It was a long road back to the NHL for Lukas Sedlak. The 29-year-old forward has three seasons of NHL experience but wasn’t sure if he would return after spending the last three seasons in the KHL. It took a coach that he won a championship with to give him another chance.
Sedlak is on a one-year deal with the Colorado Avalanche. He played for Jared Bednar when the Avalanche coach led the AHL’s Lake Erie Monsters to a Calder Cup championship in 2016. He’s back playing under Bednar’s tutelage once again, and both of them are trying to re-capture that championship magic.
Sedlak Got Start With Blue Jackets
Sedlak was taken in the sixth round of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft by the Columbus Blue Jackets, signed with the team in 2013, and went straight to the AHL. However, he struggled to find any offensive form with the AHL club in his first couple of seasons; the Lake Erie Monsters – who have since changed to the Cleveland Monsters – are Columbus’ AHL affiliate. Bednar took over the head coaching duties for the following 2015-16 season, and Sedlak’s offensive game took off a bit that season.
After scoring just 14 goals and 30 points in his first two seasons with the team, he racked up 14 goals under Bednar in the Calder Cup-winning campaign. Following then, Bednar went to the Avalanche, and Sedlak went up to the Blue Jackets. He played three seasons with Columbus but couldn’t recover that scoring touch from his one campaign under Bednar – tallying just 15 goals and 27 points in those three seasons. Sedlak was a member of the underdog Blue Jackets club that upset the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first round of the 2019 postseason but moved on to the KHL for the 2019-20 season.
Sedlak Finds Scoring Touch in KHL
Sedlak has always been a ferocious forechecker and a pretty good defensive forward. The problem was the offense. His 27 points in the NHL came in 162 games. That wasn’t enough production for Columbus to give him another contract, and Sedlak signed with Traktor Chelyabinsk – where he played the last three seasons. The offense picked up for him in the Russian league.
In 164 games with Traktor Chelyabinsk, he piled up 57 goals and 121 points and had three goals and three assists in 10 playoff games last season. He scored 23 goals in 2019-20 but scored at least 16 goals in each season. His contract was terminated by the club following last season, opening the door for a potential return to the NHL. Sedlak’s offensive consistency and added scoring piqued the interest of the Avalanche, and they rewarded them by earning a spot on the opening night roster.
Sedlak Reunited With Bednar
Sedlak signed to a one-year deal for the 2022-23 season just before Colorado won the Stanley Cup last summer. Roughly two weeks before that title-clinching win, Sedlak finalized his contract with the organization. This signing barely made a blip on the radar, as fans were focused on the run for the Cup. And there were also bigger contracts on the minds of the Avs.
The 2022-23 season was the last on superstar Nathan MacKinnon’s current contract. Both sides knew they were going to make it happen, and they signed the star forward to an extension before the puck dropped on this season. However, that came at the expense of Nazem Kadri, who Colorado had to let go in free agency after a monster season where Kadri scored 87 points.
Related: Avalanche’s Jared Bednar Paves Own Path to NHL Success
There was a lot of focus on replacing Kadri’s scoring, but the Sedlak signing came because the Avs knew forechecking stalwarts like Nico Sturm and Nicolas Aube-Kubel weren’t coming back, either. Add in Sedlak’s improved scoring in the KHL and his familiarity with Bednar, and it was worth a flier for a team that has had success with some well-timed deals lately. Expect Sedlak to be a staple on that fourth line and maybe even higher in the lineup if he can reignite that scoring touch from his time in the KHL.
