News Article: Colorado Avalanche Media Coverage Part II

[UncleRisto]

Now if only I had any idea who Tom Hunter is. Even though I think Pokecheque said who he is, I can only conclude that he's some guy.

 

[klozge]

Now if only I had any idea who Tom Hunter is. Even though I think Pokecheque said who he is, I can only conclude that he's some guy.

He's as relevant as Mile High Hockey is today.

 

[AvsCOL]

He's a complete buffoon.

 

[RockLobster]

Kinda curious why anyone still follows AJ.

@RockLobster, I know you've become friendly with him but he's absolutely terrible. He's got no inside sources (not that I expect him to) but he's just as much a miserable **** as Dater.

The thing is...I know he has *someone* on the inside that he’s cultivated a relationship with. Just based on times he’s told me something and then it came to fruition (one example would be them going after Bernier, which I had heard from him and someone else as well). For a while I thought it was MacFarland because of the amount of info he had when CBJ was chasing Duchene (and I believe it came out later den he bigger guys that they were indeed after him). But I’ve never pressed and he’s never told me.

I’m not going to comment much further than I think he gets a bad wrap because fans want to hear rumors, and then when some of it gets put out they get upset if it doesn’t come to fruition. And as he has told me “the shit I hear around the rink and press box during the course of the season is really weird”. There’s a lot that he’s told me over the years that is straight crazy talk, but GMs talk all the time. 99% of the time it leads no where.

Do I wish that they had some more restraint with things? Yeah, hindsight says they might be better off confirming news. But the business tends to reward those who are first. No one gave Clark any side-eye (for example) when he was talking about Ferland well after the Avs had brought back Wilson and signed PEB and Donskoi. And that was really Clark’s first foray into rumors and such.

Speaking of Clark. I love his writing, but his twitter feed is goddamn ridiculous. He’s really aggravating. And a part of me feels for the DNVR folks who have been working on building a relationship with the Avs, only to be kept at an arms length and then watch them roll out on the red carpet for Ryan Clark and The Athletic. Like I get it, The Athletic is a big outlet, so it makes sense. But when their guy isn’t necessarily working the *same* day-to-day beat as DNVR, why shut them out? I still think there’s room for both because they’re both offering something different from one another.

DNVR is in a tough industry. They have to gain eyeballs. And he has opinions on players/teams just like everyone else does. It’s rather disheartening to see some people go to the personal insult stage(s) just based off of his opinions on hockey. I don’t view them any better or worse than some people who post here.