New Avalanche center Carl Soderberg was acquired from the Boston Bruins on June 25, seemingly for what amounted to a bag of pucks.

His contract was scheduled to expire July 1, at which time he was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent.

But the softspoken Swede, 29, said he didn’t have the stomach for free agency. He just wanted to sign a contract with an attractive NHL team that wanted him, and he was sold on Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic and coach Patrick Roy.

“I was waiting for Boston to come back to me,” Soderberg, a casualty of the Bruins’ salary cap problems, said in a phone interview from Sweden. “When they didn’t have room for me, my agent told me Colorado was interested in me. There was no doubt for me. Colorado is a great hockey club. I said go ahead, and then everything went really fast.”

The Avs told Soderberg he was the planned replacement for Ryan O’Reilly, who was dealt to the Buffalo Sabres on June 27 in a four-player trade. That and not having to play the free-agency game made Soderberg’s choice easy.

“I just didn’t want to go through it, and when Joe and Patrick said they were interested in me, I wanted to go to Colorado right away,” he said.

Less than 24 hours after the trade that sent a 2016 sixth-round draft pick to Boston, Soderberg signed a five-year, $23.75 million contract with the Avs. His annual cap hit is $4.75 million. According to Sakic, he will begin training camp on a line with wingers Gabe Landeskog and Nathan MacKinnon.

Soderberg has played with Landeskog on the Swedish national team and recently received a “welcome to the team” call from the Avalanche captain. Soderberg said it’s “really inspiring” to have an opportunity to center Landeskog and MacKinnon.

“They told me they wanted me to play centerman and they like my game. I’m a two-way centerman,” Soderberg said. “And they had a thought of playing me with those two guys. I’m excited.”

Soderberg was drafted 49th overall in 2004 by the St. Louis Blues. But he was uncomfortable playing in North America and wanted to remain in his hometown of Malmo and play for the local professional hockey team, the Malmo Redhawks. At age 22, he took an errant stick to his left eye and suffered a detached retina. He is legally blind in that eye. His NHL future was further put on hold while he relearned to play hockey with one eye.

“I can see a little bit, but not too much,” Soderberg said. “That was seven years ago, a long time ago, and I’m used to it now. It took me a couple years, but right now I don’t think of it anymore.”

Soderberg is training with Malmo in Sweden until the end of August, when he will travel to Denver, search for a home and meet some of his new teammates.

Carl Soderberg: 5 Things to Know

Carl Soderberg is replacing Ryan O’Reilly as the center for one of the Avalanche’s top two lines. Five facts about the former Boston Bruin:

• Physically imposing forward at 6-foot-3 and 216 pounds. • Amassed 94 points (29 goals) in 161 NHL games the past two seasons for Boston, missing just nine games. • Second-round (49th) draft pick of the St. Louis Blues in 2004, but chose to play pro hockey in his Swedish hometown until age 26, partly because of an eye injury. • During the NHL lockout in 2012-13, he produced 31 goals in 54 games for Linkopings HC-Sweden. • His NHL career plus-minus rating is plus-12; O’Reilly is minus-11.

Mike Chambers: mchambers@denverpost.com or twitter.com/mikechambers