Rumor: 2023-24 Trade Rumors and Free Agency: Season Thread

[Balthazar]

The Athletic Avs projection for the upcoming season.

The team starts with the seventh-best Stanley Cup chances, third in the West, and second in the Central.

They have Dallas ahead of us for the cup.

That's not great TBH.

Colorado Avalanche 2023-24 season preview

The Avs are trying to get back on the dynasty track. It’s no guarantee, but the names at the top of the lineup are sure to give them a shot.

theathletic.com

 

[The Moops]

The Athletic Avs projection for the upcoming season.

The team starts with the seventh-best Stanley Cup chances, third in the West, and second in the Central.

They have Dallas ahead of us for the cup.

That's not great TBH.

Colorado Avalanche 2023-24 season preview

The Avs are trying to get back on the dynasty track. It’s no guarantee, but the names at the top of the lineup are sure to give them a shot.

theathletic.com

I would be disappointed with anything but a cup this year, I'm sure the guys in the room feel the same way. This ranking is nonsense too... We were playing with half a team last year and still won the division.

 

[ANewHope]

I have no issue with being 7th. That’s still a contender. If Drouin/RyJo/Colton all pop off and we’re even slightly more healthy than last season we’ll rise pretty quickly.

Avs went with high risk/reward. Difficult to rank until you actually see it play out. The superstars give the team a high floor but we rolled the dice on a few players that will determine the ceiling.

 

[Richard88]

How about adding Adam Boqvist? Maybe he's not a big PK'ing type but the Avs are a bit unconventional with their D's anyways so may as well load up with guys who can move the puck and skate.

Toews - Makar
Byram - Boqvist
Girard - Manson
JJ

He's signed for two years at $2.6m after which he's still an RFA. If he comes 50% retained ($1.3mx2) that fits perfectly down to the exact dollar with a 22 man roster including Francouz as the backup and MacDermid and JJ as the 13F and 7D.

Given that he's only signed for 2 years that makes it much more feasible to get retention than with Peeke who has 3 years left (50% retention is $4.125m over 3 years for Peeke and $2.6m over 2 years for Boqvist, so $1.525m lessin overall cash retention). With Peeke you'd also likely have to waive MacDermid (though that may not necessarily be a bad thing anyhow).

 

[Vaslof]

I would be disappointed with anything but a cup this year, I'm sure the guys in the room feel the same way. This ranking is nonsense too... We were playing with half a team last year and still won the division.

We lost EJ and Newhook though the window is closed

 

[GoNordiquesGo]

Avs - Dal - Edm - Vegas - Car - NJ - Tor are all very solid teams. Any ranking among those imply very small margins IMO.

 

[Bill Peckerskull]

 

[Foppa2118]

Sounds like the Athletic's been reading HFAvs, but I see this as a good thing.

Go ahead and tell elite competitors like Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar they only have the 7th best chance to win the Cup. Please go ahead.

 

[AllAboutAvs]

I'm ok with these predictions. I hate when my team is the favorite anyway. It always turns bad when it is.

 

[BobRossColton]

Erik Kallgren on waivers, be an ok goalie?

 

[The Abusement Park]

7th seems about right to me. Obviously plenty of talent on the roster, but still questions in some important positions and as always health.

 

[Bill Peckerskull]

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

7th seems about right to me. Obviously plenty of talent on the roster, but still questions in some important positions and as always health.

7th is very fair.

Folks are simply drinking the Kool-Aid around here projecting them to be any higher than that right now with all the question marks on this team especially around the depth.

 

[Freaky Styley]

7th is very fair.

Folks are simply drinking the Kool-Aid around here projecting them to be any higher than that right now with all the question marks on this team especially around the depth.

There are question marks, I can buy that.

But do you really think the depth is worse this year than last? I think it's markedly better, especially when you consider all the man games lost. Yet they still won the divison

 

[Pokecheque]

Erik Kallgren on waivers, be an ok goalie?

I mean, probably better than Justus but otherwise, nah.

 

[Muffin]

I mean, probably better than Justus but otherwise, nah.

Can't say I know much about him but he has worse stats on a better team than Annunen.

 

[GoNordiquesGo]

7th is very fair.

Folks are simply drinking the Kool-Aid around here projecting them to be any higher than that right now with all the question marks on this team especially around the depth.

Some around here drink the Avs Kool-Aid.
Others around here drink the Kool-Aid of every other team except the Avs.
I'm not saying 7th isn't fair. I think it is as fair as 6th would have been, or 5th, or maybe even 4th. Other teams in the top 7, like Edm and Tor for example, have uncertainties too.

 

[Pokecheque]

Can't say I know much about him but he has worse stats on a better team than Annunen.

I know, but IMO he looked better in his brief NHL stint that Justus, either way it's kind of a moot point. Neither appears to be worth the trouble.

 

[Balthazar]

Go ahead and tell elite competitors like Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar they only have the 7th best chance to win the Cup. Please go ahead.

Those 2 were elite competitors in the 1st round last year against Seattle weren't they? Didn't mean jack shit in the end did it?

Without proper depth even the very best players can't win, that's a fact.

The Athletic is right to doubt our depth. Drouin, Wood and RyJo are all coming off a rough patch. Can they be good? Yes. Should we just go ahead and assume that they'll be? No.

The Athletic is doing it right.

 

[Foppa2118]

Those 2 were elite competitors in the 1st round last year against Seattle weren't they? Didn't mean jack shit in the end did it? Without proper depth even the very best players can't win, that's a fact.

The Athletic is right to doubt our depth. Drouin, Wood and RyJo are all coming off a rough patch. Can they be good? Yes. Should we just go ahead and assume that they'll be? No.

The Athletic is doing it right.

Another fact.

The team that played Seattle was a shell of last year's team. They also won the division, and were two points away from Vegas who won the west and the Cup. Meanwhile, the team this year is better than last years team.

So the Seattle result is irrelevant.

 

[Balthazar]

Another fact. The team that played Seattle was a shell of last year's team and also won the division.

Did Makar and Mackinnon, the elite competitors, play or not? Because we are adressing this comment here: "Go ahead and tell elite competitors like Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar they only have the 7th best chance to win the Cup"

 

[The Abusement Park]

There are question marks, I can buy that.

But do you really think the depth is worse this year than last? I think it's markedly better, especially when you consider all the man games lost. Yet they still won the divison

I think it’s better for sure, but there’s pretty decent risk in some of the additions. RyJo has plenty of effort issue and has shown that 30-40pt play isn’t out of the question with him. But in the same vein he’s also shown 60+ pt levels recently.

Colton is a great 3rd liner, but can he perform at that level at C on a contending team? He’s never done that before. Just big questions at two very important positions.

Drouin and Tatar which are pretty low impact depth signings that shouldn’t be as impactful if they don’t work out.

The depth and options for the team going forward are definitely better than they were last year, but to contend and win a cup they need the high risk gambles they made to pay off. I like the moves they’ve made but there’s certainly risk they don‘t pan out and we could be in a similar situation to last year.

 

[Foppa2118]

Did Makar and Mackinnon, the elite competitors, play or not? Because we are adressing this comment here: "Go ahead and tell elite competitors like Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar they only have the 7th best chance to win the Cup"

LOL you fixate on the weirdest things Balth.

I'm not falling for your ridiculous strawman here about whether Makar and MacKinnon played on last year's team, in an entirely different season, with an entirely different and worse team, so that somehow defines how good they'll be THIS season.

I haven't even made a proclamation about how they should rank. Rankings are silly IMO anyway. It's just ego flexing, hoping to get lucky and be right, so someone can pat themselves on the back. Everyone is guessing based on limited information and they're usually wrong.

The point I was making is that Makar and especially MacKinnon are high level competitors who take these things personally and use them as bulletin board material.

But apparently you've decided that they're definitively not better than the 7th best team this year, even though the season hasn't started yet, just because they lost to Seattle last year with an entirely different team, that was worse on paper than this year, and decimated by injuries and off ice incidents.

 

[Pokecheque]

I don't see why 7th is so insulting. Even the most heavily-favored contender still only has, like, a 20% chance of winning it all.

 

[Mooserton]

The Athletic Avs projection for the upcoming season.

The team starts with the seventh-best Stanley Cup chances, third in the West, and second in the Central.

They have Dallas ahead of us for the cup.

That's not great TBH.

Colorado Avalanche 2023-24 season preview

The Avs are trying to get back on the dynasty track. It’s no guarantee, but the names at the top of the lineup are sure to give them a shot.

theathletic.com

Not surprising we needed two top six forwards and we acquired exactly zero.