What team is in the worst shape?

[pcruz]

All teams have to pay their top young talent, its not only an Avs issue

Of course, but 4 years from now they'll have the following players on contracts:

Rantanen
Landeskog
Mackinnon
Hughes
Barrie

That's going to be hard on the cap.

Luckily for them, they'll have a top end player making about $1,000,000 for 3 of those on his entry level and until then they will most definitely be a juggernaut.

 

[TruePowerSlave]

Of course, but 4 years from now they'll have the following players on contracts:

Rantanen
Landeskog
Mackinnon
Hughes
Barrie

That's going to be hard on the cap.

Luckily for them, they'll have a top end player making about $1,000,000 for 3 of those on his entry level and until then they will most definitely be a juggernaut.

Why even mention Hughes? The Avs are most likely going to get someone else.

Having too much talent is never a problem. It becomes an issue only when the GM manages the cap poorly. Also, the Avs could just trade someone if they have to.

 

[Falco Lombardi]

What on earth would make anyone suspect that we'll ever even make the playoffs in consecutive seasons? That would require a FO that's paying attention.

Probably the possibility of adding two top 10 (or higher?) picks

 

[cgf]

Probably the possibility of adding two top 10 (or higher?) picks

But unless those picks end up 1 & 2, it's not like they'll help us compete any time soon. Which with our complacent GM is a concern, given how frustrated with losing our franchise player already is. If Joe asks MacK to twiddle his thumbs for another two seasons while we wait for any non-Hughes/Kakko prospects to make an impact, then we'll have just 1 season left in which to convince MacK to sign an extension...if MacK hasn't asked for a trade by then. Which is a real concern given that Nate already has that look that Dutchy did before making his trade-request...

 

[Falco Lombardi]

But unless those picks end up 1 & 2, it's not like they'll help us compete any time soon. Which with our complacent GM is a concern, given how frustrated with losing our franchise player already is. If Joe asks MacK to twiddle his thumbs for another two seasons while we wait for any non-Hughes/Kakko prospects to make an impact, then we'll have just 1 season left in which to convince MacK to sign an extension...if MacK hasn't asked for a trade by then. Which is a real concern given that Nate already has that look that Dutchy did before making his trade-request...

Lets hypothetically say the Avalanche end up with Kakko and another prospect at....9

You wouldn’t be encouraged adding them plus won’t they have Makar next year?

Will they be the Lightning? No probably not but they certainly wouldn’t be in the conversation with other teams listed here.

 

[cgf]

Lets hypothetically say the Avalanche end up with Kakko and another prospect at....9

You wouldn’t be encouraged adding them plus won’t they have Makar next year?

Will they be the Lightning? No probably not but they certainly wouldn’t be in the conversation with other teams listed here.

Like I said, the equation changes if we land Hughes or Kakko. Then having a complacent GM may not prevent us from making actual progress these next few seasons. But we have just 4 more years left on MacK's contract. If he stays then after those 4 years we'll probably need to cull our depth to afford MacK / Mikko / Barrie / Landeskog / Makar / OTT 1st, and we have just 3 more seasons to convince him to stay or we'll have to trade him before he walks for nothing. So if we spend the first 2 of those waiting for non-Hughes/Kakko prospects, the target starts to become extremely small; given how frustrated with losing MacK already is.

We are not totally screwed like some of these teams, but Sakic has a lot of work to do for us to have a bright future...and so far he's shown that that's not exactly Joe's M.O.

 

[Sensung]

Two words.

Eugene Melnyk!