Rumor: 2024-2025 Trade Rumors and Free Agency Talk | The Slow Crawl to the Season

[TruePowerSlave]

Drouin can’t be trusted. Last season was nice, but he is regularly injured and we have enough of that already.

 

[Vaslof]

There's very likely a verbal agreement to re-sign Drouin as he helped us by taking the one year deal first.

 

[Lonewolfe2015]

Its really strange honestly. Produces like an elite talent all the time regular season + playoffs, but still gets a ton of shit regularly.

It happened when his effort level on the ice changed. I remember being perplexed at first until I watched him more and saw just how damn frustrating he has become. He's a microcosm of this team, a relentless hustle team turned more passive. Mikko plays similarly, he scores in bunches now, doesn't forecheck quite as aggressively and doesn't drive plays the way he used to. I genuinely believe he's living off his TOI and the team's collective offensive talents.

Take it away and he either has to play harder again or he'll produce a lot less.

 

[Colorado Avalanche]

There's very likely a verbal agreement to re-sign Drouin as he helped us by taking the one year deal first.

I believe this as well.

Hopefully he can stay healthy rest of the season. We need him

 

[Jasenr]

Poor Gibson. The empty look in his eyes after some goals against Ottawa is telling.

 

[Murzu]

I want Drouin re-signed, no questions about it. Rather trade Colton away.

 

[TonyTwist]

It happened when his effort level on the ice changed. I remember being perplexed at first until I watched him more and saw just how damn frustrating he has become. He's a microcosm of this team, a relentless hustle team turned more passive. Mikko plays similarly, he scores in bunches now, doesn't forecheck quite as aggressively and doesn't drive plays the way he used to. I genuinely believe he's living off his TOI and the team's collective offensive talents.

Take it away and he either has to play harder again or he'll produce a lot less.

Yet he’s 4th in league scoring and on pace for 50 goals. Again

What does the guy need to do to get some recognition from his own fan base? Hopefully he doesn’t read these boards or he might want to go somewhere where is fans appreciate him.

I want Drouin re-signed, no questions about it. Rather trade Colton away.

Why? He has proven he can’t play more than half the season throughout his career.

The best quality is availability and Drouin is never available

 

[CaleMakaw]

Umm. In 8 years he has had 60 points 3 times with a max of 68.

Isn’t that the definition of a “60 point player” It’s not difficult.

Who cares about the last two seasons. What about the 6 other seasons. Last I checked 434 career points in 593 games is not a point per game player. So infact it is you manipulating the stats by saying that because he is a .7 PPG player.

Or what about his whopping 8 points in 22 career playoff games? .36 PPG

You can take mediocre dime a dozen players who get traded at the deadline every year. I will keep the guy who is 4th in league scoring and a career PPG of 1.1 and 1.25 PPG in the playoffs.

[MOD]

I guess we should include Mack's first six seasons when evaluating him. But how does a career 1.15 PPG player end up making 12.6 million. Is he a "90-point player" since that's the benchmark he's hit most often?

On the other hand, Nuke is a 0.54 career PPG player, yet he's earning $6 million. Can we really call him a "50-point player" when he's been scoring at a 0.95 PPG pace over the last 3 years?

By your logic would you label mark stone a "40-point player"?

Ignoring injuries and the impact of changes like goalie equipment adjustments which have significantly changed how the game is played and scoring levels, is a flawed way to evaluate talent and to evaluate data.

 

[Murzu]

Why? He has proven he can’t play more than half the season throughout his career.

The best quality is availability and Drouin is never available

Just my personal preference. I think Drouin is the superior player.

 

[The Abusement Park]

Mack requested to play RW with Crosby on the team I believe, so he will be on that team.

(Not that it matters, Rants would obviously be on the team too lol)

I mean Mackinnon will be a winger on TC but as a whole I wouldn’t count him as a winger in the sense of who’s the best Canadian winger. But yes, Mack would be the better wing player for the Four Nations I would agree there.

 

[The Abusement Park]

uh Mackinnon is a winger on team Canada and Marchand is a top player in the league, where ya been ?

You’d have an argument like 5-6 years ago…

 

[The Abusement Park]

Yet he’s 4th in league scoring and on pace for 50 goals. Again

What does the guy need to do to get some recognition from his own fan base? Hopefully he doesn’t read these boards or he might want to go somewhere where is fans appreciate him.

Imagine if he scored 55pts less this year but skated harder. That’s my dream player

 

[ABasin]

uh Mackinnon is a winger on team Canada and Marchand is a top player in the league, where ya been ?

We've been living in 2022 through 2024. That's like saying Patrick Kane is a top player in the league.

Once upon a time, sure. Now, approaching 2025? Pretty silly discussion point.

 

[Mighty Makar]

Drouin’s a bandaid. I’d let him walk, unless he gives another discount.

 

[NOTENOUGHRYJOTHINGS]

He's showing nothing to be worth a big or long term contract. Give him 2 millions for 2 years.

 

[MarkT]

How about Dvorak @ 50% for 3c?

Drouin Nate Mikko
Lehky Mitts Nuke
Colton Dvorak LOC
Wood Ivan kivi

Dvorak is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too slow to play on the Avs. Good faceoff guy and decent penalty killer, but he'd make Middleton look like a speedster.

CMac was late. That's the biggest issue. He should have traded George in summer.

To who? If we're going to judge CMac for not making a move, we should at least be able to articulate what the correct move would be. Who would be accepting Georgiev in a trade, and what would the deal look like? Also who would be starting for the Avs in this scenario? Lankinen? Ullmark?

For the people who think Rantanen is so replaceable can you find me a player who will replace his 48 goal pace? Find me even two players who we would realistically trade for that can replace what Rantanen does?

I don’t get the hate in here. He’s a top 5 player in the LEAGUE and guys are ready to ship him out for futures.

The goal wouldn't be the replace Rantanen. That's impossible. The goal would be to utilize his cap hit more effectively. It's simply not great team construction to put so much of the cap towards a single winger. That being said, with the players we could acquire/keep without Rantanen, we could very likely replace his points totals, if not his elite goal scoring ability. I think for the best long-term success for the team, you devote the highest cap percentage to MacKinnon and Makar and then you surround those two with as much quality depth as possible. I much prefer a team with no weak links to a top heavy team with all sorts of weaknesses. Signing Rantanen to a MacK level deal or above is a recipe for substandard depth.

The underappreciation of Rantanen around here is something else. I think some fans have forgotten the days of not having superstar talent. CMac messed up, I fear, by not extending him this offseason. And if they didn't want to pay the price, they should have traded him for max value. The price is only going up from here, and now they're stuck in a hard place between coughing up or losing him for nothing. Hopefully they extend him soon and Rants understands how good he has it here with MacK and Makar and doesn't take them to the cleaners too badly.

I think Rantanen is an outstanding player. He's an elite goal scorer and incredible passer. He has very good hockey sense in the offensive zone, and thinks the game at a very high level.

He also is a mess defensively, routinely loses puck battles he should win, holds on to the puck too long when he should move it, and has trouble maintaining his balance.

I don't think that's under-appreciation, I think that's realism.

I agree with you though - the time to trade him was last offseason. They're now in a position where by far the most likely scenarios are re-signing him or losing him for nothing. Losing him for nothing is in my mind more unacceptable than a midseason trade would be. That's why I lean towards trading him even now. That changes if he's willing to sign a team-friendly deal.

 

[The Abusement Park]

The goal wouldn't be the replace Rantanen. That's impossible. The goal would be to utilize his cap hit more effectively. It's simply not great team construction to put so much of the cap towards a single winger. That being said, with the players we could acquire/keep without Rantanen, we could very likely replace his points totals, if not his elite goal scoring ability. I think for the best long-term success for the team, you devote the highest cap percentage to MacKinnon and Makar and then you surround those two with as much quality depth as possible. I much prefer a team with no weak links to a top heavy team with all sorts of weaknesses. Signing Rantanen to a MacK level deal or above is a recipe for substandard depth.

Everyone keeps saying this but who can we realistically acquire that would make this team better and how are we doing that? It sounds great in theory to spread the wealth out from Mikko's cap hit, but it's way harder to do than it sounds.

 

[Pokecheque]

Yeah everyone has this idea that Rantanen can be dealt for a couple really good two-way players but who would those players be? More realistically it'd be one player and some futures, and that player wouldn't even come close to replacing the production lost.

 

[ABasin]

Everyone keeps saying this but who can we realistically acquire that would make this team better and how are we doing that? It sounds great in theory to spread the wealth out from Mikko's cap hit, but it's way harder to do than it sounds.

There have been any number of big trades throughout semi-recent NHL history, where a star player gets traded for multiple pieces. And in many of these cases, the team that got the star player won the trade. Roy, Gretzky, Eichel, (I won't mention O'Reilly), etc.

I have no disillusions about whether the Avs would be better or worse if Rantanen walks. They'd probably be somewhat worse, at least to start out. A wash at best. But not better.

But the Avs may be faced with a somewhat daunting prospect here. Let's say that Colorado again makes the playoffs, and is again bounced in the first or second round. With Rantanen. That would make 3 years running, where they had a very top heavy roster (in terms of skill), with suspect depth and goaltending. And it didn't come close to working 3 years in a row. What, are they gonna just try that for the next 8 years, see how it turns out? I'm not sure, but it might not be an automatic choice.

Rantanen has elite scoring talent. Elite talent is rare, and most organizations (outside of Buffalo) recognize that, and do what they can to keep their elite talent, and simply try to fill in around it. I suspect this will continue to be the Avs strategy, but it's plausible that they let Rantanen walk, and go with quantity over quality.

 

[Tommy Shelby]

I'd be surprised if JG Pageau doesn't find his way here at some point, he's a Bednar player to his core

 

[MarkT]

Everyone keeps saying this but who can we realistically acquire that would make this team better and how are we doing that? It sounds great in theory to spread the wealth out from Mikko's cap hit, but it's way harder to do than it sounds.

Okay, let's say it's to the Rangers for Lafreniere and Lindgren. Based on last season that's 57 points from Laf and 17 from Lindgren, so we're up to 74. Then we acquire Jake Evans (24 points last season) and we're up to 98 with 725k remaining of Mikko's current cap hit.

I'm not presenting that as a realistic trade proposal, by the way, just as a proof of concept of how you could replace Mikko's numbers by committee.

 

[The Abusement Park]

There have been any number of big trades throughout semi-recent NHL history, where a star player gets traded for multiple pieces. And in many of these cases, the team that got the star player won the trade.

I have no disillusions about whether the Avs would be better or worse if Rantanen walks. They'd probably be somewhat worse, at least to start out. A wash at best. But not better.

But the Avs may be faced with a somewhat daunting prospect here. Let's say that Colorado again makes the playoffs, and is again bounced in the first or second round. With Rantanen. That would make 3 years running, where they had a very top heavy roster (in terms of skill), with suspect depth and goaltending. And it didn't come close to working 3 years in a row. What, are they gonna just try that for the next 8 years, see how it turns out? I'm not sure, but it might not be an automatic choice.

Rantanen has elite scoring talent. Elite talent is rare, and many organizations (outside of Buffalo) recognize that, and do what they can to keep their elite talent, and simply try to fill in around it. I suspect this will continue to be the Avs strategy, but it's plausible that they let Rantanen walk, and go with quantity over quality.

The issue here is that any Rantanen trade at this point will be heavily futuret based unless somehow they could pull off a sign and trade mid season, which is just unrealistic. We may get a decent depth piece in a trade, but overall you'd be hoping that whatever prospect/s you get can end up top 6 top line guys. I think from a management POV it makes way more sense to keep Mikko and try and find lightning in a bottle with cheap depth guys(based on where we are in this saga), because that's a far easier task than trading/losing Mikko not adequately replacing him and then being down a top 10 player.

 

[RoyIsALegend]

Okay, let's say it's to the Rangers for Lafreniere and Lindgren. Based on last season that's 57 points from Laf and 17 from Lindgren, so we're up to 74. Then we acquire Jake Evans (24 points last season) and we're up to 98 with 725k remaining of Mikko's current cap hit.

I'm not presenting that as a realistic trade proposal, by the way, just as a proof of concept of how you could replace Mikko's numbers by committee.

You’re not getting that return for 3-5 months of Mikko.

• 2nd/3rd line forward or 4/5 D
• Top prospect
• 1st

Think something along those lines.

 

[The Abusement Park]

Okay, let's say it's to the Rangers for Lafreniere and Lindgren. Based on last season that's 57 points from Laf and 17 from Lindgren, so we're up to 74. Then we acquire Jake Evans (24 points last season) and we're up to 98 with 725k remaining of Mikko's current cap hit.

I'm not presenting that as a realistic trade proposal, by the way, just as a proof of concept of how you could replace Mikko's numbers by committee.

I mean that's not a realistic case scenario and that's the issue... But even I think Lindgren sucks though and his contract is up after this season. So you'd have to plan on essentially deciding whether you think Laf for Mikko and the cap space are worth it. Which granted I've been a vocal Laf slater the last few years, but I don't love adding Laf to the team. I just don't think he does anything great. But who knows, maybe there's a chance he's a great compliment to someone like Mackinnon.

I would like a realistic scenario where Mikko isn't here and the Avs are better. I'm all for moving him if it helps the team, but threading that needle is insanely thin.

 

[MarkT]

You’re not getting that return for 3-5 months of Mikko.

• 2nd/3rd line forward or 4/5 D
• Top prospect
• 1st

Think something along those lines.

Did you miss the part where I said I wasn't presenting it as a realistic trade proposal. Also, I'm imagining a sign and trade. It's the only scenario where trading Mikko makes real sense.