It was a whole lot of nothing for today, and that's the entire problem. The Avalanche should, with a core like Duchene, Landeskog, MacKinnon, Varlamov and EJ, be competing right the hell now. Unfortunately, Sakic has made moves that have prevented the team from realizing their potential. I don't know how anyone can deny that.
Look, I love Burnaby Joe. He was one of my favorites during his career. I have a nice signed photo of him on the wall in my gym. He was the epitome of class and respect and everything else you'd want in a hockey player.
Unfortunately, however, I think what made him such a great player and person sort of detracts from his effectiveness as a GM. Agree or not, but I think his tremendous and timeless stateliness prohibits him from engaging in the knock-down beat-em-up style of negotiation you sometimes need to succeed in pro sports management.
I don't like Newport. I'm not a fan of what they do, personally. They're sharks. But to beat a shark, you need to eat 'em. Sakic got bit by O'Reilly's camp during that whole saga and the end result was the sort of lottery ticket bundle you'd get from your grandma on your birthday. Zadorov? May be a great D, who knows. Grigorenko? Much maligned at the time of the trade, looks okay now, but what's his upside really? Meanwhile, Compher still hasn't played an NHL game. That's not what you should expect out of a top-line player, but it was probably the best Sakic was going to get out of a guy who was facing UFA- a situation of his own creation.
I had hoped Sakic would have learned from that experience. You need to pay the kids these days. No bridges, no whittling down the dollars. They know what they're worth on an almost hourly basis thanks to the massive data crunching everyone does now. Barrie wants to get paid. If Sakic isn't comfortable with doing that, he needs to sort it out now- not two years from today. He'll only lose then, and for a player who won pretty much everything during his career, I'd hate to see him go down that way.