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Snubbed4Vezina said:
I think the Avalanche have done what more teams in their situation need to do and that's make the difficult decision to cut loose a player who's looking for a huge payday when you've already got a couple elite players on the roster with huge contracts. It's going to be really difficult to ice a team with enough depth when you have three huge superstar contracts. Mishandle this situation and you risk losing Cale Makar in 2027.

It's the same situation that Edmonton is going through with McDavid (no brainer) and Bouchard this offseason. Edmonton, being a poorly run organization, will hand out a fourth large contract to Bouchard and watch as their team struggles to get out of the first or second round over the next decade because they lack the depth to field a good enough team to do so.

The Avalanche's underlying metrics have looked pretty ugly over the last 10 games. They haven't racked up back-to-back wins since the new year, I believe, and I think they realize that they can't win consistently while getting offense from one line. Sucks to trade away a superstar, but long-term this could be for the best, though as a Blues fan right now, I'm pretty pleased to see them move Rantanen out of the division.
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This deal to me tells me the Avs weren’t confident in their team’s ability to win this year. If they were, they wouldn’t have made this deal. They would go for it and if he walk, he walks. This move weakens them for now but having an extra year of Necas gives them another bite at apple. Now maybe they make another move or 2 and it all comes together this year, but even if they were far apart I don’t think Avs make this deal if they thought they were only minor tweak away from Cup.
 
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Servalli mentioned last night that a very reliable source told him that this wasn't even the biggest deal discussed this week. A cryptic tweet of the Clemente Bridge in Pittsburgh by Kevin Weekes later in the evening led to speculation that the Avs were going to try to trade for Crosby. I would imagine that would cost them something along the lines of Mittelstadt, Girard, Ritchie + at least two premium picks.
 
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MissouriMook said:
Servalli mentioned last night that a very reliable source told him that this wasn't even the biggest deal discussed this week. A cryptic tweet of the Clemente Bridge in Pittsburgh by Kevin Weekes later in the evening led to speculation that the Avs were going to try to trade for Crosby. I would imagine that would cost them something along the lines of Mittelstadt, Girard, Ritchie + at least two premium picks.
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Johnston threw cold water on that, but that won’t end the speculation. And it shouldn’t. I suspect Mac (and Mak) will try to recruit him during 4 Nations. Ultimately that decision is Crosby’s more than Dubas’.
 
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I really don’t get why Sid doesn’t want another shot at a Cup. Just Ray Bourque it up instead of withering away. Leaving will not affect his legacy in Pitt in the slightest.
 
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TheDizee said:
im more reliable than that guy

avs want to create cap space, not eat it up with aging vets
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no comment….but I think they should go after Miller instead of Karalsson.
 
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Bobby Orrtuzzo said:
Dont know how reliable this is but if true LOL

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Despite putting up numbers, and winning the most empty calorie Norris ever, EK has failed to move the needle on for his teams in the standings for years now. Would love for the Avs to give up value for him to be the 3rd team to learn he doesn't help you contend anymore.
 
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BlueOil said:
played last night too
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Isn't 4 Nations, best on best something that the players heavily advocated for?...kind of hard to take it seriously as a fan if the players don't...sounds like the tickets are selling poorly at both locations and I can see why. This event is really not worth interrupting your season.
 
Vegas should be penalized.

Or everybody should get to rest their players. Every player has something they're dealing with. Every player going is a large piece of their team and plays a lot of icetime. Every player going is risking injury. Vegas doesn’t get to get out of this. F that.

If Pietrangelo is in the NHL lineup he can participate. If he’s injured to the point he can’t play then use IR.

The grey area of “injury” is not grey. You’re either in the lineup or you are not.

Sit him for the duration of the tournament when nhl play resumes. 12 day sussy. However many games Vegas plays 2 weeks after play resumes = that many game suspension. No pay. No injured reserve benefits. Stay home and get your rest big boy.
 
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I like the trade for Colorado more than most around here. Hard to judge if they made the 'right' decision to not extend him without hearing the actual numbers that had been discussed, but once the decision to move him was made, I like the return they got.

I think Necas is a good fit for their style and worst case scenario they can get 1.5 years out of him. He was pretty clearly heading toward UFA in Carolina, but that always seemed to be related to getting out of Carolina and not a pure desire to hit UFA. He's not going to replace Rants 1 for 1, but he could absolutely be an 85+ point player in Colorado. Drury isn't a huge needle mover, but he starts to address their lack of depth. The picks help replenish some of the picks they have traded in the last few years chasing Cups. From a cap perspective, they freed up about $2M in space this year and then Necas will be about $6M less than Rants next season. If Necas extends, I'd wager that it will be for $3-5M less than what it would have taken to extend Rants (depending on how well he fits in Colorado).

They need to use that space to add someone to the roster for this trade to truly work out, but they added quite a bit of cap flexibility to make that other move. I see the justification to downgrade 20-30 points out of a top line winger in order to get a couple years younger, push the extension decision down the line a year, and create long-term cap flexibility. I think this was better than simply trying to get a pure futures return for Rants and I understand not being willing to give him $13M+ if that was truly the requirement to get Rants extended.
 
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StlBigFly said:
Vegas should be penalized.

Or everybody should get to rest their players. Every player has something they're dealing with. Every player going is a large piece of their team and plays a lot of icetime. Every player going is risking injury. Vegas doesn’t get to get out of this. F that.

If Pietrangelo is in the NHL lineup he can participate. If he’s injured to the point he can’t play then use IR.
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It's been well reported that the NHL will treat it like skipping the All Star game, which is a suspension. And FWIW, this is a player thing, not a Vegas thing. Vegas has multiple other players going to the tournament, so it isn't like they are just telling their guys not to go.

StlBigFly said:
The grey area of “injury” is not grey. You’re either in the lineup or you are not.
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Nonsense. By that logic, Matthew Tkachuk wasn't injured when he first broke his sternum and played through it. Guys play through injuries all the time. I'd like to see the NHL do 2 game suspensions for anyone who skips the tournament vs the 1 gamer for the All Star game, but injuries are absolutely more black and white than a player simply being in the lineup.

I'm guessing the NHL will just make him sit out 1 game, but my preference would be to force him to sit out the game before and after the tournament.
 
Brian39 said:
It's been well reported that the NHL will treat it like skipping the All Star game, which is a suspension. And FWIW, this is a player thing, not a Vegas thing. Vegas has multiple other players going to the tournament, so it isn't like they are just telling their guys not to go.


Nonsense. By that logic, Matthew Tkachuk wasn't injured when he first broke his sternum and played through it. Guys play through injuries all the time. I'd like to see the NHL do 2 game suspensions for anyone who skips the tournament vs the 1 gamer for the All Star game, but injuries are absolutely more black and white than a player simply being in the lineup.

I'm guessing the NHL will just make him sit out 1 game, but my preference would be to force him to sit out the game before and after the tournament.
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I don’t count the playoffs as the norm because it isn’t just injury rules that change, it’s officiating, player compensation as well. It is a totally different situation from all angles, including injured players.

If Matt Tkachuk wants to play with broken bones in the playoffs you can probably just not answer your insurers phone calls for a day. It’s really helpful for the situation that it’s a do or die cup final game.

If you have a doctor who lets him play like that in the middle of jan you’re going to be sending your insurer a whole lot more in premiums, if they’ll even give you coverage. You can’t let a guy play like that in a regular season game, my medical opinion being obviously not great, but it seems like an extreme risk of severe re-injury/further injury, potentially career ending. Somebody is on the hook for like 50 mil when he stumbles onto the ice and it’s not the coach or the team.

Regular season is black and white. Are you in the lineup or are you not. The people in the not category have elite medical professionals handling their situation. If pietrangelo is injured he can sit out of games and have medical attention. If he’s in the lineup then it obviously isn’t necessary for him to sit with medical professionals and recover.

Vegas doesn’t want him there because it is inconvenient, not because of medical necessity, as shown by him playing last night. If every team does this then there is no 4 nations. Every player and team is inconvenienced. My vote would be to find the biggest punishment I could. If Vegas wants to be an exception to the rule then make it hurt to the degree that they won’t want to do that again.

I would near guarantee the league is taking calls from 31 gms who are whining like I am right now: they’re all going to debate whether they should follow Vegas’ lead or not. If the league decides to not punish Vegas I think you’ll see more than a dozen players dip. They all have guys going who need time to recover from non-major injuries.
 
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