was really the catalyst behind the entire Steve Moore incident, putting the original "bounty" on Steve Moore's head.

They went out and signed the guy that instigated one of the ugliest moments in the history of the NHL.

I feel dirty even putting that picture on this slide and am disgusted with the fact that he was ever a member of the Colorado Avalanche.

Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne

This could also be looked at as one of the best signings in the history of hockey as both of these guys wanted to come to a place where they could play together and have a shot at winning the Stanley Cup, so they took a lot less money.

At the start of the season, people had pretty much penciled the Avalanche into the Stanley Cup Finals because of the insane amount of talent that was on the team.

Not only did that not end up happening, the Avalanche didn't even win their division that year.

Kariya played okay, and Selanne had one of the more difficult seasons of his career, and they were taken off of the same line, which was part of the mistake in my opinion.

With the expectations that were thrown upon this group and the way they performed, this is easily one of the worse signings that came about for the Colorado Avalanche.

Todd Gill

This was the only picture that I could find of Todd Gill, but I think it pretty much speaks for itself.

Gill was signed as a free agent after being a journeyman around the league for several years and never having a solid home.

He played only 36 games and tallied a grand total of four points.

The following season he was released. Waste of time and money.

Darcy Tucker

Darcy Tucker was definitely one of the more curious signings in the history of the Colorado Avalanche, especially since it came shortly after the team talked about wanting to return to a run and gun style offense that won them their championships.

Then they signed, Darcy Tucker? Sure, he's a hard worker and is one of the better pests in the NHL but Darcy Tucker?

He signed a two-year contract that paid him about $2.5 million a year.  That's nowhere near what he should have been paid, but this was Francois Giguere that signed gave him that contract.

After tallying only 40 points in two seasons, the Avalanche sent him out to pasture. Not a moment too soon.

Seems like the only thing Francois Giguere knew how to do well offer absurd contracts.

Tony Granato

Curve ball!!

Tony Granato makes this list because he showed that he wasn't really a good solution as a head coach, yet he was put there twice.

After failing to win his own division with one of the most talented teams ever assembled, Granato was sent out to be replaced by Joel Quenneville.

After Quenneville was fired, back came Granato who promptly led the Avalanche straight to the basement of the Western Conference while Quenneville went on to lead Chicago to a Stanley Cup.

Granato just never seemed to have the full respect of his team, and you just can't possibly be a winning coach if you aren't respected by your players.

The thing that kills me about this the most was that it took two failed goes at the helm for the Avalanche to realize what a bad job this guy was doing.

Horrible signing on so many levels.

Kevin Goff is a Featured Columnist for the Colorado Avalanche and is a member of Bleacher Report's 2011 NHL Draft Team.  For more NHL news and discussion,