Colorado Avalanche Trade Deadline Targets
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The Colorado Avalanche have a pretty good thing going, sitting at 40-11-4 through 55 games this season, with the trade deadline approaching, March 21st, are the Avalanche buyers or are they content to hit the playoffs with the roster they already have? Based on reports around the league, they appear to be at least investigating every opportunity to improve as a hockey club, and they aren’t leaving any stone unturned. That all being said, which players seem to be the potential targets, who could be moved, and what weaknesses could be shored up with each transaction?
Patrick Kane
Three-time Stanley Cup winner. One-time first overall selection in the NHL Draft. Absolute stud of an American born player. He’s won playoff MVPs, regular season MVPs, regular season points leader trophies, Olympic medals, you name it Kane has it, most likely. There is no question the team gets better with Patrick Kane. The Blackhawks in the last 24-hours announced they are making the decision to embrace a full rebuild and could be going full blown fire-sale here shortly. This same point applies to Marc Andre-Fleury below.
After the announcement that they were embracing a full rebuild, it went pretty viral that Joe Sakic and the Avalanche were all-in on Patrick Kane. A deal for Kane, in my opinion, likely requires lots of draft capital, young players, possibly current second liner, and farm players. But Kane will be a 33-year old, impact player, with Stanley Cup experience, on a contract that goes through the 2022-23 season, more than a single season rental.
Claude Giroux
Claude Giroux is very similar to Kane above in that he is highly decorated and has been a mainstay in the NHL star category for a decade, except he simply lacks a Stanley Cup trophy. A trade for Giroux likely requires draft capital and potentially either a young active roster players or a farm player or two. Giroux comes in and immediately elevates the second or third line, his presence in the faceoff circle will be a sight for sore eyes, and his impact on special teams will without a doubt improve the Avalanche current roster.
Claude Giroux lacks the championship experience, his contract only goes through 2022, and he is older than Kane above, so his price to acquire is likely lower, as he is truly a single playoff rental player. That being said, helping win a Stanley Cup in his twelfth professional season, would be a huge motivation and he would be forever grateful for the opportunity to do so.
Joe Pavelski
Like Claude Giroux above, Joe Pavelski would be a veteran single-season rental player for the 2021-22 playoffs, and then finds himself as an unrestricted free-agent. Joe also lacks a Stanley Cup in his trophy case, and would be forever grateful for the opportunity to hang up his skates with a championship under his belt. He is 37-years old and is not getting any younger, so his price is likely less than Giroux, but again he’s bordering on the upper age limit of NHL Veteran, and could be a riskier option.
Pavelski is a career 60-80 points per season guy, 20+ goal scorer annually, and he has the most playoff goals by an American born player with 61 goals in 161 playoff games. In those 161 playoff games, he has 119 total points, Pavelski has had numerous deep playoff runs, but never able to win it all.
Joe Pavelski in an Avalanche sweater would bring in a big body, mean, physical goal scorer with playoff experience to the lineup, and give the team one more weapon to score from anywhere on the ice. Pavelski adds talent, toughness, experience, and he boasts a near 55% career faceoff win percentage bolstering that weakness of the roster.
Marc Andre-Fleury
No secret, as I mentioned above that the Blackhawks are rebuilding and they have been actively shopping Andre-Fleury all season. The Avalanche appear to be set at goalie, if I was a betting man, but Pavel Fancouz and Darcy Kuemper are both closer to solid goalies, and MAF is a career difference maker. Taking one of those two out of the rotation would feel bad, but the reality of adding Andre-Fleury to a Stanley Cup hopeful roster is that you take upgrades where-ever you can get them.
I think that Fleury is the type of goaltender that will steal your team games, he has nights where he simply refuses to get scored on no matter how many pucks he faces. He has won three Stanley Cup trophies all with the Pittsburgh Penguins, he went to another with the Vegas Golden Knights. He is an absolute rock-star between the pipes, and an all-time great. When the Flower finally retires, there will be no mistake that he was one of the top five goalies of all time, and one more championship under his belt might just be the send off gift he’s looking for to ride off into the sunset.
All that being said, we would likely have to give up a goalie prospect, draft capital, and possibly other active roster depth players to acquire a 37-year old rental for the playoffs. I think that this player does elevate the chances of winning a cup significantly.
Trade Pieces
- Future draft picks
- 1sts and 2nds depending on the caliber of the player obtained
- Bowen Byram
- Huge name, amazing player, incredibly talented, would be tragic to see him go. But the reality is that he cannot stay healthy for us, and his availability is a problem for making a Stanley Cup Playoff Run
- Samuel Girard
- Talented young offensive defensemen that is under contract through 2026. He is an asset and is actively on the Avalanche bottom 2 defensemen. He could be moved
- Martin Kaut
- Talented, past first round draft pick, that has just never gotten onto the roster and stuck around.
- Shane Bowers
- Feels like we as fans have been waiting for this guy to arrive for 5 years now, maybe time to trade him and make a serious run at a championship.
- Naz Kadri, Andre Burakovsky and Val Nichushkin are all Unrestricted Free Agents after this season and could be moved, unlikely but dont want to take it off the table.
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I have loved MAF since he broke in the league and have been arguing for his move to Colorado for last two seasons after Vegas committed to Lehner. I do hope he lands in Colorado but MAF is not a Top 5 goalie of all time as the article states. He’s not even close. One could argue he is in top 20 goaltenders in the history, but, no where near top 10 regardless of his win total which is inflated with the current stats kept by the NHL. Two of his three Cup wins he was back-up to Matt Murray although he did well when called on those playoff runs. He’a durable, a current top 10 NHL goalie this season behind a brutal team, and has experience the Avs need. Hope they make the trade.