How Do You Feel About The Avs Deadline?

[Richard88]

A solid B. Trusting Annunen to be the back up to a really bad starter is certainly a choice. Avs already seen just how important a back up can be in the playoffs and they trustin Justus with that? Ok.

I was "ok" the Mittens trade because they got super aggressive and went and filled the 2C in season.....then we see Hertl go to a rival for the price he did and then I didnt like it as much. Seriously. the NHL needs to investigate Mike Grier. He has to be betting. Also, LOL at everyone who told me Hertl was pretty much unmovable. Yah how bout that.

I really like the Walker acquisition.

Duhaime im not sure with yet. Seems like an overpay.

I like Trenin alot aswell.

Grade: B

Hertl had (has?) a full NMC, so it's possible that he wasn't even a possibility for CMac to acquire.

 

[Tommy Shelby]

Hertl had (has?) a full NMC, so it's possible that he wasn't even a possibility for CMac to acquire.

There's zero chance I want that soon-to-be boat anchor of a contract anywhere near this team. Not for a 2C

 

[Hasbro]

Not like a Schmuck.

 

[jfc64]

Look somewhat like this next season milliondollarwise:

Artturi Lehkonen - Nathan MacKinnon - Mikko Rantanen --- 4.5 12.6 9.2 = 26.3
- Casey Mittelstadt - Valeri Nichushkin ---- 6? 6.1 = 12.1
Miles Wood - Ross Colton - Logan O'Connor ---- 2.5 4 1.0 = 7.5
Gabriel Landeskog - Calum Ritchie - Nikolai Kovalenko ---- 7 0.9 0.9 = 8.8
Riley Tufte - Jean-Luc Foudy - = 0.9 0.9 = 1.8
= 56.5 (13)

Devon Toews - Cale Makar 7.2 9 = 16.2
Samuel Girard - Josh Manson 5 4.5 = 9.5
Keaton Middleton - Sam Malinski 0.8 0.8 = 1.6
Sean Behrens - 0.9 = 0.9
Mikhail Gulyaev -
= 28.2 (7)

Alexandar Georgiyev 3.4
Justus Annunen 1?
Ivan Prosvetov
Trent Miner
= 4.4 (2)

= 89.1 (22)


Landeskog might be out for a chunk of the next season as well which opens up for someone below to sign as a UFA. Also, there is absolutely NO hope that Nathan MacKinnon joins a player's programme for some reason.

Jonathan Drouin (LW/C) Colorado Avalanche 63 12 26 38 0.60 26 0
Zach Parise (LW/RW) Colorado Avalanche 15 4 3 7 0.47 2 1
Andrew Cogliano (C/LW) Colorado Avalanche 58 6 12 18 0.31 16 11
Joel Kiviranta (LW) Colorado Avalanche 50 3 6 9 0.18 10 0
Fredrik Olofsson (LW/C) Colorado Avalanche 55 3 6 9 0.16 8 -3
Chris Wagner (RW/C) Colorado Avalanche 9 0 1 1 0.11 5 2
Yakov Trenin (C/LW) Colorado Avalanche 1 0 0 0 0.00 0 -1
Brandon Duhaime (RW/LW) Colorado Avalanche 1 0 0 0 0.00 0 0

Sean Walker (D) Colorado Avalanche 1 0 0 0 0.00 0 -1
Caleb Jones (D) Colorado Avalanche 22 0 5 5 0.23 8 5
Jack Johnson (D) Colorado Avalanche 63 3 11 14 0.22 36 16

 

[shadow1]

It was the best deadline the team could've had, within reason.

The Ryan Johansen experiment failure left Colorado in a spot where they had a fundamental weakness in its roster (2C). That position can be hard to address in-season without resorting to rentals. And then after the high end rentals (Lindholm, Monahan) were taken off the board, suddenly you're trying to talk yourself into gap stops like Henrique and Wennberg.

We all knew there was a chance Casey Mittelstadt was available based on the construction of Buffalo's roster. But there were no insider rumors about him being available, and a trade involving young controllable players can be difficult to pull off in-season. To everyone's shock, the Avalanche got it done. Acquiring Mittelstadt came at great cost and has divided some of the fan base, but you have to commend MacFarland for going all in to address the 2C position long term.

The Sean Walker move was a pleasant surprise, but not a shock because Colorado was linked to him in rumors. Still, it was somewhat of an atypical trade by the Avalanche because it involved them a) trading a 1st for a rental and b) landing one of the top "Trade Board" targets. Obviously, the reason for the aggression was due to the loss of Bowen Byram, but it's good to see given how often the Avalanche have done their deadline shopping at FiveBelow.

Regarding the Duhaime and Trenin moves, I love both acquisitions but especially Trenin. His 3 goal, 16 hit performance against Colorado in the 2022 post-season has never been far from my mind. I think the biggest lesson with the 2021 President Trophy team's playoff failure was that the club didn't have enough snarl, and Colorado addressed that when they won the Cup. They're following that blueprint here again, adding big time grit and two-way play.

I think the lingering questions are whether or not they should've done more on defense, or done something period in goal. I think personally I'm a little more concerned about defensive depth, but Caleb Jones had a couple nice games recently. Based on what ended up being dealt, I think the team is better off relying on Jones over guys like Ruhwedel and Stetcher. I guess Colorado could've after Edmundson or brought back EJ. But in recent months, I've read both Caps and Sabres fans say how each player would be "addition by subtraction". So in a vacuum, I'm fine with no depth adds.

In goal, similar sentiment. I think the Avalanche will be going with Annunen, or possibly Prosvetov, as their inexpensive backup next year. Jake Allen at $1.9M doesn't sound bad, but I'm also not sure how much he moves the needle. He's been horrible the last two years; not just overall, but relative to Montreal's other two goalies. Maybe he'd rebound in Colorado, but the team opted to stick with their budget options and I don't necessarily blame them.

Overall, I thought I'd be Satisfied, but ended up Very Satisfied. MacFarland has been super aggressive both last off-season (Olofsson, Johansen, Newhook, Colton trades; Drouin, Tatar, Wood signings) and in-season (Tatar trade; Prosvetov waiver claim; Kiviranta, Parise signings), so I knew he'd do something of substance at the deadline. But I didn't have (5) trades on my Bingo Card; and even if I had, I would've underestimated the long term magnitude of those moves.

 

[Colorado Avalanche]

Look somewhat like this next season milliondollarwise:

Artturi Lehkonen - Nathan MacKinnon - Mikko Rantanen --- 4.5 12.6 9.2 = 26.3
- Casey Mittelstadt - Valeri Nichushkin ---- 6? 6.1 = 12.1
Miles Wood - Ross Colton - Logan O'Connor ---- 2.5 4 1.0 = 7.5
Gabriel Landeskog - Calum Ritchie - Nikolai Kovalenko ---- 7 0.9 0.9 = 8.8
Riley Tufte - Jean-Luc Foudy - = 0.9 0.9 = 1.8
= 56.5 (13)

Devon Toews - Cale Makar 7.2 9 = 16.2
Samuel Girard - Josh Manson 5 4.5 = 9.5
Keaton Middleton - Sam Malinski 0.8 0.8 = 1.6
Sean Behrens - 0.9 = 0.9
Mikhail Gulyaev -
= 28.2 (7)

Alexandar Georgiyev 3.4
Justus Annunen 1?
Ivan Prosvetov
Trent Miner
= 4.4 (2)

= 89.1 (22)


Landeskog might be out for a chunk of the next season as well which opens up for someone below to sign as a UFA. Also, there is absolutely NO hope that Nathan MacKinnon joins a player's programme for some reason.

Jonathan Drouin (LW/C) Colorado Avalanche 63 12 26 38 0.60 26 0
Zach Parise (LW/RW) Colorado Avalanche 15 4 3 7 0.47 2 1
Andrew Cogliano (C/LW) Colorado Avalanche 58 6 12 18 0.31 16 11
Joel Kiviranta (LW) Colorado Avalanche 50 3 6 9 0.18 10 0
Fredrik Olofsson (LW/C) Colorado Avalanche 55 3 6 9 0.16 8 -3
Chris Wagner (RW/C) Colorado Avalanche 9 0 1 1 0.11 5 2
Yakov Trenin (C/LW) Colorado Avalanche 1 0 0 0 0.00 0 -1
Brandon Duhaime (RW/LW) Colorado Avalanche 1 0 0 0 0.00 0 0

Sean Walker (D) Colorado Avalanche 1 0 0 0 0.00 0 -1
Caleb Jones (D) Colorado Avalanche 22 0 5 5 0.23 8 5
Jack Johnson (D) Colorado Avalanche 63 3 11 14 0.22 36 16

MacKinnon could be LTIRd for the chickpea addiction.

 

[the_fan]

His $2m caphit next year is too much. He'd have to have come in at 75% retained which would have cost more than a 3rd.


Can Behrens still feature in the playoffs or is it already too late to register him? He'd potentially be an interesting option next to Manson on the 3rd pairing if we had an injury at LHD.

Not sure if Behrens would be ready for playoff hockey in the NHL

 

[NorthernAvsFan]

I’d personally prefer Zegras who might be available but no doubt Mitts is more ready now which is probably more important for this Avs team. Which is why I’m fine with the move. Could just see Bo flourishing in a better situation and I know it wasn’t happening here but he was our best realistic trade chip.

I can’t list the players because who knows. 6 months ago Byram wasn’t available. Who expected Hertl to be moved. We were a lock to get a goalie yet we didn’t. I would guess Byram could have made unavailable names available but maybe not.

Either way I’m happy about the trade. Avs needed a 2C and got one. Just saying in a perfect world maybe would have preferred one with more upside. No doubt Mitts was #1 in terms of what was publicly available which is why we all wanted him.

Zegras has more upside for sure and is likely better offensively in the future, but Middelstadt is a natural C with a better defensive game. We still don’t know at this point if Zegras will even be a Centre.

I think the pull-up fail at the combine has kind of followed Mittelstadt his whole career in terms of how people view him, but this is a hard working hockey player. He’s got a motor and a really sound game.

It’s ultra-difficult to find top-six centres in the 22-27 age range. Teams just don’t want to let those guys go.

And if Byram plays well for Buffalo that’s great for them. It’s a win for both teams.

I think this is going to make CMac’s job sooo much easier to build the roster over the next few years. He’s got centres. He’s got a top pair. All the other pieces are much easier to acquire via trade and free agency.

 

[AllAboutAvs]

Zegras has more upside for sure and is likely better offensively in the future, but Middelstadt is a natural C with a better defensive game. We still don’t know at this point if Zegras will even be a Centre.

I think the pull-up fail at the combine has kind of followed Mittelstadt his whole career in terms of how people view him, but this is a hard working hockey player. He’s got a motor and a really sound game.

It’s ultra-difficult to find top-six centres in the 22-27 age range. Teams just don’t want to let those guys go.

And if Byram plays well for Buffalo that’s great for them. It’s a win for both teams.

I think this is going to make CMac’s job sooo much easier to build the roster over the next few years. He’s got centres. He’s got a top pair. All the other pieces are much easier to acquire via trade and free agency.

My first choice always was Mitts over Zegras. Like you said Zegras has a higher ceiling but IMO Mitts fits this team on and off the ice better. Also ANA didn't need Byram while BUF obviously were OK with taking him.

 

[TruePowerSlave]

Great deadline. The team can win a cup and before the deadline they couldn´t.

 

[JoeSakic13]

Great deadline. The team can win a cup and before the deadline they couldn´t.

Well yeah. The playoffs aren’t until after the deadline.