Biggest problems are that our players are all paid like top line players. They are also signed to more than one year deals. There simply aren't many buyers looking for top line players with more than a year left on their contracts.
Joe might have the right idea now, but he was wrong by waiting this long. This **** should've come to a boil a long time ago and that is probably another reason why Roy left.
I know it is a dead horse, but I keep coming back to the Avs getting rid of two-way forwards...Stastny for free and ROR being for big Z....I've always said Duchene and MacKinnon were too similar and didn't provide enough to force teams to change their strategies. ROR is a different animal. I would trade either Dutchy or MacK strait up for him today if he and the Sabres were open for it.
The Avs really need a different look on the one line..yes...they need better players surrounding the core but the fact remains...the core is not solid. It's one dimensional and focused on excuses.
Why was he 'wrong' by waiting this long? The Avs made the playoffs in Year 1 and were competitive in Year 2, less so in Year 3 but many teams miss the playoffs every single year. The end of last season was a disaster and it forced them to re-assess the state of the franchise in the summer. They decided to sign stop-gaps and understood that this season would likely not be a playoff year either. (unless you believe that they signed Tyutin, Weircioch & Colbourne and thought that would put them over the hump?
) They knew that Iginla wasn't going to get any better and would be worse and the same could be said about Beauchemin. There will be a big-time reset next year once we get a bunch of the deadweight off the team.
In my opinion, the reason they've waited this long is because of
insurance. If they had traded Duchene last summer and gotten new players coming in and a lot of the excitement and optimism that comes with it but mixed in with the poor role players and a lot of deadweight as well...so the results are likely still the same : on the outside of the playoff picture. The insurance that is needed to move a guy like Duchene is that you're able to draft a player that could someday take his place in the top-6. If you're making a move and improving the team marginally and then drafting 8th to 14th, you're not getting that insurance and you're taking a bigger risk that it's not going to happen or could happen in 3-4 years. So unless the Avs get a fantastic frikkin' deal between now and the TD, I'd expect Duchene and Landeskog to stay put. Duchene is the most likely to be moved out but it makes more sense that it would happen at the draft when the Avs know what # they are picking at.
As far as the ROR deal, I posted immediately after it happened that it was
a step back to make a leap forward...and here we are. I don't know how anyone could see it any differently...you can't trade a fully developed, 24 year old that's a big part of your team for a couple of 20 year olds + picks + prospects and expect everything to be hunky dory right away.
Zadorov is 21 years old and already showing signs of being a pretty good Top-4 d-man with upside for more. With Compher and Greer on the cusp of the NHL, we'll soon see the REAL impact of that deal but I think we took them to the cleaners, personally.
I know some people still can't get over ROR but are you ****ing kidding me? ROR at $1.5M per year MORE than Duchene and $1.2M MORE than MacKinnon and you'd trade either for him?? Why? ROR is surrounded by good players yet again : Eichel, Okposo, Reinhart, Kane...etc. Where are the playoffs for the Sabres?? While he plays a really good 2-way game and is likely the Sabres next captain, we cannot act like if we had ROR on the Avs instead of MacK or Duchene that the results would be any different than they are right now.
If you take me back in time, even knowing what I know now, I STILL make the deal for Zadorov because I'm fairly certain that there is no way I sign MacKinnon for $6.3M long-term if I sign ROR for $7.5M per year. (+ I love Zadorov and Compher and Greer look like good bets for the NHL, we'll see what happens with Morrison)
Now when you say that Mack and Duchene are too similar, I think you are on to something. Both are mostly 'shoot-first', dangerous off the rush guys and basically it forces you to have all of your top-6 forwards fit into that mold...and I think
THAT'S probably the biggest issue with the core at forward. That's also why I think we see some teams struggle to defend against that on some nights and other teams easily contain us when they are the type of team that are better able to defend that. If we are going to be structured like that, the we need more high-end 'East-West' type of playmakers (like Drouin). I think Rantanen can play that role eventually but he's still finding his way this year.
