Confirmed with Link: Avs acquire D Devon Toews from NYI for 2021 2nd and 2022 2nd

[Northern Avs Fan]

I hate this board lmao

 

[Pokecheque]

The Avalanche power play is still too dependent on the perfect snipe. The opposition is also going out of their way to take away MacKinnon's one-timer, which will be less of an issue once other parts become more consistent. Mikko has a great one-timer and he's proven it to start the season, but I still want him to get better at corralling passes--he's a little too picky about passes and waits for the perfect feed to let it loose. Also could stand to be a little more accurate.

Ultimately though, a slight issue with the power play and the Avalanche offense overall is the lack of a really good net-front presence. They're still not great at snagging rebounds and scoring garbage goals. If they had been better at it last night they'd have chased Petersen very early on as he was serving up stuff left and right.

Yes, the power play is on a hot streak, but let's wait a bit. Unfortunately the way it's set up, it's very prone to hot and cold streaks, and the cold streaks, as TV has pointed out, show up in the postseason.

 

[Avsavsavsavsavs]

The Avalanche power play is still too dependent on the perfect snipe. The opposition is also going out of their way to take away MacKinnon's one-timer, which will be less of an issue once other parts become more consistent. Mikko has a great one-timer and he's proven it to start the season, but I still want him to get better at corralling passes--he's a little too picky about passes and waits for the perfect feed to let it loose. Also could stand to be a little more accurate.

Ultimately though, a slight issue with the power play and the Avalanche offense overall is the lack of a really good net-front presence. They're still not great at snagging rebounds and scoring garbage goals. If they had been better at it last night they'd have chased Petersen very early on as he was serving up stuff left and right.

Yes, the power play is on a hot streak, but let's wait a bit. Unfortunately the way it's set up, it's very prone to hot and cold streaks, and the cold streaks, as TV has pointed out, show up in the postseason.

Pretty spot on, our PP has always been super bi-polar, either Rants and Mack are hot or they aren't. I'd kill to have a Ryan Smyth type guy on our top unit, prime Smyth would feast with our unit, and Smyth wasn't particularly overly talented. Find it kind of hard to believe someone like Gabe/Kadri can't do at the bare minimum what Nuke is doing, if Nuke had better finish he'd probably be the go to guy to do it on the 1st unit.

 

[Northern Avs Fan]

The Makar power play bashing doesn’t bother me as much, because I don’t think he was great on the man advantage last year.

The talk of him not being a good distributor is however, laughable.





He’s got some improvements to make in his QB’ing, but I think it’s coming along and has been better this year.


Moving onto the PP unit as a whole; does the second unit not count? I don’t understand why we’re acting like those goals count less. They’ll be utilized too and if they can cash in when they’re on the ice, that’s excellent. In the blow out game against St. Louis the second power play unit was used heavily and took advantage.

I’m sure people will be jumping for joy and claiming they’re right when the percentage drops, but I’d be willing to bet that the Avs finish the regular season as a top-10 power play unit.

 

[tigervixxxen]

It’s not Makar bashing, you won’t find me driving a narrative against him and I never have even since day 1. It’s about recognizing how special and unique of a talent he is and to use that to their advantage. Yes he competently runs the power play, he absolutely is not “the problem” but he could be utilized so much better is the point. Having him make two types of passes or settle for the point shot greatly neuters what Makar could be doing.

I think a guy like Girard is a better fit in the facilitator role, you don’t want him taking point shots yes we’ve heard that a million times but the point is you don’t set up your PP to have him taking point shots. You utilize Makar’s speed and that shot he loves to make just at the top of the right circles which would make the PP that much dangerous. If Girard feeding Toews onetimers is dangerous just think about Girard (or Byram eventually) feeding Makar in a freed up shooter’s role could do.

It’s great PP2 is cashing in and they will need contributions from it to win games. But it just proves that a) PP1 hasn’t been solved and b) Girard’s passing is pretty much driving the success of that unit which goes back to my whole hill to die on lol

 

[dmac7719]

They have 8 ppg right now

2 - Toews PP2
2 - Burky PP2
2 - Mikko
1 - MacK 5-0 vs Blues
1 - Kadri 6-0 vs Blues

The goal Donny scored was a second after PP expired on unit 2.

The PP has been a problem for several seasons. 2 years ago it rode a 30% through December and into the ground where they didn’t score for an entire month and ghosted in the Sharks series. Again last year it was mediocre and ghosted in the Stars series. I get that a great PP is at 25% and fails 75% of the time still but the margin between even a 20% and 25% pp is huge not to mention one that hovers under 20%. The Avs need improvement in this area if they want to win the Cup.

Just piggybacking of that statement here, with how often the Avs draw penalties this makes even a bigger difference.

The 19/20 season the Avs led in PP opportunities at 241. The difference between 20% and 25% is 12 goals. With all things staying the same league wise, that moves the Avs from 4th if GF to 1st.

In the 18/19 the Avs again led in PP opportunites at 286. They clipped at 22%, but increasing to 25% gives an extra 8 goals. That takes them from 10th in GF to 9th (not as drastic as the 19/20 season, but still better)

And finally in the 17/18 season the Avs once again led in PP opportunities at 296. They clipped at 22%, but with the increase to 25% gives an extra 9 goals. Takes them from 10th in GF to 8th.

 

[McMetal]

It's too early to look at percentages and averages to judge the PP, the sample size is too small. The important thing right now is that it's working, with at least one goal in every game so far. Again, small sample size, but you can't argue with success and that whatever they're doing is putting pucks in the net. I'm also encouraged that most of the PPs they get are at least generating shots, if not goals, and we're not seeing the "eight passes and then cleared" motif from last season.

I'm mostly just glad we're seeing some new set plays. The bump pass to MacKinnon for a one-timer in the slot debuted in the playoffs last year, the Rantanen goal last night was a slightly new look for the first unit, and the Girard-Toews play is just unfair. We'll see how teams adjust to those setups and whether they can counter them, but for now I'm just happy the only gambits aren't "long wrister through traffic" and "MacKinnon from the circle" anymore.

 

[Foppa2118]

I don’t think they’ve been as effective as Graves - Makar. I just wonder if Makar is better off with a defenceman who is more of a stay-at-home type of D. Makar has certainly expanded his skill-set, but he’s still at his best when the puck is on his stick.

I’m really pleased with Toews, I just wonder if they’ll have more success playing with different partners.

The big issue to me with the Toews-Makar pairing right now is they're just not quite in sync.

Both of them seem to be thinking too much, rather than just making quick reads and making plays. With Graves or with Girard, Cale just makes plays. With Toews, he's hesitating.

Same is true so far with Toews with Makar versus Girard. Toews is also deferring a bit too much to Makar. He should be playing more assertive with the puck if he has the opportunity.

It's early though and they barely had a training camp. They might just need some time to mesh.

 

[henchman21]

It’s not Makar bashing, you won’t find me driving a narrative against him and I never have even since day 1. It’s about recognizing how special and unique of a talent he is and to use that to their advantage. Yes he competently runs the power play, he absolutely is not “the problem” but he could be utilized so much better is the point. Having him make two types of passes or settle for the point shot greatly neuters what Makar could be doing.

I think a guy like Girard is a better fit in the facilitator role, you don’t want him taking point shots yes we’ve heard that a million times but the point is you don’t set up your PP to have him taking point shots. You utilize Makar’s speed and that shot he loves to make just at the top of the right circles which would make the PP that much dangerous. If Girard feeding Toews onetimers is dangerous just think about Girard (or Byram eventually) feeding Makar in a freed up shooter’s role could do.

It’s great PP2 is cashing in and they will need contributions from it to win games. But it just proves that a) PP1 hasn’t been solved and b) Girard’s passing is pretty much driving the success of that unit which goes back to my whole hill to die on lol

I completely agree with most of this, but I think Makar should be in the MacKinnon spot on the left circle, not the right. The issue with that is there is only room for one player there and you'll have to split their units. Makar just isn't at this point a natural PP QB. It is something that can be learned over time, but it just isn't a big strength of his. Swapping G or Toews to the top unit to allow them to QB that unit, and allowing the other to feed Makar on the left circle in the shooting spot would improve both PPs. Makar would have the MacKinnon freedom in that spot and could be the puck rusher on gaining the zone. It allows him to better utilize his vision, skating and shooting ability without having to defer as much to MacK and Rants. Whoever is on the top unit would be fine differing.

 

[Northern Avs Fan]

It’s not Makar bashing, you won’t find me driving a narrative against him and I never have even since day 1. It’s about recognizing how special and unique of a talent he is and to use that to their advantage. Yes he competently runs the power play, he absolutely is not “the problem” but he could be utilized so much better is the point. Having him make two types of passes or settle for the point shot greatly neuters what Makar could be doing.

I think a guy like Girard is a better fit in the facilitator role, you don’t want him taking point shots yes we’ve heard that a million times but the point is you don’t set up your PP to have him taking point shots. You utilize Makar’s speed and that shot he loves to make just at the top of the right circles which would make the PP that much dangerous. If Girard feeding Toews onetimers is dangerous just think about Girard (or Byram eventually) feeding Makar in a freed up shooter’s role could do.

It’s great PP2 is cashing in and they will need contributions from it to win games. But it just proves that a) PP1 hasn’t been solved and b) Girard’s passing is pretty much driving the success of that unit which goes back to my whole hill to die on lol

I mean, if you’re saying his strength isn’t in facilitating, you are bashing. Or it’s just a lack of understanding of the player. It’s one, or the other.

I don’t know why you’d take MacKinnon, or Rantanen off the walls and put Makar in that spot. Rants and MacK are real one-time threats.

If you like Girard better as a PP QB, why not just move Makar off the power play entirely?

 

[Richard88]

I completely agree with most of this, but I think Makar should be in the MacKinnon spot on the left circle, not the right. The issue with that is there is only room for one player there and you'll have to split their units. Makar just isn't at this point a natural PP QB. It is something that can be learned over time, but it just isn't a big strength of his. Swapping G or Toews to the top unit to allow them to QB that unit, and allowing the other to feed Makar on the left circle in the shooting spot would improve both PPs. Makar would have the MacKinnon freedom in that spot and could be the puck rusher on gaining the zone. It allows him to better utilize his vision, skating and shooting ability without having to defer as much to MacK and Rants. Whoever is on the top unit would be fine differing.

Putting Makar on PP2 would have the silver lining/benefit of slightly reducing his point totals so we can sign him at a more team-friendly contract in the offseason (Girard/Toews would pick up the slack on PP1 so the team wouldn't lose out).

 

[henchman21]

Putting Makar on PP2 would have the silver lining/benefit of slightly reducing his point totals so we can sign him at a more team-friendly contract in the offseason (Girard/Toews would pick up the slack on PP1 so the team wouldn't lose out).

I don't think it would impact it to a very high degree... 3 maybe 4 points a season. Puck luck would have more of an impact than on total points. He'd score more goals on the other side of that though and that would likely offset any dollar difference. He's getting 10m regardless...

 

[The Abusement Park]

I mean, if you’re saying his strength isn’t in facilitating, you are bashing. Or it’s just a lack of understanding of the player. It’s one, or the other.

I don’t know why you’d take MacKinnon, or Rantanen off the walls and put Makar in that spot. Rants and MacK are real one-time threats.

If you like Girard better as a PP QB, why not just move Makar off the power play entirely?

How is it bashing? Facilitating is one of his weak spots in the attacking zone. It doesn't mean he's bad at it, it's just that he's better utilizing his speed, shot, and puck handling ability. It's also the reason he isn't the best QB yet is because it's not how he creates naturally. Makar has weaknesses like every other player and regardless that he still needs to learn how to QB at a higher level it doesn't mean he's a bad player or anything.

 

[Perratrooper]

I think our top unit had been fine, not good, but not bad either, but I really like how our second unit moves the puck. If we’re going to keep the #1 unit in a similar setup I wouldn’t mind trying a new PP QB. I would suggest Girard, but I think his muffin shot would hurt it more than help the powerplay
Pp#1
Saad
MacK-Landy-Rantanen
Toews

PP#2
Nuke
Makar-Kadri-Bura
Girard

I think opening Makar up to do more of his thing rather than deferring to MacK could really make our second unit potent, while helping out top unit move the puck a bit more effectively.

 

[Northern Avs Fan]

How is it bashing? Facilitating is one of his weak spots in the attacking zone. It doesn't mean he's bad at it, it's just that he's better utilizing his speed, shot, and puck handling ability. It's also the reason he isn't the best QB yet is because it's not how he creates naturally. Makar has weaknesses like every other player and regardless that he still needs to learn how to QB at a higher level it doesn't mean he's a bad player or anything.

It’s bashing, because it’s flat out not true. People overrate Makar’s skating. His passing is better than his skating. You don’t put up the amount of assists Makar does without being a great facilitator. I could bring up clip, after clip of him making great passes.

I’m not saying he’s the greatest power play player, but I think he’s made some nice plays this year.

If people want Girard on PP1, just take Makar off the power play and let him focus on even strength and work on getting some minutes on PK2.

 

[henchman21]

The best natural PP QBs in the league are Krug and Hughes right now... with a shoutout to Carlson and Yandle. Everything they do on the point is natural and flowing within their games. Watch the way they run a PP and then compare it directly to Makar. Makar looks robotic and uncomfortable by comparison. He's going to still score because he's a good passer and a solid shooter, but what he is doing isn't his normal way of attacking and it won't be because he's differing to MacK and Rants constantly.

It’s bashing, because it’s flat out not true. People overrate Makar’s skating. His passing is better than his skating. You don’t put up the amount of assists Makar does without being a great facilitator. I could bring up clip, after clip of him making great passes.

I’m not saying he’s the greatest power play player, but I think he’s made some nice plays this year.

If people want Girard on PP1, just take Makar off the power play and let him focus on even strength and work on getting some minutes on PK2.

Makar is a very good passer, but there is more to facilitating on the PP than passing. Makar isn't the best player at controlling the play while barely moving, or creating player movement via passing. He's best at causing chaos and moving around while trying to hit seams in the offensive zone.

 

[BrickNHL]

Dude is from like the worst city in the world though

 

[avsfan09]

A player with Makars skillset and IQ will adjust in time and we will be better for it. Even if you think Girard or Toews might be better now, if Makar gets better and more comfortable than he will be more effective simply because he has a skill level that they don't. I'd rather Makar work it out over this season and grow than just throw that experience away for marginal gains at best.

 

[Northern Avs Fan]

If you trade Makar you could save a tremendous amount of cap space moving forward.

You could use Girard on PP 1, then Toews/Byram on PP2.

Pretty good looking D core too:

Toews - Girard
Graves - Timmins
Byram - EJ

Maybe you could leverage him into Dubois/Merzlikins. If Makar’s only going to play 18-20 minutes a night without PP time, you might as well maximize him as an asset.

 

[The Abusement Park]

It’s bashing, because it’s flat out not true. People overrate Makar’s skating. His passing is better than his skating. You don’t put up the amount of assists Makar does without being a great facilitator. I could bring up clip, after clip of him making great passes.

I’m not saying he’s the greatest power play player, but I think he’s made some nice plays this year.

If people want Girard on PP1, just take Makar off the power play and let him focus on even strength and work on getting some minutes on PK2.

Henchy beat me to it. His passing is very good, but its usually at its best when he's galloping down the rink and stretching defenses. When he has to sit at the blue line and control the game it isn't a strength of his game yet.

 

[Richard88]

The best natural PP QBs in the league are Krug and Hughes right now... with a shoutout to Carlson and Yandle. Everything they do on the point is natural and flowing within their games. Watch the way they run a PP and then compare it directly to Makar. Makar looks robotic and uncomfortable by comparison. He's going to still score because he's a good passer and a solid shooter, but what he is doing isn't his normal way of attacking and it won't be because he's differing to MacK and Rants constantly.



Makar is a very good passer, but there is more to facilitating on the PP than passing. Makar isn't the best player at controlling the play while barely moving, or creating player movement via passing. He's best at causing chaos and moving around while trying to hit seams in the offensive zone.

Maybe what Makar needs to unlock his skill on the PP is to have another Dman (eg. Byram, or Girard/Toews) playing on the PP next to him. The movement on the point would encourage Makar to be more dynamic on the PP, in a similar manner to how Girard and Toews play off each other.

 

[Avsboy]

If you trade Makar you could save a tremendous amount of cap space moving forward.

You could use Girard on PP 1, then Toews/Byram on PP2.

Pretty good looking D core too:

Toews - Girard
Graves - Timmins
Byram - EJ

Maybe you could leverage him into Dubois/Merzlikins. If Makar’s only going to play 18-20 minutes a night without PP time, you might as well maximize him as an asset.

Looks like Avs have had too many days off. We're all becoming increasingly bored and insane.

 

[SoundwaveIsCharisma]

The best natural PP QBs in the league are Krug and Hughes right now... with a shoutout to Carlson and Yandle. Everything they do on the point is natural and flowing within their games. Watch the way they run a PP and then compare it directly to Makar. Makar looks robotic and uncomfortable by comparison. He's going to still score because he's a good passer and a solid shooter, but what he is doing isn't his normal way of attacking and it won't be because he's differing to MacK and Rants constantly.



Makar is a very good passer, but there is more to facilitating on the PP than passing. Makar isn't the best player at controlling the play while barely moving, or creating player movement via passing. He's best at causing chaos and moving around while trying to hit seams in the offensive zone.

There was a period in the middle of the season last year where Makar looked comfortable being the QB. That was around the time Makar would fake the drop pass and burst into the zone. He needs to be comfortable shooting when he sees a lane, and passing when he sees someone open. Right now, he's being handcuffed as they focus so much on running everything through MacK or Rants.

 

[Northern Avs Fan]

Looks like Avs have had too many days off. We're all becoming increasingly bored and insane.

Nah, nah. Gotta make moves for the betterment of the team.

I’m going to try and appreciate Sammy and Toews more. This board is pretty tough to be on when you try to highlight Makar’s talents. So, I’ll try to fall in-line with others thinking and focus more on Sammy and Toews.

 

[Avsboy]

Nah, nah. Gotta make moves for the betterment of the team.

I’m going to try and appreciate Sammy and Toews more. This board is pretty tough to be on when you try to highlight Makar’s talents. So, I’ll try to fall in-line with others thinking and focus more on Sammy and Toews.

Oh you were being sarcastic. Was too lazy to read above