Joe Sakic - Record as Colorado Avalanche GM - Part III (Updates in First Post)

[Refalanche]

Thank you Mr. Sakic. A legendary player and a legendary GM, simple as that

 

[ASmileyFace]

Going out on top. All the best to the new President of Hockey Ops!

 

[Richard88]

Spoiler: 2017

Aside from the O'Reilly trade - in which his hand was forced - Sakic has made no big trades. He has no stamp on the team.
Most dislike Greg Shermans tenure - including me - but give the guy credit for going out and bringing in key players.
Sakic, meanwhile, has basically nickel and dimed the club to death, replacing lost talent (Stastny, O'Reilly) with washed up veterans/low upside free agents.
I'm guilty of liking (most) of his moves at face value, but the overall product when the dust has settled has been horrendous.

Spoiler: 2018

The prospect pool is insanely healthy compared to last year. In addition to acquiring Bowers and Kamanev via trade, the Avalanche have five picks in the first three rounds next year. If Ottawa finishes where we think they're going to finish next year, their 2019 3rd round pick will basically end up being a 2nd rounder.

Free agency this year was a bit status quo, but I think we'll see Sakic swing a trade at some point early this season.

During the Sakic regime, Colorado has swung back to acquire players they were previously linked to. Examples include Rene Bourque, Sven Andrighetto, and recently Ian Cole. Just a hunch, but I wouldn't be shocked to see the Avalanche go after Jordan Eberle, who they were rumored to be interested in last off-season (prior to his acquisition by the New York Islanders).

Basically the team is in great shape. There is young, competitive, inexpensive product on the ice, and a strong prospect pool to back it up.

Spoiler: 2019

Okay, so my hunch on Eberle was wrong.

Sakic was a lot more aggressive this off-season, adding Kadri, Donskoi, Burakovsky, and Bellemare, while re-signing Wilson.

Last year, it felt like he insulated some areas of strength (checking line, defense, goaltending) by adding Calvert, Cole, and Grubauer. With the additions this off-season, it's clear Sakic is addressing this club's area of weakness, which was (past tense) forward depth.

There are still some interesting stories to follow this season. Will Philip Grubauer hold up for 60 starts? Will Cale Makar, a rookie, be able to adequately replace Tyson Barrie's production? Will one of Burakovsky, Donskoi, or Jost be able to produce like a top-6 forward?

All of those stories are subplots to the main headline, which is that the Avalanche Are Cup Contenders. Deep, talented, young, and no glaring/crippling weaknesses. Hopefully the club can make a deep run this season (or go all the way?).

Spoiler: 2020

I only try to post in this thread once per year (normally in the summer), so I guess this is my post. I think Colorado is more or less done this off-season.

At this point, we're in "what more can you ask for?" territory regarding Sakic's performance as a GM. Colorado continues to get better every year, while also strengthening it's prospect pool simultaneously.

Since losing to the San Jose Sharks in Game 7 of the 2019 Stanley Cup Semi-Finals, Sakic and co. have made the following changes:
Out:
C Alex Kerfoot, C Carl Soderberg
LW Gabriel Bourque, LW Matt Nieto
RW Sven Andrighetto, RW Colin Wilson
D Tyson Barrie, D Patrik Nemeth, D Nikita Zadorov
G Semyon Varlamov

In:
C Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, C Nazem Kadri
LW Andrei Burakovsky, LW Brandon Saad
RW Jonas Donskoi, RW Valeri Nichushkin
D Devon Toews

Drafted in Rd 1: D Bowen Byram, C Alex Newhook, D Justin Barron
I skipped a few rental players, but the list speaks for itself. Sakic has upgraded everywhere, while somehow adding multiple blue chip prospects in the process. Bravo.

But to take my off my homerish, rose-colored glasses for a moment, the one area Sakic and co. need to improve in is developing prospects.

At the time of this writing, the Avalanche haven't developed a non-1st round player into an NHL regular since 2009 (both Ryan O'Reilly and Tyson Barrie).

• 2014: No player selected in this draft is currently in the organization
• 2015: A home run with the 10th overall pick (Mikko Rantanen), followed by whiffs on all of their remaining six picks, including two 2nd round picks
• 2016: Only Tyson Jost (10th overall) figures to be an NHLer from this draft, and he doesn't appear to be longed for the Avalanche organization (current role is 12/13 forward)

The Bednar-led NHL coaching staff has done a great job in recent years with reclamation projects, such as Ryan Graves, Patrik Nemeth, and Valeri Nichushkin (to name a few). But organizationally, drafting and developing remains an uphill battle (aside from layup picks like Cale Makar).

I defended Sakic a few years ago because he inherited an awful prospect pool, but the onus is on him and the Avalanche scouting team to hit on some non-1st round draft picks. Personally, the last few drafts have given me some hope; names like Annunen, Beaucage, and Timmins seem to have NHL futures. But so did names like Bigras, Greer, and Meloche.

Sakic Rating: 5

Spoiler: 2021

My yearly post. With a little over $2M in cap space and more than a week removed from the start of free agency, I assume the Avalanche are done.


For the first time in a while, I have a bad taste in my mouth about how an Avalanche off-season has gone down.

Cale Makar was re-signed without much fanfare, but the negotiations with Gabe Landeskog were tumultuous, which put a dark cloud over the club heading into Free Agency. Ultimately the captain was re-signed in the 11th hour, but -- despite a negotiation so lengthy the Avalanche's reported "Plan B" (Frederik Andersen) had already committed to another club -- Vezina Trophy nominee Philip Grubauer was lost via Free Agency.

One blockbuster trade (Kuemper) and two value signings (Helm, Murray) later, Sakic appears to be done. And it's extremely underwhelming.

With a fully healthy roster - sans (1) suspended Nazem Kadri - Colorado's forward depth was exposed during its second round defeat to the Vegas Golden Knights. After losing (and not replacing) forwards Jonas Donskoi and Brandon Saad this off-season, forward depth is even more of an issue now.

While I understand low salary cap space was prohibitive to addressing the Avalanche's forward depth woes, Sakic had options to create more space -- such as buying out the final (2) years of Erik Johnson's 7-year contract or including JT Compher in the Kuemper trade -- that he chose not to exercise. As a result, $9.5M will be allocated to two players who played very little role in Colorado's successful 2020-2021 season.

Ultimately the Avalanche are still one of the best teams in the NHL, but there's only one cup winner every year and Sakic didn't do enough this off-season to put Colorado over the top. On the contrary - the team is objectively worse.

But I'm still going to give Sakic the benefit of the doubt. He's been one of the best General Managers in the NHL the last half decade and has positioned the Avalanche in a very good spot overall. But I think he'll have his work cut out for him this season as center depth and top-6 scoring appear to be glaring issues.

A couple random thoughts:

• The situations are wildly different, but I keep seeing parallels between this off-season and the 2008 off-season (I'm old). Back then, Colorado replaced LW Andrew Brunette, LW Peter Forsberg, D Jeff Finger, D Kurt Sauer, and G Jose Theodore with LW Darcy Tucker and G Andrew Raycroft. Woof.
• I also see some similarities to the 2018 off-season. Sakic added LW Matt Calvert and D Ian Cole - moves that added depth to areas of strength - while failing to address needs on the 2nd Line.
• I'm still both simultaneously optimistic and concerned about the prospect pool. Alan Hepple is out and Wade Klippenstein is in, but Hepple's finger prints will remain on Colorado's prospect pool for a while. Will any of Hepple's non-layup picks pan out? Why haven't players like Shane Bowers or Martin Kaut been able to crack Colorado's line-up when the competition has been players like Liam O'Brien and Kiefer Sherwood?
• Players linked to the Avalanche in rumors this off-season: C Christian Dvorak, LW Jaden Schwartz, LW Tomas Tatar, RW Ondrej Kase, D Seth Jones, D Jamie Oleksiak, D Ryan Suter, G Frederik Andersen, G Darcy Kuemper*

With the news Sakic has been promoted to Colorado Avalanche Team President, I wanted to share my final thoughts (confessions?) about his tenure as GM.

Last summer I thought Sakic had a rocky off-season. The team captain nearly walked via free agency, the goaltending situation got hairy, and overall it felt like the Avalanche were worse on paper; not a great look for a team coming off a tough post-season loss to Vegas.

I should've had had more confidence - all shortcomings in Colorado's roster ended up being addressed by Sakic in season. He had a nice waiver grab in the first half of the year (Aube-Kubel), and followed it up with one of the best trade deadlines in NHL history (Cogliano, Lehkonen, Manson, Sturm), helping the Avalanche win the Stanley Cup in one of the more dominating runs in recent memory.

Great season from the best GM in the game.

Ironic that five years ago, many fans would've said he was the worst GM in the game. That's how life goes though, it's always a series of ups and downs. Doesn't help when someone else (*cough* Patrick Roy) has a hand on the wheel of the ship you're trying to steer.

With my last post in this thread, I thought it would be fun to look back at what - in my opinion - are Sakic's top-10 moves as GM (and also his bottom-3 for fun):

• Dishonorable Mention #3: July 1st, 2014

RW Jarome Iginla (3yr, $5.33M AAV signing)

• Dishonorable Mention #2: July 1st, 2015

D Francois Beauchemin (3yr, $4.5M AAV signing)

• Dishonorable Mention #1: July 1st, 2014

2016 2nd Round Pick 2017 6th Round Pick	D Brad Stuart (1yr, $3.6M AAV; extended two add'l yrs at $3.6M AAV)

And now for the best moves in Sakic's 9-year tenure as GM:

• Honorable Mention: January 15th, 2017

(Waiver Claim)	LW Matt Nieto

(Note: Might be a sketchy choice as an honorable mention, but I personally feel this was the first move post-Roy that was somewhat exciting. Nieto was the first of many young, fast players Sakic began adding after years of collecting players from the Cretaceous era)

• Best Move #10: February 26th, 2018

D Chris Bigras	D Ryan Graves

• Best Move #9: March 14th, 2022

D Drew Helleson 2023 2nd Round Pick	D Josh Manson

• Best Move #8: June 22nd, 2018

2018 2nd Round Pick	D Brooks Orpik G Philip Grubauer (extended three yrs at $3.33M AAV)

• Best Move #7: July 28th, 2021

D Conor Timmins 2022 1st Round Pick 2024 3rd Round Pick	G Darcy Kuemper

• Best Move #6: June 28th, 2019

RW Scott Kosmachuk 2020 2nd Round Pick 2020 3rd Round Pick	LW Andrei Burakovsky (extended one yr at $3.25M AAV)

• Best Move #5: March 21st, 2022

D Justin Barron 2024 2nd Round Pick	LW Artturi Lehkonen

• Best Move #4: August 19th, 2019

RW Valeri Nichushkin (1yr, 850K AAV signing)

• Best Move #3: July 1st, 2019

C Alexander Kerfoot D Tyson Barrie 2020 6th Round Pick	C Nazem Kadri D Calle Rosen 2020 3rd Round Pick (Jean-Luc Foudy)

• Best Move #2: October 12th, 2020

2021 2nd Round Pick 2022 2nd Round Pick	D Devon Toews (extended four yrs at $4.1M AAV)

• Best Move #1: November 5th, 2017

C Kyle Turris	C Matt Duchene	C Shane Bowers LW Vladislav Kamenev D Samuel Girard G Andrew Hammond 2019 1st Round Pick (Bowen Byram) 2019 3rd Round Pick (Matthew Stienburg) 2018 2nd Round Pick (traded to Pittsburgh)

Phenomenal post mate, thanks for putting that together. You've done a nice job summarising things and it's nice to reflect on the process year by year.

 

[AllAboutAvs]

Going out on top. That's the way to go.
Well done Joe.
Thanks for the Cup.