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

[LOFIN]

The Steve Dangle podcast had a segment where they took a look at some of the deadline acquisitions and started to sing praise to CMac. Jesse Blake however, made a very good point that the ownership does have a big say in making these big bold moves, and they probably even encourage on doing in. Moving the Rams from St. Louis to LA because the team wasn't properly supported by the City, went ahead and won the Super Bowl soon in LA. These massive Avalanche moves made this season, Nuggets firing their coach and GM just before the post season etc. Might seem chaotic, but on the other hand it's also trying to do stuff to WIN, instead of just trying remain in the fringes while maintaining ticket sales.

 

[Pokecheque]

I didn't listen to the segment but are they seriously trying to justify what Kroenke did to St. Louis? I don't mind KSE as an owner (they're far from perfect but there are obviously much worse options) but what Stan did to his own hometown was as underhanded and shifty as the Colts sneaking away in the middle of the night on Mayflower trucks. That had NOTHING to do with "proper support" and everything to do with making boatloads of cash. And it should be no surprise that a driving force behind that giant stab in the back was none other than Jerry Jones.

Oh and on top of everything else, he tried to keep their f***in' money after running away to Los Angeles before the courts stepped in and told him he couldn't.

Anyway, I couldn't give a f*** about the Rams, Arsenal, or any other KSE property. I only care about the Avs and Nuggets (Mammoth and Rapids too I guess) and MacFarland has done the best he can do under the circumstances. Shouldn't be lost that some of those circumstances, he created himself.

I'm reading now about the behind-the-scenes drama with the Nuggets. Sounds like this should've happened a long time ago.

 

[SomaliHackey]

How have we been so blessed to have Sakic and now MacFarland.

 

[RoyIsALegend]

How have we been so blessed to have Sakic and now MacFarland.

@nammerus thoughts?

 

[Pokecheque]

I'm back to wanting a new GM.

Too many mistakes, too many failures.

Miles Wood and Ross Colton are the first that jump to mind, but not the foremost. Also brought in the single worst goalie in franchise history in Alexandar Georgiev, didn't get rid of him after a miserably bad run in two different playoff series, and put the team in a serious hole at the beginning of this season.

But in the end, he never, ever addressed the 2C problem. First, tried to sell us that a tandem of Compher/Newhook could get the job done, and it didn't. Then brought in Johansen who not only stunk on the ice, but led to turmoil in the locker room alongside Georgiev, where he was then forced to pay just to dump him on Philly (I guess lucky for Philly he landed in Lehigh Valley and was never seen again). Brought in Mittelstadt using the team's best trade chip, only for him to implode following a promising start. Now he trades the team's best forward prospect for Brock Nelson, who is also a lousy fit and simply not good enough to move the needle.

People laud MacFarland for his ballsiness and it's admirable to see a guy so aggressive, but he also doesn't seem to understand his own team's identity and which players fit into it. I know some of that may or may not fall on the coach as well, but even with that taken into account there ain't NO bench boss who would have made Colton, Wood, Georgiev, or Mittelstadt look good.

I WILL give him credit for finally getting the goaltending right with the Woodshed, but that doesn't erase how abhorrently wrong he got it beforehand (Annunen also counts in that equation). Quieter pickups like Lindgren, Drury, and Coyle have worked out really well. And despite his total no-show in the postseason thus far, Necas was a perfect fit for the Avs and that was a very good haul for Rantanen.

 

[AnimalMother73]

I want a new GM mainly b/c the Avs have never even come close to the top half of the league in terms of drafting and developing. Probably goes beyond GM all the way to Sakic's role but the Avs have never been good beyond the top 10 picks in a draft and this has shortened their compete windows and forced a lot of pivots on trades that didn't work out (ala 2C).

 

[Foppa2118]

Seen a lot of comments about EJ not waiving his NTC, or Manson being re-signed, being the cause for Kadri not being brought back.

I don't think Manson or EJ actually prevented Kadri from being brought back.

First of all, EJ had a 19 team NTC he wasn't obligated to waive anyway. But if they wanted to, they 100% could have retained 50%, or spent some assets to get a second team to retain 50% if needed. Seems doubtful none of those 13 teams would take EJ at $1.5M after that Cup win. Buffalo signed him for $2M the year after and he said he turned down bigger offers elsewhere.

They also could have bought him out, though I'm not sure Kroenke would have.

More importantly though, they could have kept all three of EJ, Manson, and Kadri if they really wanted to.

One of the ways was to trade Compher and plan on starting the season with a 21 man lineup with MacDermid capable of playing F or D, and just figuring it out later. Waited to see if other options presented themselves, or someone went on LTIR. They went with 21 man rosters during seasons before to juggle the cap with the Eagles right down the road.

They could have done this easily, because with Kadri they wouldn't have needed JTC at 2C, and Newhook played 3C anyway. Plus they'd have picked up assets.

Not to mention they likely knew Helm's $1.25M was gonna start on LTIR during the summer. Which would have allowed them to go with a 22 man roster.

This doesn't even include Landy going on LTIR to start the season, which opened up $7M more. So they definitely wouldn't even have needed to go with a 21 man roster anyway.

This is why they had an additional $2M to give ERod in September.

The following season EJ's $6M came off the books, the cap went up $1M, and Landy's $7M stayed on LTIR.

The bonuses for Byram ($2.5M) and Newhook ($450k) fell well under the 7.5% bonus cushion in 22-23 ($6,187,500) that you're allowed to go over the cap with during the season, and they didn't hit their bonuses anyway.

If they really wanted to keep Kadri they could have.

Here's the players that started that season and their cap hits. The cap in 22-23 was $82.5M.

1	Rantanen	$9.25M
2	Makar	$9M
3	Landeskog	$7M
4	Kadri	$7M
5	MacKinnon	$6.3M
6	Nichushkin	$6.125M
7	E. Johnson	$6M
8	Girard	$5M
9	Manson	$4.5M
10	Lehkonen	$4.5M
11	Toews	$4.1M
12	Georgiev	$3.4M
13	Francouz	$2M
14	Cogliano	$1.25M
15	Helm	$1.25M
16	LOC	$1.05M
17	MacDermid	$987,500
18	Newhook	$908,333
19	Byram	$894,167
20	League Min	$750,000
21	League Min	$750,000
	TOTAL	$82,015,000

https://www.spotrac.com/nhl/colorado-avalanche/cap/_/year/2022

 

[Sea Eagles]

Still believe he's a magician. How he's transformed this team is amazing. We literally have an all star roster.