NFL
By: Jesse Rosales
The Colorado Avalanche have had to deal with more trials and tribulations during this season than I can remember in any recent campaign. Coming off the Stanley Cup-winning season last year, and therefore a shortened offseason, it was no surprise that the Avs got off to a slow start at the beginning of the season. After all, there were plenty of personnel changes during the offseason and some pretty significant injuries to start with as well. The question all season long has been “how good can this team really be, once they are healthy?”
Well now the Avs are getting healthy and there is light at the end of the tunnel. Team Captain Gabriel Landeskog has started skating again, top 6 forwards Val Nichuskin and Artturi Lehkonen are back to playing significant minutes, and young star defenseman Bo Byram has really filled a gap left by All-Star Cale Makar’s absence due to multiple head injuries.
The team is on a hot streak. Plain and simple 6 game-winning streak to be specific. They have gone 7-3 in their last 10 with huge quality wins over the Oilers, Jets, Flames, and Golden Knights. Oh yeah, and those wins were all back-to-back. Last season this team was all about offense and speed and don’t get me wrong, that is still their calling card, but this year feels different. There is more grit to this team. More resilience. More toughness. If this isn’t scary to the rest of the Western Conference, then they aren’t paying attention.
So What Do the Colorado Avalanche Need at the Trade Deadline?
There has already been a bunch of activity in the trade market over the past 2 weeks. We’ve seen big names like Bo Horvat, Ryan O’Reilly, and Timo Meier all get shipped off to new teams in blockbuster trade fashion (and all teams in the East). Last year the Colorado Avalanche made key moves at this time of the season that I believe ultimately resulted in them winning their first Stanley Cup since 2001. There are two areas that I think are key for them to focus on as we approach this year’s NHL Trade Deadline on March 3rd.
2nd Line Centerman:
The Colorado Avalanche currently do not have a solid number 2 centerman. That position used to be filled by Nazem Kadri, who left the team during the offseason to join the Calgary Flames. It is now being filled by a committee and the hope has been that on any given night, one of the 3 true 3rd line centers will step up and play like a second-line center. That rotation has consisted of Alex Newhook, off-season acquisition Evan Rodrigues, and veteran JT Compher. All these guys are great players, but none of them have shown the consistency needed to be a tried and true second-line centerman.
Having already missed out on three really quality options to fill that void in Bo Horvat, Ivan Barbashev, or former Colorado Avalanche forward Ryan O’Reilly, there are still two names that make a lot of sense here. Max Domi of the Chicago Blackhawks and Adam Henrique of the Anaheim Ducks. Both players are relatively affordable and both have the experience that could help keep the Avalanche at the top of the West and compete with whoever comes out of the East. I also don’t think it would take giving up a whole lot to acquire either player which is an added bonus.
Top 6 Defenseman
It really should go without saying but you can’t have too many quality defensemen headed into a playoff run in the NHL. Injuries will happen it’s simply a matter of when not if. The Colorado Avalanche are already short-staffed in that area with the concerns over multiple head injuries to Cale Makar, the broken ankle of Eric Johnson, and the most recent concussion to Kurtis MacDermid.
The Colorado Avalanche have made a small move over the past couple of days in trading away Andreas Englund for Jack Johnson, who was a part of the Stanely Cup winning team last year. To me though, that move was really a break-even move to get someone with the same talent as Englund with a little bit more playoff experience. What the Avalanche really need is a player with the next tier up in skill level.
For that need, there are two names that should be at the top of the list. Jacob Chychrun and Vladislav Gavrikov. It feels like Chychrun has been traded 5 times during this trade season alone, but a-last, he is still a non-playing member of the Arizona Coyotes. It’s clear that Arizona wants to move him, but perhaps they think he is worth more than what teams are offering.
The same could be said about the Columbus Blue Jackets and Gavrikov. On the surface, it seems like there was a ton of interest from top-contending teams on both players. But since nothing has materialized, for whatever reason, it leaves the door wide open for Colorado Avalanche GM Joe Sakic to make some magic happen and bring one of those guys into Colorado.
What if the Colorado Avalanche Do Nothing?
If the Colorado Avalanche do nothing, it’s not the end of the world. They could very well have the most complete team in the Western Conference. The biggest concern is when you start to look at teams in the Eastern Conference and see the moves they have made. Whichever team comes out of the East is going to be a juggernaut in all meanings of the word. The Colorado Avalanche need to make these moves to “keep up with the Jones’s” in a sense.
As it stands today, the team is still the odds-on favorite to win the West. The recent 6 game-win streak has done everything to confirm that. Does Joe Sakic have any magic left and after missing on other big-name players during the trade deadline period, will the talent still be available by the end of this week? In Colorado, it’s “In Sakic We Trust”. There are still a few good options left on the table that can help this team reach another Stanley Cup Finals and there is a deal to get done. It just has to get done.
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