Rumor: 2024 Trade Rumors and Free Agency Thread: Post Deadline

[Pierce Hawthorne]

we all know how this team plays when nuke is out and to an extent lehky. They bring exactly what this team needs and is a key cog. Roles as Bednar points out

Nuke yes, he's a core guy. Lehky absolutely not. He just isn't on that level and isn't that kind of an impact.

Over the last 2 years:

Without Nichushkin - 27-26-4
Without Lehkonen - 36-14-5


They simply aren't comparable impacts at all.

 

[Richard88]

All I know is trading/signing for Colton/Wood, signing them medium/long term and then immediately moving on from them would not be ideal in attracting players in the future. Especially in a market that is already not entirely attractive as is.

Things change. At the time of the Wood signing the Avs didn't have Mittelstadt's upcoming contract on the roster. They've previously been comfortable budgeteing $4-$4.5 for 2C (Kadri $4.5m and RyJo $4m), but RyJo didn't work out which prompted a re-think for 2024/25 where instead of having $4m there with RyJo they need to allocate ~$6.5m.

When Wood signed it also wasn't yet confirmed what the 2025 cap ceiling would be. Ultimately it's a business and CMac needs to adjust to changing parameters and do what's best for the team. In this case if you can make the cap work by moving Wood before more important players then that's what needs to be done.

Yes it's only one year from when Wood signed, but it's also only two years since Lehkonen signed a 5 year deal which isn't all that different.

 

[GirardSpinorama]

All I know is trading/signing for Colton/Wood, signing them medium/long term and then immediately moving on from them would not be ideal in attracting players in the future. Especially in a market that is already not entirely attractive as is.

Only if we pull some shady stuff (forced LTIR, threaten to demote to AHL etc); but CMAC and Sakic are respected executives. Other GMs has commented pubically about how CMAC is a straight shooter. There is ZERO promise that any player need to play 50% of their contract length. We just traded Byram away in year 1 of his extension, Tatar/Ryjo without finishing even half the season.

 

[expatriatedtexan]

In a vacuum Ritchie would be the odd man out for me. 3C would be more easily replaced than either a 2LD or 2RD and I really don't think Lehky is moving anywhere, at least I hope not. Since salary cap is the issue we need to fix whatever hole we filled with an inexpensive vet minimum type. I don't think it would be in the Avs best long term interests to pencil Ritchie in anywhere. If he freaking fights his way on to the team like ROR his rookie year, that's awesome but don't count on it.

Maybe CMac can talk an UFA into a cheap one year deal to chase the cup. Would anyone be happy with Monahan, Henrique, Domi. or Lindholm (LOL). If Perry played center I'd be all over him like Corey Perry on Connor Bedard's jello snack pudding.

 

[Gumballhead]

Angry Rantanen appears and highsticks you in the face?

He falls over in front of you and bumps the latte out of your hand.

 

[lionsDen]

Nuke yes, he's a core guy. Lehky absolutely not. He just isn't on that level and isn't that kind of an impact.

Over the last 2 years:

Without Nichushkin - 27-26-4
Without Lehkonen - 36-14-5


They simply aren't comparable impacts at all.

I’m sorry but record with and without is to vague to get behind.

The broncos realized the mistake they had with Russel Wilson. If the Avs choose Colton over lehky we deserve what comes with it. I refuse to believe a colton type 3rd center would be harder to replace than lehky. I respect hench opinion and thoughts behind it. After this core is done we’re gonna go back to no one wanting to sign here again regardless.

 

[MacKaRant]

How?

4/6 of the bottom 6 is exactly the same as what we have thisyear(Colton, LOC, Cogs/Kivi, Kovalenko), arguably even 5/6 with Wagner. They can find plenty of solid depth pieces for $900k as well.

Missing NHL veterans who can chip in secondary scoring such as Drouin, Parise, and Wood. Missing some beef in Duhaime and Trenin. That's 5 forwards off of the current iteration in favor of a possibly crippled Landeskog, two rookie mystery boxes, and question marks.

For the defense, I guess I'm just assuming that after a year of good health, Manson will get niggling injuries, which leaves only 3 D total I'd trust with top 4 minutes.

If we're so tight up against the cap without using LTIR, it will greatly limit the kind of moves possible at the deadline (see Toronto this year and that's even after Murray and Klingberg were banished to Robidas Island).

You don't think it looks significantly weaker and with significantly less depth?

 

[Richard88]

Missing NHL veterans who can chip in secondary scoring such as Drouin, Parise, and Wood. Missing some beef in Duhaime and Trenin. That's 5 forwards off of the current iteration in favor of a possibly crippled Landeskog, two rookie mystery boxes, and question marks.

For the defense, I guess I'm just assuming that after a year of good health, Manson will get niggling injuries, which leaves only 3 D total I'd trust with top 4 minutes.

If we're so tight up against the cap without using LTIR, it will greatly limit the kind of moves possible at the deadline (see Toronto this year and that's even after Murray and Klingberg were banished to Robidas Island).

You don't think it looks significantly weaker and with significantly less depth?

3 of the 5 forwards you mentioned were deadline additions. Do you not think 2-3 similar additions could be made again at next year's deadline?

 

[GirardSpinorama]

Missing NHL veterans who can chip in secondary scoring such as Drouin, Parise, and Wood. Missing some beef in Duhaime and Trenin. That's 5 forwards off of the current iteration in favor of a possibly crippled Landeskog, two rookie mystery boxes, and question marks.

For the defense, I guess I'm just assuming that after a year of good health, Manson will get niggling injuries, which leaves only 3 D total I'd trust with top 4 minutes.

If we're so tight up against the cap without using LTIR, it will greatly limit the kind of moves possible at the deadline (see Toronto this year and that's even after Murray and Klingberg were banished to Robidas Island).

You don't think it looks significantly weaker and with significantly less depth?

A truly crippled landeskog is gonna stay on LTIR IMO. If he can't skate properly, it probably means pain and discomfort that makes no sense to continue to his career.

 

[henchman21]

There's always a few GMs that are in love with the physical, fast, energy guys. He may not be worth much, but I doubt we have to pay to dump him.

Everyone knew Goodrow was overpaid the second he signed his 6 x 3.6 mil contract + M-NTC, yet he still had multiple offers.

And the Rangers have tried to trade him for multiple years now, with no takers. Different to sign than trade.

 

[PAZ]

And the Rangers have tried to trade him for multiple years now, with no takers. Different to sign than trade.

Goodrow is also older, has a 15 team NTC, and makes $1.1 mil more than Wood. A bit harder to find a dance partner under those conditions. I'm not saying Wood is worth much but I don't think he has negative value, especially if he continues his current play for the rest of this run.

 

[GirardSpinorama]

Goodrow is also older, has a 15 team NTC, and makes $1.1 mil more than Wood. A bit harder to find a dance partner under those conditions. I'm not saying Wood is worth much but I don't think he has negative value, especially if he continues his current play for the rest of this run.

I dont even care about wood's regular season contributions if he can play like this in the playoffs.

 

[MacKaRant]

3 of the 5 forwards you mentioned were deadline additions. Do you not think 2-3 similar additions could be made again at next year's deadline?

I get where you're coming from. The Cup winning 2021-2022 roster was noticeably improved at the trade deadline with Lehky, Manson, Cogs, and Sturm while losing Jost and getting Byram back from injury.

That year, there was a lot of accumulated cap space to fit in the new additions, so all it took was picks and prospects to acquire this depth.

Last year, there was LTIR space but apparently no willingness to spend assets in what seemed like a cursed season.

This year, the deadline acquisitions would not have been possible without the LTIR space provided by Landeskog and O'Connor and the willingness to move a couple prime assets (the first and Byram). Just like in 2022, the team is a whole lot deeper post-deadline.

The problem next season for me is that everything will need to be money in, money out at the deadline with the roster you provided, and I can't figure out what's the "money out" part of the roster. Which is the same debate we've been having on how to trim enough salary to allow Landeskog and Toews' raise to fit in at the start of next season. Unless we have a major injury or schedule a surgery to play the Vegas LTIR game.

Also, I don't think it's a usual situation to be able to find players like Drouin and Parise who have top 6 skill at or near league minimum. The usual way it goes is players like Nieto and Malgin and Tatar and Eller.

 

[GirardSpinorama]

I get where you're coming from. The Cup winning 2021-2022 roster was noticeably improved at the trade deadline with Lehky, Manson, Cogs, and Sturm while losing Jost and getting Byram back from injury.

That year, there was a lot of accumulated cap space to fit in the new additions, so all it took was picks and prospects to acquire this depth.

Last year, there was LTIR space but apparently no willingness to spend assets in what seemed like a cursed season.

This year, the deadline acquisitions would not have been possible without the LTIR space provided by Landeskog and O'Connor and the willingness to move a couple prime assets (the first and Byram). Just like in 2022, the team is a whole lot deeper post-deadline.

The problem next season for me is that everything will need to be money in, money out at the deadline with the roster you provided, and I can't figure out what's the "money out" part of the roster. Which is the same debate we've been having on how to trim enough salary to allow Landeskog and Toews' raise to fit in at the start of next season. Unless we have a major injury or schedule a surgery to play the Vegas LTIR game.

Also, I don't think it's a usual situation to be able to find players like Drouin and Parise who have top 6 skill at or near league minimum. The usual way it goes is players like Nieto and Malgin and Tatar and Eller.

We can easily play the LTIR game with landeskog lol and most tdl will be double retention ones.

 

[henchman21]

Goodrow is also older, has a 15 team NTC, and makes $1.1 mil more than Wood. A bit harder to find a dance partner under those conditions. I'm not saying Wood is worth much but I don't think he has negative value, especially if he continues his current play for the rest of this run.

Nobody is taking a guy that should be a 4th line for 5 more years. The deal sucks.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

If the Avs ended up trading Girard, I wonder if Toronto would be a potential landing spot.


Huge part of the problem for them is their inability to move the puck cleanly out of the zone and up to the forwards. He'd fit what they need so damn well.

 

[Balthazar]

I don't think Treliving likes small dmen

 

[Brett44]

If moving on from Lehkonen closes our window then this core isn’t that great.

Lehkonen is awesome. A perfect compliment to the core of this team, but that’s like saying moving on from Palat would’ve closed Tampas window.

i think Tampa never won a cup since Palat gone.

 

[jfc64]

If the Avs ended up trading Girard, I wonder if Toronto would be a potential landing spot.

Thinking Montreal for Girard (if we end up trading him). As nanny to Reinbacher. If Lane Hutson doesn't evolve quickly.

Montreal will be good quickly now.

 

[Brett44]

The absolute minimum (just add first or second goalie):

Lehkonen (4.5) - MacKinnon ($12.6m) - Rantanen (9.25)
Nichushkin (6.125) - Colton (4) - Kovalenko (0.896)
Wood (2.5) - Ritchie (0.925) - O'Connor (1.05)
Cogliano (UFA, 0.825) - Wagner (0.775) - Polin (0.87)
Olofsson (UFA, 0.775) = 45.09

Toews (7.25) - Makar (9)
Behrens (0.925) - Manson (4.5)
Johnson (UFA, 0.775) - Malinski (0.85)
Middleton (0.775) = 24.075

Annunen (0.840) = 0.840
---------------------------
70.0

Georgiev (3.4) [Having three young goalies like Dostal, Hunter Jones and Annunen battling it out? Requires trades]
Girard (5) [to Montreal to nanny Reinbacher?]
Landeskog (7) [no salary in the 2024-25 playoffs!]
Mittelstadt (RFA) [how much or for who?]
Drouin (UFA) [fits right in]

I'm not sur we can play a playoff games with this roster.

 

[jfc64]

Missing NHL veterans who can chip in secondary scoring such as Drouin, Parise, and Wood. Missing some beef in Duhaime and Trenin. That's 5 forwards off of the current iteration in favor of a possibly crippled Landeskog, two rookie mystery boxes, and question marks.

For the defense, I guess I'm just assuming that after a year of good health, Manson will get niggling injuries, which leaves only 3 D total I'd trust with top 4 minutes.

If we're so tight up against the cap without using LTIR, it will greatly limit the kind of moves possible at the deadline (see Toronto this year and that's even after Murray and Klingberg were banished to Robidas Island).

You don't think it looks significantly weaker and with significantly less depth?

Le MacKiRanta!

One beef we aquire and one we develop from within. The secondary scoring comes partly from either O'Connor, Kovalenko OR Ritchie. Already a top team we aquired Mittelstadt for God sake. Probably why we made Bucky look like a Beckie.

The big thing for Avs is almost the whole team except Landeskog and Manson is in their prime next season. Under 30. Over 23. Toewes 30. One or two will step up or evolve. This is a safe and nurturous environment saying everything is well in Colorama.

Wonder if Gostisbehere will come here for a high production year. Cheaply.

I'm not sur we can play a playoff games with this roster.

Use your cap space.

 

[Colorado Avalanche]

i think Tampa never won a cup since Palat gone.

He was a warrior. Pain in the ***.

 

[flyfysher]

I don't think Treliving likes small dmen

Well this PO will be the test of G’s durability and the opportunity to dispel the myth about small D-men, won’t it?

 

[Balthazar]

Thinking Montreal for Girard (if we end up trading him). As nanny to Reinbacher. If Lane Hutson doesn't evolve quickly.

Montreal will be good quickly now.

Montreal have so many NHL ready dmen in the pipeline there's 0 chance they trade for Girard.

They need to unload like 3 this summer because of a logjam.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

Thinking Montreal for Girard (if we end up trading him). As nanny to Reinbacher. If Lane Hutson doesn't evolve quickly.

Montreal will be good quickly now.

They have literally zero need for Girard. One of the last teams that would be in on him.