Many people were hoping the Colorado Avalanche would either make a big splash in the free agent pool or make a major move on the trade market this summer. They were undoubtedly left disappointed. That doesn’t mean, however, that general manager Joe Sakic and Co. had an unsuccessful summer.

Sakic was instead charged with not only improving his club, but also, and perhaps more importantly, retaining the Avs’ own restricted free agents. On both fronts, he was able to get deals done that kept the team under the cap, made financial sense and helped set up the Avalanche for both next season and in future years.

The (likely) final crucial deal was the last-minute agreement with restricted free agent defenseman Tyson Barrie. Announced on Sunday, the accord was reached just hours before an arbitrator was set to deliver their ruling.

With 13 goals and 49 points in 78 games last season, Barrie has emerged as an elite offensive defenseman. At 25, he likely has yet to reach his ceiling as a player. Now, he is locked up for the next four years, and at an average annual value of $5.5 million, is done so at a reasonable price; one that does not handicap the team going forward.

With deals needed for Barrie, Nathan MacKinnon, Calvin Pickard, Mikhail Grigorenko and Andreas Martinsen going into the summer, and with limited cap space to work with, Sakic was able to ink all of them to financially responsible contracts (some would even say bargains). He also made solid, low-cost, low-risk additions in free agency with the signings of Joe Colborne, Fedor Tyutin and Patrick Wiercioch. He somehow got something of value (Rocco Grimaldi) for Reto Berra, when he traded him to the Florida Panthers.

Sakic did all of this while maintaining the flexibility to allow Mikko Rantanen and J.T. Compher to compete for spots in training camp, allow room on the blueline for Nikita Zadorov and Chris Bigras, while also putting contingencies in place in case they aren’t quite ready. Oh, and he also orchestrated a solid draft and completely rebuilt the team’s AHL affiliate.

This season, barring another deal, the Avalanche will operate with just under $1 million in cap space (more can also be obtained by sending those two-way contracts to the minors). The fact that Sakic was able to fit everybody in under the cap was a feat in itself, but he also improved the team.