Colorado bringing in help for Crosby?

Ville Isopaa

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Feb 27, 2002
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Reports out of Uppsala, Sweden, where GM Ville Isopää is spending the summer say that Colorado has signed a top line winger to play with Super Rookie Sidney Crosby. Jagr and Demitra seem like the most probable candidates, but it remains to see which one will be the mentor of "Sid the Kid".

It will be hard to get closer comments on who the winger is as Mr.Isopää will be spending the weekend on an island in the Finnish archipelago with no internet, phone or TV around..

In other news, a backup has also been rumoured to have signed an offer sheet with the team..

For comments on the FA's, Mr.Isopää will be back in Uppsala on Monday to give comments and follow up the 2nd round of the bidding..
 

Ville Isopaa

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Feb 27, 2002
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In the first round of free agency, Colorado signed Pavol Demitra and Kevin Weekes. Los Angeles matched the offer sheet made to Christian Backman, but that was matched.

In Demitra, Colorado adds a 1st line winger that hasn't been around since the days of Jagr, Kariya and Recchi. Demitra is slated in to feed off Sidney Crosby's assists and the duo is expected to put up some 100 points each next season.

Weekes adds a backup goaltender to take the heat off Marc Denis. Last season saw 4 goalies being used as backup as Johnson, Sauve, Joseph and Tugnutt all saw time behind Denis. This season Mr.Isopää hopes that the goalie cirkus won't be as big.


It looks like the Avalanche are still in the running for another goalie, as they are in the final round of bidding for the services of goalies Dominik Hasek, Martin Gerber and Sean Burke. John Leclair and Viktor Kozlov might also get better offers from Colorado as they are in for the 2nd round bidding on these players as well.

Mr Isopää didn't want to make any comments about the goalies, but sources close to the team say that they are dropping out of the bidding for atleast one of the goalies.

What comes to the two forwards, the same source said that the team might drop out on one of them and try to bring in only one of the two. Whoever of the two it will be, will have a hard time to look past the chance of playing on an up and comming team packed with youngsters and the chance of playing with Super Rookie Sidney Crosby.


Updates on the results of the 2nd round of free agency will come within a few days.
 

Ville Isopaa

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Feb 27, 2002
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Colorado have signed Martin Gerber to a 4 year contract worth $19,2m. A lot of money, but with Gerber on board, Colorado now has one of the most potent goaltending duos in the HFNHL in Gerber and Denis. Add Weekes to the mix and there's a lot of quality between the pipes. Training camp will be an intresting test for the trio of who gets to be the starter. Mr.Isopää also signed Jani Hurme to strenghten the goaltending of the teams HFAHL affiliate. While there have been talks that Hurme would return to play in Finland, recent reports from his FEL team TPS Turku say that Hurme has said he wants to see what his chances are to play in North America before returning to Europe.

In other news, Colorado missed out on John Leclair, who signed a long term deal elsewhere, turning down the chance to play with Sid the Kid. Scott Nichol returns to the team and could see time on the 4th line. Jim Fahey also decided to stay with the team signing on for 2 more years. Minnesota has signed Clarke Wilm to a RFA sheet, and Colorado is at the moment considering if they will match the offer or not.

Next on the task for Mr.Isopää is signing rookies Sidney Crosby, Rotislav Olesz and Keith Ballard. All are expected to play important roles on the team this upcomming season.
 

Ville Isopaa

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Feb 27, 2002
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With the 3 rookies still unsigned, Colorado announced that Matt Pettinger accepted his qualifying offer of $660'000. Colorado wanted to sign Pettinger to a long term contract, but the winger turned down all previous attempts and eventually settled for the qualifying offer. The Avalanche are hoping to lock up Pettinger for a 3-4 year contract later in the season to stabilize the team structure and salaries.
The signings of Crosby, Olesz and Ballard should be expected within a week or so.
 

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