GDT: NHL Free Agent Frenzy 2024

[Mighty Makar]

Martinez to the Hawks.

 

[Bill Peckerskull]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1807775740538286278

 

[MarchessaultCantRead]

CMac continues to sit on his ass. I thought that the Avs would retain at least one of the trade deadline acquisitions, but that’s not looking likely now.

I still blame Sakic for giving up the GM duties when the Avs had their best chance of being a dynasty. He’s the best GM the Avs have ever had.

I guarantee if Sakic was still the GM, the Avs roster would be much better right now.

 

[henchman21]

Center depth is hard to get, and when teams have it, they rarely give it up. That has always been the crux of moving Colton. Whether or not you think he is a good 3C or not, he is capable of playing the role and having some effectiveness (even here people were speaking highly of him from Oct to Dec). Giving that up is difficult. Especially when the prospect is paying a 4C for that 3C role or an ELC.

 

[GirardSpinorama]

CMac will just have to find a way to turn that situation into an advantage somehow.

For instance, whilst the Landeskog/Nichushkin/Lehkonen situations aren't ideal, it does present an opportunity to sell prospective free agent forwards on the idea of having plenty of ice-time in the Avs top 6 this season, most certainly until November.

Any reclamation project guy will see that there's a couple of big holes in the top 6 to start the year, so they'd have a great chance of making an impact and earning a big payday next year.

Skinner, Arvidsson, and Robertson are some names that come to mind. Maybe even guys like Kubalik, Beauvillier, and Olofsson too.

Can we load up arvidsson's contract with bonuses?

Center depth is hard to get, and when teams have it, they rarely give it up. That has always been the crux of moving Colton. Whether or not you think he is a good 3C or not, he is capable of playing the role and having some effectiveness (even here people were speaking highly of him from Oct to Dec). Giving that up is difficult. Especially when the prospect is paying a 4C for that 3C role or an ELC.

I still think tyler johnson can fit but then i havent watched as much hawks as the pro scouts

 

[jaisen73]

CMac continues to sit on his ass. I thought that the Avs would retain at least one of the trade deadline acquisitions, but that’s not looking likely now.

I still blame Sakic for giving up the GM duties when the Avs had their best chance of being a dynasty. He’s the best GM the Avs have ever had.

I guarantee if Sakic was still the GM, our roster would be much better right now.

So if Sakic was GM Landy would magically have cartilage in his knee and Val wouldn't be an addict? Got it. Check.

 

[RoyIsALegend]

Center depth is hard to get, and when teams have it, they rarely give it up. That has always been the crux of moving Colton. Whether or not you think he is a good 3C or not, he is capable of playing the role and having some effectiveness (even here people were speaking highly of him from Oct to Dec). Giving that up is difficult. Especially when the prospect is paying a 4C for that 3C role or an ELC.

I firmly believe that Drouin’s first line role means more to this team than Colton’s third line role.

Ignoring the roles, the players aren’t even comparable. Drouin is the far better hockey player and even better defensively than Colton anyways. Bednar showed time and time again that he doesn’t trust Colton with any heavy lifting.

 

[henchman21]

Can we load up arvidsson's contract with bonuses?


I still think tyler johnson can fit but then i havent watched as much hawks as the pro scouts

If TJ is your 3C, you're in an awful lot of trouble.

 

[chet1926]

Again....

Callum Ritchie does not play the type of heavy/physical game that Bednar wants out of his bottom 6.

So it's not even an "if it doesn't work..." it's WHEN it doesn't work, you'll be posting every day about how the team sucks, CMac sucks, and you'll probably toss in a "And Landeskog is the worst Captain ever" just to make sure you play all the hits.

He's the best option, draft better. They have no one to blame but themselves for not having any ELC capable players to fill in some holes.

Sick of watching guys like ERod and Drouin walk because Bednar won't play ELCs and management can't figure out how to f***ing draft anyone so that we can do what all other teams do and have ELCs fill some gaps so that we they can retain reasonable players.

 

[Chibby]

 

[Tommy Shelby]

CMac continues to sit on his ass. I thought that the Avs would retain at least one of the trade deadline acquisitions, but that’s not looking likely now.

I still blame Sakic for giving up the GM duties when the Avs had their best chance of being a dynasty. He’s the best GM the Avs have ever had.

I guarantee if Sakic was still the GM, the Avs roster would be much better right now.

Sakic didn't want to be GM anymore, and I believe he was always going to step away from the role after the '22 season, regardless of the outcome. Which is why he loaded up at the deadline in a way never seen before, or since.

 

[MarchessaultCantRead]

So if Sakic was GM Landy would magically have cartilage in his knee and Val wouldn't be an addict? Got it. Check.

If you haven’t noticed the major change since CMac took over, then I don’t know what to tell you.

Ever since CMac took over, the Avs have just gotten worse. It’s not all his fault, but he’s the common denominator in all of it.

 

[hockeyfish]

Can we load up arvidsson's contract with bonuses?


I still think tyler johnson can fit but then i havent watched as much hawks as the pro scouts

No, Arvdsson is not eligable for bonuses.

 

[Bill Peckerskull]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1807777488480633180

 

[LOFIN]

CMac continues to sit on his ass. I thought that the Avs would retain at least one of the trade deadline acquisitions, but that’s not looking likely now.

I still blame Sakic for giving up the GM duties when the Avs had their best chance of being a dynasty. He’s the best GM the Avs have ever had.

I guarantee if Sakic was still the GM, the Avs roster would be much better right now.

Lol...

When Sakic was the GM, he and CMac worked together. When Sakic became the president, him and CMac still work together. Sakic didn't build the cup roster without the help of CMac. And CMac isn't doing his job now without the help and input of Sakic.

This is not just my opinion BTW, but those Avs writers who have done a bit of digging how they do stuff behind the scenes.

 

[The Abusement Park]

I’m sure Cmac checked on Colton’s value league wide to see if it’d make any sense for him to be a cap casualty. His value probably wasn’t bad league wide based on the interest we heard in him, but combined with what it would cost to replace him it probably made no sense to go through with moving him.

 

[Balthazar]

I’m sure Cmac checked on Colton’s value league wide to see if it’d make any sense for him to be a cap casualty. His value probably wasn’t bad league wide based on the interest we heard in him, but combined with what it would cost to replace him it probably made no sense to go through with moving him.

Either that or no one wanted him at full cap hit without sending a contract back

We'll see how much Wennberg gets today

 

[henchman21]

I firmly believe that Drouin’s first line role means more to this team than Colton’s third line role.

Ignoring the roles, the players aren’t even comparable. Drouin is the far better hockey player and even better defensively than Colton anyways. Bednar showed time and time again that he doesn’t trust Colton with any heavy lifting.

I don't buy that. You can get top 6 wings pretty easily in the NHL and they aren't even that expensive. The Avs could even break in Ritchie as a wing to fill in some depth to start. That's what Johnston did in Dallas with Benn taking the center role for a while.

I agree the players aren't comparable... just different roles. Drouin adds skill and an ability to be a top 6 complementary player. Colton is about adding snarl, grit and north south hockey to the Avs. They just play a different type of role. Avs have moved to add a lot more grit and north/south to their game... whether or not that is the correct move remains to be seen and surely there is a good debate there.

With this whole conversation around Colton, what is lost is that the Avs worked for nearly a year to get the center depth back on the team. Moving away from that was always going to be an uphill battle. It may still happen (IIRC clauses planned out like this start on the league day... so 2 more hours), but it isn't a black and white situation.

 

[BobRossColton]

How can we swoop in and steal Swayman?

 

[henchman21]

I’m sure Cmac checked on Colton’s value league wide to see if it’d make any sense for him to be a cap casualty. His value probably wasn’t bad league wide based on the interest we heard in him, but combined with what it would cost to replace him it probably made no sense to go through with moving him.

Avs wanted a cost controlled RD in exchange. Nobody was really willing to go there (yet anyway).

 

[Balthazar]

Avs wanted a cost controlled RD in exchange. Nobody was really willing to go there (yet anyway).

A cost controlled RD was traded for a 4th round pick yesterday

 

[chet1926]

If you haven’t noticed the major change since CMac took over, then I don’t know what to tell you.

Ever since CMac took over, the Avs have just gotten worse. It’s not all his fault, but he’s the common denominator in all of it.

Agreed. Not even taking into consideration Landy or Nuke because that is out of his control. The drafting and the decision making has simply been subpar. Too many misses, not enough hits.

 

[Avs425]

How can we swoop in and steal Swayman?

Avs salary cap swooping in

 

[GirardSpinorama]

Come on Mack, go scout for us another drouin. Preferably not over 30.

1 year prove it deal for Lebanc? Barabanov? Olofsson? All not super old and can comeback. Lebanc is the most drouin like.

 

[LOFIN]

I don't buy that. You can get top 6 wings pretty easily in the NHL and they aren't even that expensive. The Avs could even break in Ritchie as a wing to fill in some depth to start. That's what Johnston did in Dallas with Benn taking the center role for a while.

I agree the players aren't comparable... just different roles. Drouin adds skill and an ability to be a top 6 complementary player. Colton is about adding snarl, grit and north south hockey to the Avs. They just play a different type of role. Avs have moved to add a lot more grit and north/south to their game... whether or not that is the correct move remains to be seen and surely there is a good debate there.

With this whole conversation around Colton, what is lost is that the Avs worked for nearly a year to get the center depth back on the team. Moving away from that was always going to be an uphill battle. It may still happen (IIRC clauses planned out like this start on the league day... so 2 more hours), but it isn't a black and white situation.

I disagree with the notion that a #3C is more important than a top-6 winger, or that the latter are more easily and cheaply available at the deadline. But let's not get into that, we sort of did like a month ago in one of the threads already.

The issue is, that we could have a real disaster with the top-6 wingers come start of the season. We could basically have

Wood - MacK - Rantanen
LOC - Mitts - Kovalenko

As our top-6, if all goes to shit. Drouin would absolutely be needed. Frankly even if Lehky is fine, Drouin would still be needed if Landy isn't top-6 caliber.

So in our situation, we absolutely need the top-6 winger more than #3C.