If only people were inanimate objects like watches.
People in this thread should try reading about basic psychology and business management.
But it's totally clear that the Avs know exactly what they are doing when judging a player's worth. I mean, Soderberg, Bourque, Iginla, Gelinas, Beauchemin.... yup they really know how to accurately peg a guy's value on the ice and appropriate compensation.
#1: Its not Sakics fault that UFA is garbage and he inherited a bad team with literally no one in the system.
#2: No one is doing well this year and it would be foolish to assume that it is an accurate representation of a player. Look at a player like Nick Holden, who was a nightmare on the Avs but in NYR he has found a better fit for his play style.
Soderberg: was the best C in that UFA year on a solid deal. He's a 3c who has been bad this year no question but given he just had a 51pt season last year he is obviously a talented player. There may be concerns as to whether he is a good fit for the current system the Avs are running but I think he isn't a solid hockey player.
Bourque: any time you can get a waiver wire guy to throw in 10 goals is a win. There is no downside, especially if a team trades any asset for him its like getting a free pick.
Gelinas: It was a high risk reward move for sure but hard to say that a 3rd round pick had a higher % to become and impact NHL player than Gelinas did who had shown promise in NJ. It didn't work out but I wouldn't say taking a chance on a guy is always a poor choice. If Gelinas had managed to fix some of his deficiencies as a player it would have been a steal. I see no issue here.
Iggy/Beauch: Its hard to say whether the deals to add older Vets to the Avs was more of Sakics or Roys decision and if it was correct to say if the Avs should have been in a win now mentality in the first place (hindsight bias withstanding). We always knew the deals would look bad in their final years which is were they are at now.
I think the real question you need to be asking here isn't if Sakic poorly evaluated his players but If Sakic was able to do the best with the options that he had to which personally I would say he did. There are certainly some moves I didn't agree with but were understandable.
Its important to note that the Avs had 0! depth players that came from draft picks from the previous regime and this current year is the epitome of that. However as we start to see young players come in through the system thanks to the work Sakic has done it will become apparent that the current predicament is not on him.
