Grigowski
Registered User
- Jul 6, 2016
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- 4,483
Very interesting info from Friedman. If you want my conspiracy theory, I think CMac might've been leaning towards trading Mikko all along. He'd been spitballing a trade with Carolina since the draft, gave the Mikko camp a (first and?) final offer and didn't even use the extra time he had to negotiate. I think they had the analytics to back up their argument that Mikko is more a product of MacKinnon than anything else, saw his effort level continue to fall flat and, most importantly, I think CMac was just sick of having virtually zero breathing room to work with in their cap structure.
Necas was probably a name that was thrown around early and after he exploded this year, CMac decided to peel the bandaid and pull the trigger early. I have little doubt they targeted Drury specifically as well, to add a much-needed defensive boon into the bottom-6 with offensive upside that's young and cost-controlled.
Given Mikko's "surprise" of the trade, the Avs essentially gave their final offer (one you could argue is a bit of a lowball, despite making him the priciest wing in the league), which was the lowest amount they would've been comfortable with while also knowing it was one Mikko's camp would never accept.
Regardless, it definitely took a set of brass ones to go in the direction that they did. Now there's no excuse to not maximize the cap and add the depth needed to give them another legitimate shot.
Maybe you are not that far from what went down....
I dont think CMac was leaning towars trading Mikko from the get go.... But he came to that conclusion as this season went on and he saw first hand what this team lacked: Depth... Depth to overcome the annual injuries.....
And the idea grew more and more to solve the problem.. Even if it means trading away a franchise-Winger. Even more so when he got the demand from Rants and his agent.....
So basically, Rants became the casualty of this season... And the longer the season went, the more CMac was ready to pull the trigger if everything goes south.
And still CMac wanted to make him the best paid winger in the league. If the final offer really was 11.75 for 8 Years, and Rants would come back saying "hey, make it 12 and we have our deal", he would still be on this team. I dont think they let him go over 250.000 Dollar......
The real question is: How much did Rants and his agents really ask for....
Anyway, its done and over.
As i said it before: CMac did in Denver what Dubas was not willing to do in Toronto (and it cost him his job there)..... CMAC didnt want to end up like Toronto and acted.
And under the circumstances and looming UFA for Rants he made out like a "bandit".
Sure, we all gonna miss Rants and we all wish him the best.
But i saw the game yesterday and i saw what Necas and even Drury can bring to this team. And with some cap space and new Ammunition (picks) CMac can go to work in the next few weeks. And i am sure he will.
That man has some balls....
And maybe this team needed this "shocker" and changes.....
I really liked the Toews-interview and his take on this....
imho, this trade was, in the end, maybe inevitable....