Salary Cap: Chris MacFarland - Record as Avalanche GM (Updates In First Post)

[Sea Eagles]

What am I actually reading here ?

Jeez, hope there's no egg shortages by the time the season ends, because there's going to be plenty in AVS fans faces !!

Oh yea of little faith ! Get ready to be inspired. Get ready to be amazed. You're about to watch out team to go back-to-back.

 

[The Moops]

 

[Foppa2118]

Can't sugar coat it, that was a bad deadline. They needed to do something more, and it seemed like they had plenty of LTIR space to do it.

Feels like CMac just had his welcome to the NHL moment. Every GM seems a little gun-shy at first, scared to get taken advantage of. Happened to Joe at first too.

Still like this team when it's healthy against anyone. When they're on their game and healthy, it's very hard for anyone to beat them. They just know their system so well at this point and it can be very effective when everyone buys in and moves their feet.

 

[CobraAcesS]

Eh, I kept it at a 3. This deadline was a faceplant for him, no sugarcoating that.

But I did like the few moves he DID make.

Yeah it went to a 2, if we win it won't be because we were prepared. It will be because we got lucky, got healthy, and Mikko decided to play like a 1C.

I want him gone the second they're eliminated. You cannot waste years like this. Especially since THEY already easily wasted two years. This one is just more obvious.

Watch this f*** sign JT to a 5M deal to be our 2C even after his ass gets moved to RW in the playoffs. Nightmare scenario because we damn well know what happens right after that with JT.

What am I actually reading here ?

Jeez, hope there's no egg shortages by the time the season ends, because there's going to be plenty in AVS fans faces !!

Oh yea of little faith ! Get ready to be inspired. Get ready to be amazed. You're about to watch out team to go back-to-back.

I ain't eating a worm, but if the cosmos wants to make me look bad. I'm down.

 

[ABasin]

His first season of the defending Cup champions...

IN:

F Lars Eller (@69%) - $2,415,000​

F Matt Nieto - $850,000​

F Denis Malgin - $750,000​

F Gustav Rydahl - $750,000​

D Jack Johnson - $950,000​

D Ryan Merkley - $863,333​

G Keith Kinkaid - $750,000​

OUT:

2025 2nd round pick​

F Martin Kaut - $863,333​

F Dryden Hunt - $762,500​

F Shane Bowers - $750,000​

F Anton Blidh - $750,000​

D Jacob MacDonald - $762,500​

D Andreas Englund - $750,000​

Traded for Giorgiev
Signed Rodrigues

Resigned his own FAs. Nichushkin, Lehkonen, Manson, MacKinnon, Helm, Cogliano.

 

[Sea Eagles]

Yeah it went to a 2, if we win it won't be because we were prepared. It will be because we got lucky, got healthy, and Mikko decided to play like a 1C.

I want him gone the second they're eliminated. You cannot waste years like this. Especially since THEY already easily wasted two years. This one is just more obvious.

Watch this f*** sign JT to a 5M deal to be our 2C even after his ass gets moved to RW in the playoffs. Nightmare scenario because we damn well know what happens right after that with JT.



I ain't eating a worm, but if the cosmos wants to make me look bad. I'm down.

Haha, I'll hold you to that mate ! Better start warming up that pallet. Little salt both reduces a worms size and adds to flavour (just a tip haha).

Everyone's now read this !!

 

[CobraAcesS]

Haha, I'll hold you to that mate ! Better start warming up that pallet. Little salt both reduces a worms size and adds to flavour (just a tip haha).

Everyone's now read this !!

Rotfl, no, if I was going to do that it would be the terrantula burger that's out there on occasion. But I'm not lol.

A restaurant is serving people burgers topped with tarantulas, and we have a lot of questions

Bull City Burger and Brewery in Durham, North Carolina is challenging customers to eat a tarantula burger for "Exotic Meat Month."

www.businessinsider.com

No joke, it exists.

No one can live up to your legendary status, but that might be close lol.

 

[cinchronicity]

Traded for Giorgiev
Signed Rodrigues

Resigned his own FAs. Nichushkin, Lehkonen, Manson, MacKinnon, Helm, Cogliano.

The thing is - every name you mentioned almost certainly could have been booked for $250K less. I know this meme / thought gets ridiculed frequently but that is $1.75M in room under the cap just pissed away. Here in HF, we can forecast all we want about the cap and room under it. CMac gets paid to avoid conjecture and build responsibly under the cap. The only transaction which even remotely fits that description is Georgiev.

 

[Sea Eagles]

Rotfl, no, if I was going to do that it would be the terrantula burger that's out there on occasion. But I'm not lol.

A restaurant is serving people burgers topped with tarantulas, and we have a lot of questions

Bull City Burger and Brewery in Durham, North Carolina is challenging customers to eat a tarantula burger for "Exotic Meat Month."

www.businessinsider.com

No joke, it exists.

No one can live up to your legendary status, but that might be close lol.

That's feral. Haha. I know I'm Aussie, and should NOT fear creatures and critters, but spiders man.....oof.

I'd rather swim with circling great White Sharks, or be dropped into a nest of venomous snakes than be in a room with some of the spiders in Australia for instance like our Queensland Bird Eating Spider.

Yep, that's a thing, and that's it's name - for obvious reasons ! Bloody Australia - hahaha

 

[ABasin]

The thing is - every name you mentioned almost certainly could have been booked for $250K less. I know this meme / thought gets ridiculed frequently but that is $1.75M in room under the cap just pissed away. Here in HF, we can forecast all we want about the cap and room under it. CMac gets paid to avoid conjecture and build responsibly under the cap. The only transaction which even remotely fits that description is Georgiev.

I wasn't casting judgment. Just listing some of the other roster transactions CMac was responsible for.

That's feral. Haha. I know I'm Aussie, and should NOT fear creatures and critters, but spiders man.....oof.

I'd rather swim with circling great White Sharks, or be dropped into a nest of venomous snakes than be in a room with some of the spiders in Australia for instance like our Queensland Bird Eating Spider.

Yep, that's a thing, and that's it's name - for obvious reasons ! Bloody Australia - hahaha

Sorry, Eagles. Couldn't resist.

 

[CobraAcesS]

That's feral. Haha. I know I'm Aussie, and should NOT fear creatures and critters, but spiders man.....oof.

I'd rather swim with circling great White Sharks, or be dropped into a nest of venomous snakes than be in a room with some of the spiders in Australia for instance like our Queensland Bird Eating Spider.

Yep, that's a thing, and that's it's name - for obvious reasons ! Bloody Australia - hahaha

Yeah yall have some crazy shit. You ever seen a picture of the Camel spiders in the Middle East? It's technically not a spider, feels more like cartilage when you crush one too.

I'm 100% convinced at least a few monsters in movies came from them.

I wasn't casting judgment. Just listing some of the other roster transactions CMac was responsible for.


View attachment 662510

Sorry, Eagles. Couldn't resist.

Oh fuk, lmao, get your hand away!!

 

[Sea Eagles]

Yeah yall have some crazy shit. You ever seen a picture of the Camel spiders in the Middle East? It's technically not a spider, feels more like cartilage when you crush one too.

I'm 100% convinced at least a few monsters in movies came from them.



Oh fuk, lmao, get your hand away!!

I googled that haha, thanks a lot man. Horrible things ! Middle East - oof.

And yep, that's a QLD bird eating spider boys. Imagine one of those puppies crawling across you while you sleep !!

 

[RoyIsALegend]

Traded for Giorgiev
Signed Rodrigues

Resigned his own FAs. Nichushkin, Lehkonen, Manson, MacKinnon, Helm, Cogliano.

Georgiev was acquired 4 days before CMac got the job. Sakic was our GM for that trade.

I didn’t mention any signings, just trades.

 

[Nihiliste]

This deadline was definitely a failure, the question is why. I think there’s several reasons.

1) Passive, value investing approach - over the past few years, the Avs have famously grabbed undervalued players with great analytics and transition ability (Toews, Bura, Girard, Nuke, etc.). Being aggressive and going “all in” just isn’t normal or comfortable for this management group. Last year was the outlier and this year was back to their usual style we saw the previous few years. A lot of people mentioned the “Nemeth, Soderberg, Dubnyk” deadline from a few years ago and that’s exactly what we got.

2) lack of available targets - this goes along with the first point, there were no Lehkonens out there this year. He was an analytics darling that didn’t produce so much as to inflate his price and was an RFA and was coming from a team that was bottoming out at the right time. There was no slam dunk fit out there this year that could shake this group out of their slumber.

3) evaluation of current group - CMac obviously sees this group differently than we do. Either he’s really confident in this group’s ability to win which has be concerned about his evaluation of guys like JTC, LOC, Newhook, Malgin, etc are placed in the lineup. Or he’s more intimately aware of injury details and feels like key guys (Landeskog, Nuke, etc) in the squad aren’t going to be able to ramp things up to where they need to be to win this year and therefore didn’t want to mortgage the future for the run. Our underlying metrics have been horrible this year and our front office must be aware of that.

4) future considerations - the board came around to the idea this year that this is our last good shot to win the cup with the group. I tend to agree barring some unexpected increase in cap. CMac may have convinced himself that we’re going to be able to continue to compete at the highest level for the next few years despite the impending cap apocalypse and so may not want to mortgage the future.

5) Inexperience? My sense is that to a large extent, CMac has been driving our rebuild and made a ton of the important decisions that led to the cup win. Our front office direction changed massively when he arrived. But I’m guessing that Joe was the guy on the phone with other GMs a lot of the time, and he obviously had been doing those negotiations for several years and is very well respected around the league. It’s possible that CMac just wasn’t able to negotiate with other GMs as effectively as Sakic. We’ll probably never know.

6) Ownership - we know that Ownership was very cheap for years. We didn’t even have a full time goalie coach for the longest time. They started spending more as we came into contention but have been very measured in their spending. Nate forced them to give him tons of signing bonuses but they had never done something like that before. They may not be willing to pull cap shenanigans like Tampa or some of the big market teams for pure cost reasons.

 

[AvStock]

The thing is - every name you mentioned almost certainly could have been booked for $250K less. I know this meme / thought gets ridiculed frequently but that is $1.75M in room under the cap just pissed away. Here in HF, we can forecast all we want about the cap and room under it. CMac gets paid to avoid conjecture and build responsibly under the cap. The only transaction which even remotely fits that description is Georgiev.

Why are we complaining about cap room this deadline? Look how much we have with Landy and EJ on LTIR, oh and also, look how much he paid to retain on Eller! CMac is a f***ing moron

 

[cinchronicity]

Why are we complaining about cap room this deadline? Look how much we have with Landy and EJ on LTIR, oh and also, look how much he paid to retain on Eller! CMac is a f***ing moron

I'm with you 100%. My point about the cap space is that CMac went on TV and stated that his hands were tied by the salary cap. That is not true. You are absolutly correct about EJ and LTIR. Probably Helm too. And if need be, I think they could add Landy to the total. But, he tied his own salary cap knots by handing out contracts without thinking. Just like he screwed up the goalie situation 18 months ago - without thinking. And, as you day, he overpaid for Eller but the Avs absolutely SUCK at drafting, so does it truly matter?

It is rare that some gargantuan change leads to a winning or losing a cup. It is more like the death of 1000 cuts. I love Lehky and I'm fine with his deal. That said, Mac/Sak knew this time last year that both Burky and Kadri would be gone as UFA. It is as if they hallucinated that the level of production would be acceptable this year.

Joe Sakic is a legend as a player. And in life. But not so much as a GM. Sure, they improved from the awful 2017 season. But then they eventually underperformed and eliminated in the 2nd round twice (once with the President's Trophy.) Think about the trades / acquisitions that contributed to the SC year: Kadri lands in the Avs lap because Toronto was desperately trying to excise him. Toews falls into their lap because of the Isles cap crunch. Mikko personally recruited Lehky. Both Byram and Makar vastly overperform their #4 pick status. Nuke was an amazing find and indicative of 1 of 2 things: Brilliance by Sak / Mac or just plain dumb luck.

Every contender bulked up with very good players. Except the Avs. It is very simple to assign blame to Sak / Mac. We don't need to burn effigies or hold vigils outside their homes. The fact of the matter is that the Avs have a poor record of TDL acquisitions and this one - with a little luck - could have solidified the Avs as the odds on favorite to win. Now that title will absolutely go to Boston and the Avs are back to the days of Round 2 exits in all likelihood.

 

[ABasin]

Georgiev was acquired 4 days before CMac got the job. Sakic was our GM for that trade.

I didn’t mention any signings, just trades.

You sir, are correct.

I wasn't disagreeing with you, btw. Just adding.

 

[S E P H]

His first season of the defending Cup champions...

IN:

F Lars Eller (@69%) - $2,415,000​

F Matt Nieto - $850,000​

F Denis Malgin - $750,000​

F Gustav Rydahl - $750,000​

D Jack Johnson - $950,000​

D Ryan Merkley - $863,333​

G Keith Kinkaid - $750,000​

OUT:

2025 2nd round pick​

F Martin Kaut - $863,333​

F Dryden Hunt - $762,500​

F Shane Bowers - $750,000​

F Anton Blidh - $750,000​

D Jacob MacDonald - $762,500​

D Andreas Englund - $750,000​

Got pretty much the better player in every deal, but no high-stakes players in there and the majority of those take place in the offseason. Don't understand all the hate except when it comes to choosing certain players over others in the free-agent market.

 

[Ararana]

I deliberately saved my vote until after the deadline to see if he would actually replace Kadri. He didn't.

I voted 2. I don't think he deserves to be fired just yet, but he is off to a terrible start. No killer instinct like the Tampa management. The Avs won't win the cup this year and MacFarland is responsible for that.

 

[AllAboutAvs]

Not liking this TDL at all. I voted 4 a while back but I think he deserves to be kept there until we see the results of this season. If they win the Cup then it means he was right in believing in his team. If they don't make it all the way then I'll lower my vote depending on which round they got taken out and how they played, injuries, etc.

 

[CobraAcesS]

Not liking this TDL at all. I voted 4 a while back but I think he deserves to be kept there until we see the results of this season. If they win the Cup then it means he was right in believing in his team. If they don't make it all the way then I'll lower my vote depending on which round they got taken out and how they played, injuries, etc.

I agree, but since the vote can be changed the TDL was a marker.

3 if they make the cup finals, 1 if they're eliminated prior (complete failure). 5 if they somehow win and kept their #1 pick.

It was quite the gamble. Boom or bust all the way.

 

[AslanRH]

I'll toss in a vote for #3.
Not swayed either way about this past offseason.
I think seeing what happens with JTC, ERod, Girard/Toews etc. this offseason will matter to me more.

Not excited about the Eller trade, but not completely discouraged by the TDL overall.
I just didn't see a lot to spend assets on. Value swings like Vrana or Puljujarvi weren't really a solution to what ails the team.

Lot's of folks in here seem certain he could have pulled a solution for the Kadri replacement, but I didn't see many names from the "insiders" this year that were really available nor any really that were moved.
(I don't believe ROR was ever an option from the Blues or Avs side)

 

[arun]

I’m mid 2 to low 3.

I posted this recently, dont feel like typing it again lol

So… we’ve been injured throughout the season. Guys coming back from injury have setbacks, get injured again, and/or are obviously rusty.

Clearly our gameplan and style of play doesnt apply then, right? So either you address it - considering your window - and in the mean time, you’d kind of try to adapt your gameplan to the continuing situation.

Im just staggered by the lack of both. I am not opposed to Bednar, who i will admit is the best coach for the Avs with his tenure, yet we seem so passive. Even when our (best) players get targeted, there is very very little response.

We had all season long to address the weaknesses, and when the deadline approached, not using LTIR is ethically very fair but I cant understand why you wouldnt use it.

Overexploitation of eg Makar, zero variation on 5v5 and PP, ugh.

We’re banking on Lady, Nuke, Manson and whoever to return in stride right away is a big risk imo. I’m not sure they will be up to speed that fast after getting into the lineup and the fact that this is what we’re really banking on, just drives me nuts tbh.

Im probably dumb for viewing it all this way or whatever and rambling on, but really, I just dont understand the choices made, or rather, not made.

 

[TruePowerSlave]

2

The deadline was a complete mess and has no excuses. No #2C all year is another major failure.

 

[Bubba Thudd]

Ha!
That's the rating system for heroes in the game I play.