Wheels are turning in Colorado.

[Ville Isopaa]

For the first time this season, the financially troubled Colorado Avalanche are looking at finishing the season with a positive budget. After seeing Super stars and future Hall of Famers like Peter Forsberg, Martin Brodeur, Pavel Bure, Chris Drury go over the season, the turn now came to legendary defensman Phil Housley.
A team that ended last season with 9 players with salaries over 2m, have traded or let go most of those players and are left with two, Tony Amonte and Janne Niinimaa. In the process the total salary of the team has dropped from roughly 48m (7th in the league) to 22m (25th in the league).

On ice the changes have been big, but the team has definetly got a ground to build on with a solid goaltending trio in Denis, Nurminen and Sauve. They're young competative and will most likely force the team to trade atleast one of them within the next few season.

On defense the loss of Housley is felt mostly in the leadership and offensive side of the game that he brought. It's turn now for the strong group of 26-28 year old guys to take another step up in their game and lead the strong defense. The defense is still the strongest part of the team with guys like Niinimaa, Danny Markov, Colin White, Lubo Visnovsky, Nik Hävelid, Ivan Majesky showing the way for Shaone Morrisonn, Konstantin Korneev and other young players.

Among the forwards, the changes have been big. Left from last season are only the trio of Amonte, McAmmond and Huselius. New blood has been brought in lead by youngsters Andy MacDonald, Tyler Arnason, Marc Chouinard, Niko Dimitriakos, Shane Willis and Jarrett Stoll. Some veterans have also been brought in to teach the kids a trick or two. Leading that group are Greg Johnson, Chris MacAllister, Paul Ranheim and Reid Simpson. The future on offense looks bright. Czech defensive specialist Radovan Somik is ready to step in at any time. In the minors Tim Jackman has been playing great two-way hockey and should get a shot at making the team next fall along with Martin Samuelsson, Dimitri Afanasenkov, Greg Campbell and Adrian Foster.

GM Isopää has stated that even if the budget is back on positive, the team is not done dealing yet. The obvious two players who could be close to being move are the two highest paid players, RW Tony Amonte and D Janne Niinimaa. "I'm not done trimming the budget, but the ship has been turned and we're sailing away from the red seas of negative budgets."

It has also been rumored that an AGM might be joining GM Isopää in the management of the team. Expect an announcement about the subject later on this week.

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Finally, Colorado will be listening to offers on Amonte, Houlder and Niinimaa from all teams. So if there's intrest, send a PM or mail. For all you who have sent offers on either of the player, re-send them or make a new one.
I'm primarily looking for affordable young players, but will listen to all offers.

Click to read more...

 

[HFNHL Red Wings]

Ville,
Please check your e-mail. I've sent you 3 offers over the past 2 months for one of those players you list as available and none have been responded to.

 

[Dr.Sens(e)]

Ville,
Please check your e-mail. I've sent you 3 offers over the past 2 months for one of those players you list as available and none have been responded to.

Ah yes...the oh so sweet sound of desperation from a division rival.

 

[Ohio Jones]

Just as a heads-up, Amonte is still among those players GMs are restricted form trading because they re-signed prior to becoming UFAs last year. We had previously set Game Day 80 as the date, but that was not accounting for the compressed schedule we are running on. The original intention was to set the date at the mid-way mark of the season; this season that means that trades cannot be submitted to the DoPP or ADoPP until the games from game day 59 are complete.

We have currently completed game day 47, so we are less than 2 weeks away from the trade restriction on re-signed players being lifted.

 

[Ville Isopaa]

Ville,
Please check your e-mail. I've sent you 3 offers over the past 2 months for one of those players you list as available and none have been responded to.

I've looked through my mailbox and only found one offer from you that wasn't replied. I've replied it now.

 

[HFNHL Red Wings]

I've looked through my mailbox and only found one offer from you that wasn't replied. I've replied it now.

Thanks, I'll see it when I get home tonight.
Hoping it's good news (fingers crossed it's not a 'thank's but no thanks' response)

I have some work to do to catch up to that Quain guy

 

[GM Bruins]

Thanks, I'll see it when I get home tonight.
Hoping it's good news (fingers crossed it's not a 'thank's but no thanks' response)

I have some work to do to catch up to that Quain guy

The arms race continues in the West...

 

[HFNHL Red Wings]

The arms race continues in the West...

I keep lobbying for Detroit to move to the East but they won't let me in

 

[Donga]

I keep lobbying for Detroit to move to the East but they won't let me in

Now that would be a bad move.