Valeri Nichushkin signs eight-year, $49 million contract with Colorado Avalanche

Forward Valeri Nichushkin is staying put with the Stanley Cup champion Avalanche. He signed an eight-year, $49 million contract with Colorado. He spent the past three years with the Avs and is coming off a season in which he had a career-best 25 goals and 52 points in 62 games in the regular season before adding nine and six in the playoffs.

Nichushkin's signing overshadowed several other roster-related developments on Monday, with teams having until the afternoon to determine whether to issue qualifying offers and retain the rights to their restricted free agents.

One of those decisions involved the Avalanche, with forward Nicolas Aube-Kubel going from celebrating with the Stanley Cup on Saturday to not receiving a qualifying offer from Colorado.

Aube-Kubel, 26, has four seasons of NHL experience and was claimed by Colorado after being waived by the Philadelphia Flyers in November. He had 11 goals and 22 points in 67 regular-season games for the Avalanche, and had no points in 14 playoff games.