You keep trying to blame Sakic for the ROR situation, but as I pointed out, he inherited a bad situation, created by Pierre LaCroix.
Sakic had choices. Why do you keep ignoring that? His only option was not to let ROR a year closer to UFA. Not even close. That's bad management.
He traded ROR to make the team better in the long run, and most Avs fans are happy with the return.
The Avs needed to be good in the short run, but if you are "happy" as a group with the problems such constant retooling creates (see below) that's nothing anyone can dissuade you from.
And, ROR wasn't traded for Sodaberg, so not sure where you're going with that.
The post I quoted noted Soderberg was brought in to replace O'Reilly's production. I understand it wasn't a straight-across trade, but Sakic tried to save a couple bucks via that route, and it didn't work. That's where I was going with that.
I think there is a serious debate as to whether moving ROR made the Avs better, but we won't know for sure for a couple of years.
Right, but the point is you'd know if it made them better or even the same today because said assets would be contributing to the current roster. Only Grigorenko really is, and he's Ryan O'Reilly.
Also, I'd love to hear the logic about why the Avs window is right now, and not in 2-3 years. We aren't the Sharks, with guys like Thornton and Marleau. Or the Canucks with the Sedins. Every single core player on the team is in their 20s. We're poised to have a good, young, balanced team, that should be competitive for years. Why is it a huge deal if those competitive years start in 2017, instead of 2014?
Here's why: Matt Duchene will be a year away from UFA when the team is just beginning to be competitive by your own timeline. Varlamov will be a year away. Tyson Barrie will also be a year and a contract away from the open market, presuming he goes to arbitration and comes out of it with a two-year deal. Why are those players staying in Colorado if they have the choice to leave for a more competitive team- especially one who wouldn't haggle over pennies and nickles? Right there are three of your core pieces.
Oh, and by then, Erik Johnson will be 30. Beauchemin's career will almost be over. Behind them is, what, Zadorov? You'll then need to spend in FA to fill almost an entire top 6, because your only other option is to hope Bigras and a random like Corbett or Geertsen is NHL-ready by that point.
If the Avs don't make a strong case for the playoffs by the end of 2018, that's about it for this window. They will need to enter a complete rebuild, and turn the team over to the Core 2.0 of MacKinnon, Grigorenko, Rantanen and Jost.
So going from last in the west to 9th doesn't count for anything. You don't go from last place to contender overnight.
Roy and Sakic have been in senior leadership roles with the Avs since 2013. That's not overnight.
Edmonton has been trying to do that for 10 years now.
Right, and guess what our mistake was? I'll give you a hint: it was entrusting the future of the team to two former players who hadn't proved their mettle in the NHL as executives/coaches beforehand.
I love how Oilers fans suddenly became experts on Colorado's FO since Barrie might be rumored to maybe go to their team.
Does one have to be an expert to know Ryan O'Reilly was traded for lottery tickets?
You realize that we got an awesome return for ROR right? One that we had to listen to other teams' fans tell us (for over a year) that we'd never get.
That you'd never get more than scratch-offs some years out from impacting the roster in a real way? Well, those people were more pessimistic about Sakic's management than I am, I'll tell you what.
Barrie's awesome and should just remain an Av; but if we have to trade him & get a similar package, the team will be better for it in the long run as well.
You can keep talking about the long run, but if you want your CURRENT players to hang around beyond 2019, you better be good in that period- or willing to compete with market salaries. Sakic hasn't shown an interest or aptitude for either.
Just trying to point out your hypocrisy, which is totally valid in any debate as it emphasizes your lack of consistency. Unless you state right here that you don't think Chia is a good GM, in which case I'll withdraw this point.
It's not a point anyone's listening to, believe me. Again, you can't take criticism of Sakic without having to change the subject. It's glaringly obvious.
O'Reilly was pretty much in the driver seat after the Calgary offersheet that Sakic inherited. He had a QO of 6 mill, he wasn't going to take less than 7.5. Any team trading for him would get the same situation, so his value was not that much lower.
Wait, so poor Sakic was rendered so helpless by an offer sheet that he signed O'Reilly to a two-year extension timed to take him right to free agency the YEAR AFTER?
He had choices- he could have paid the man, knowing it's more fruitful to trade players signed for term than those staring the open market in the face. He created that situation, and reaped the consequences of it.
The Avs made the playoffs that year and they were not going to trade O'Reilly away because it was going to weaken their team regardless. It was a perfectly sensible move at that point.
But I thought it was about more than what made sense that day, that season, that it was about the "future" and "long-term"?
The same team that drafted O'Reilly and Barrie in the 2nd and 3rd round. I'm not worried about the Avs scouts. Not the best in the league, but fairly competent. Our pipeline was depleted since we graduated a lot of prospects and missed out on others.
You're the one who believed the team needed to re-stock their pipeline and to do that, they needed to trade a today player for possibilities. You're now saying that you trust the same people who put you in the position to have that empty pipeline in the first place. That's all I'm saying- it's a strange course of logic to follow.