Post Deadline Thoughts
Posted 12:42 PM ET | Comments 1
Its been a few days since the Trade Deadline passed, with nothing to show for the Avs save Montreal's 2nd round pick this year. Giguere sent Leopold back to Calgary on deadline day for a scrub waiver wire pickup, Ryan Wilson..an undrafted defenseman, and Montreal's 2nd round pick. Not exactly the type of package Avs fans would have hoped for since even Brian Burke managed to get a 2nd round pick for Dominic Moore, who is clearly not even at the level Leopold is considered by most people. On top of that, we some how only make deals with inter-divisional rivals. Off the top of my head, that's Fleury, Morris, Leopold we have traded for losing guys like Robyn Regehr, Chris Drury and Alex Tanguay. One wonders why the hell we can't ship these guys somewhere they won't come back to haunt us later, I guess that's why I'm not a GM. Back to that 2nd rounder which was the "key" to this deal, I don't see how we can be the only team in the NHL to not get at least fair value for our players. It seems the last handful of trades we have made, we end up getting the raw end of the deal. I won't bother going into detail, because if you follow hockey, you know what I'm talking about...if not, see the names mentioned above.
The deadline didn't address any of the Avalanches needs as a franchise, and on a day when Pascal Leclaire was traded for Antoine Vermette, it makes me wonder why the Avs couldn't make a similar move for the promising goaltender (again looking to next yr because of his ankle injury). There is a bright spot in all of this however, John Tavares! Now I realize we are still a ways off from the Islanders, but the way this teams playing, and the lack of a real goaltender does give us a chance at possibly grabbing the 1st overall draft choice. Even if we have a top 5 pick, this draft will give this team at least 1 NHL ready young player, if not next year, in 2011 for sure.
Another reason why the deadline day activities were of minimal interest to Giguere may be because of <s>Snowblower</s> Joe Sakic. The fact he still wants to play, and possibly again next year could very well have been why the team wasn't totally stripped down. If he wants to play, we need to ice a team that can compete at a high level. That means keeping guys like Hejduk and Smyth, as well as a good amount of our veterans and just try to reload with picks, and possibly a few trades in the summer. I'm not saying its what Giguere has in mind, but it wouldn't be too far of a stretch, and it could actually work. We won't know till the Cups handed to this years champion exactly what the summer has in store for the Avs, but until then I'm sure i won't be the only Avs fan hoping we don't win another game this season....we might as well win something this year, and a Franchise center like Tavares might just be worth it.
The deadline didn't address any of the Avalanches needs as a franchise, and on a day when Pascal Leclaire was traded for Antoine Vermette, it makes me wonder why the Avs couldn't make a similar move for the promising goaltender (again looking to next yr because of his ankle injury). There is a bright spot in all of this however, John Tavares! Now I realize we are still a ways off from the Islanders, but the way this teams playing, and the lack of a real goaltender does give us a chance at possibly grabbing the 1st overall draft choice. Even if we have a top 5 pick, this draft will give this team at least 1 NHL ready young player, if not next year, in 2011 for sure.
Another reason why the deadline day activities were of minimal interest to Giguere may be because of <s>Snowblower</s> Joe Sakic. The fact he still wants to play, and possibly again next year could very well have been why the team wasn't totally stripped down. If he wants to play, we need to ice a team that can compete at a high level. That means keeping guys like Hejduk and Smyth, as well as a good amount of our veterans and just try to reload with picks, and possibly a few trades in the summer. I'm not saying its what Giguere has in mind, but it wouldn't be too far of a stretch, and it could actually work. We won't know till the Cups handed to this years champion exactly what the summer has in store for the Avs, but until then I'm sure i won't be the only Avs fan hoping we don't win another game this season....we might as well win something this year, and a Franchise center like Tavares might just be worth it.
Leopold is a UFA at the end of the season, has never lived up to his potential, and has spent an incredible amount of time on IR while in Colorado...I really don't see how you can expect to get much more than a 2nd Rd pick and a long shot prospect for him. Leo is a rental plain and simple, sure Calgary may resign him, but at this point his value was certainly not a 1st rd pick or a very good prospect. We would have had to move Hejduk or Smyth to obtain assets like that.