ESPN NHL

DENVER -- Unable to keep Peter Forsberg or Adam Foote on the roster, the Colorado Avalanche moved quickly to sign veterans Pierre Turgeon and Patrice Brisebois to two-year contracts Wednesday night.

Turgeon, a 17-year veteran and four-time All-Star, will play Forsberg's center position. He has 495 career goals. In 2003-04 with Dallas, he had 15 goals and 25 assists. The Stars bought out Turgeon's contract last month under a provision in the new collective bargaining agreement.

Brisebois, a defenseman like Foote, has played all 15 of his previous seasons with Montreal.

Both signed deals that will pay them $1.5 million in the upcoming season, the same as was offered to Forsberg and Foote. Brisebois will make $3 million in his second year and Turgeon $1.5 million.

The transactions capped a busy three-day session for Avalanche general manager Pierre Lacroix, who wanted to keep Foote and Forsberg, but because of the way the new salary cap is structured, didn't think it was wise to offer either more than $1.5 million for next season to do it.

"Peter was so understanding, just like Adam was," Lacroix said. "They were very understanding of the situation. They know it's a new era of the NHL. Other teams are doing different things, but other teams don't have the quality and roots we have."

Forsberg signed a two-year, $11.5 million contract with Philadelphia on Wednesday. A day earlier, Foote signed a three-year, $13.8 million contract with Columbus.

With the bulk of their moves complete, the Avalanche still have most of the players from their 2003-04 roster still on the team, including Joe Sakic, Rob Blake, Alex Tanguay and Milan Hejduk.

There was a possibility of offering more to Forsberg and parting with some of the younger players, like Tanguay and Hejduk, but "I don't think the fans would have been proud of me for that," Lacroix said.

The GM said he was sad to say goodbye to Forsberg, who has played his entire career with the Avalanche organization and was widely considered the best player in hockey. But in his thinking, there was no way to increase the offer to him over the four-year, $13.5 million deal he tendered.

"We would have had to ask Peter to play one shift on defense and one at forward," had the team offered more than the $1.5 million, Lacroix said.

Lacroix believes Turgeon and Brisebois will fit in nicely with the Avalanche.

Brisebois is known as an offensive defenseman, someone Lacroix feels will fit in well with new rules designed to promote wide-open play.

Turgeon is a savvy veteran who took less money with Colorado than he could have made elsewhere in hopes of finishing his career with a Stanley Cup.

"Pierre Turgeon has all the skills to fill holes created by Peter Forsberg," Lacroix said. "That doesn't take anything away from Peter. But you win as a team. This is a team sport."

Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press