Mitts, Colton, Wood, Malinski, Middleton
How do we replace all 5? That’s not easy. I think replacing Malinski and Middleton is priority #1, then replacing Mitts close 2nd. When or if we get Landy back along with Val, we can healthy scratch Wood and keep him as an extra forward in case of more injuries, or maybe CMac can include Wood in a trade.
Then hopefully Colton can provide something on the bottom 6. He was good earlier in the season, so maybe he can get back to being good again. I don’t think we can replace all 5 of those players mid season.
Malinski and Middleton require nothing to be replaced. They can just get sent down or better yet claimed. You just need to trade for Jones and one other dman to come here. Don't worry about where these two end up because as I said, both are waivable and can be sent down.
However, there is a place for Mitts, Colton and Wood in the NHL. We all just wish it wasn't with the Avs. Funny to think, but we actually would have enjoyed these guys in our decade of suck.
I just don't believe Mitts can be traded until this summer barring Crosby doing something I do not believe in a million years that he would do. We've already sunk too many assets into the 2C hole lately. Bednar just needs to make a second line. This is on him.
As for the other two, I can't help but think there are some teams that wouldn't mind either RosCo and/or Wood in a deal to offset salary coming our way in a trade with a rebuilding team (CHI w/ Jones) or even as a potential landing spot for a team reducing salary cap for a player headed our way in a three-way deal.
But here's the thing. Why? Why trade all these players who have already shown they are NHL players? They aren't working you say? *looks at the team* Tell me, outside of goaltending, what is? We can't trade the entire team. This is where a GM SHOULD bring in a new coach.
CMac's got to be getting tired of spending on assets that Bednar refuses to work with. What CMac doesn't understand is that if a player isn't on Jared's top line or in his top d-pair, he really doesn't give a shit about them or spend any time on them. The top unit is the same way...After the Rants trade, MacK, Cale and Landy got together and cried it out but not one of them mentioned the rest of the team.
I'm glad Rants is gone, but Bednar needs to go as well. We just went entirely too long without an injection of anything new and without an actual Captain or team leadership. There is still pruning left to be done.
