I love the caphit, sucks that it's really just buying us one year of UFA though. Although in 4 years time we'll have a much better idea whether he is a 7 million defenseman or not.
But ultimately it's great to have our "old" core locked up long-term, with a new crop of cost-controlled players looking poised to join this core and with a fair amount of money coming off the books next season. A core of Duchene, MacK, Landy, Soderberg, Barrie, EJ and Varly/Pickard; with Zadorov, Grigorenko, Bigras, Rantanen, Compher and later on Jost coming along is pretty impressive. Colborne has a good chance to make an impact. Soda is the oldest of the bunch and he'll just be 31 next season. And then there are prospects like Greer, Nantel, Mironov, Boikov, Lindholm, Martin, Grimaldi, Meloche and potentially Geertsen who have NHL upside. I would bet on at least 2 of those players becoming important players for the Avs in the near future.
Echoing what others have said, the last 2 off-seasons have been pretty good for Sakic. It rests of Roy and the players to figure it out now. We can no longer just point to Guenin and Holden for our woes. Our D should be much improved this season. Z and Bigras are a year older. Wiercioch and Tyutin are legitimate 3rd pairing defenders. Gelinas and Siemens will be pushing for that 8th D spot. We are still missing a top 4 dman, but we have 3 legitimate top 4, and 5 other guys, one of which has a huge opportunity to seize that spot. My bet is on Zadorov to make a big jump this season.
Anyways, glad that this situation is over and done with. We won't have to deal with a big contract re-signing until Duchene and Varly hit UFA in 3 seasons, though it's likely Varly is already gone by then. Rantanen will be an RFA that season as well. It's nice that the focus can now be an adding rather than fearing losing, as it has been lately with the Stastny, ROR and Barrie situations. Zadorov and Grigorenko will be RFA's next seasons, hopefully they show enough next season that we can sign them long term for cheap.
