SEDALIA — Before teeing off at his annual charity golf tournament Thursday morning, Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic spoke with The Denver Post about the contract situation with unsigned defenseman Nikita Zadorov, trade talks involving center Matt Duchene and losing exclusive negotiation rights with 2013 draft pick Will Butcher, the former University of Denver defenseman who chose to become an unrestricted free agent.

Sakic, who was hosting the 20th Joe Sakic Celebrity Classic to benefit the Food Bank of the Rockies at Sanctuary Golf Course, also said he plans to give rookie defensemen Chris Bigras, Andrei Mironov and Anton Lindholm the opportunity to make the team out of training camp next month.

Colorado has just three big-league defensemen under contract: Erik Johnson, Tyson Barrie and Mark Barbario. Zadorov, a 22-year-old restricted free agent, has threatened to sign with CSKA Moscow of the Kontinental Hockey League if the Avs don’t give him a bigger salary than what they’ve offered.

“Both sides agreed to a two-year deal and we just have to figure out the numbers,” Sakic said. “We’ve got our NHL comps that we’re going with and he’s got to make a decision at some point on what he wants to do.”

If Zadorov chooses to play next season in his native Russia, he will be eligible to represent his country in February’s Winter Olympics, which will not feature NHL players for the first time since 1994.

“You’re not playing against NHL players, so I don’t know the allure for a guy who’s playing in the NHL,” Sakic said. “You’re not playing against the best. It would be a different tournament.”

Arkady Rotenberg, board chairman of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation, said in a recent statement he is trying to entice NHL players with expired contracts to play in the KHL in the upcoming season to help bolster the Russian Olympic team. Former Avalanche forward Mikhail Grigorenko, former Montreal defenseman Andrei Markov and former Tampa Bay defenseman Nikita Nesterov have done just that; Grigorenko went unqualified by Colorado in June as a restricted free agent.

Washington Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin is planning on suspending his NHL season for nine games in February to play for Russia, a star-studded team that already features former NHL stars Ilya Kovalchuk and Pavel Datsyuk. The United States and Canada plan on stocking its Olympic teams with European professionals, American Hockey League players and elite amateurs.

Duchene, meanwhile, is still on the trade block but Sakic is expecting him to attend Colorado’s upcoming training camp.

“I will be listening to offers. Right now it’s quiet on all fronts,” Sakic said. “But I’ll listen to offers on how we can get better. I’ll never name names but I’ll sit there and if something makes sense for the way we want to go, with our team, we’ll really look at that.”

About Butcher, who became a free agent Wednesday after turning down Colorado’s contract offers, Sakic said the DU captain and 2017 Hobey Baker Award winner “has got that right….He’ll see what’s out there for him and see where that goes.” Related Articles September 18, 2020 Avalanche re-signs former DU star Logan O’Connor on two-year contract

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Sakic spoke about how he intends to complete his defensive corps, and noted the 2016-17 last-place Avalanche will continue to have first dibs on the waiver wire if Mironov, Bigras or Lindholm don’t appear ready for the NHL and/or a Duchene trade for a defenseman and more doesn’t happen.

“I’d like to see them and then we’ll see how training camp goes. There’s a lot of things that can happen during training camp,” Sakic said. “Right now, everybody’s content. It’s August and I want to give these young guys a chance. Lindholm is going to be here, Mironov — who I really expect is going to be here and help us out — and Bigras, who unfortunately got hurt (last) year. But we thought he played well enough (in 2015-16) that he can go to the minors and play 25 minutes down there, and then if there’s an injury, boom, he comes up and he plays major minutes. We didn’t want him to be sitting out at that age. We needed him to play.”

He added: “We’re a team that, on Nov. 1, because of where we finished, we’ll go look at the waiver wire as well and probably get one or two players from that as well.”

Footnote. Avalanche forwards Joe Colborne, J.T. Compher and Tyson Jost, along with unsigned 2013 draft pick Ben Storm, made up a foursome at Sakic’s tournament. Storm, a forward/defenseman who played four years at St. Cloud State, became an unrestricted free agent Wednesday but will attend Avs camp next month on a tryout contract.