harmfuljays wrote:
Pokecheque wrote:
The fucking Denver Post didn't even bother sending a reporter to the draft.
Yeah its like I said.....this town has checked out on the Avs.
What is Sakic doing to this team? I guess they can't all be Yzermans.
The Post is reportedly in big trouble financially. Westword said that if Terry Frei hadn't served himself up on a platter like he did they would've laid him off anyway. But still, to not even send Chambers...ridiculous.
As for what Sakic's doing, that's the big question. No one quite knows, and some (like me) suspect he doesn't either. They actually made some decent moves down the stretch when all hope was lost, acquiring guys like Nieto and Andrighetto, FINALLY calling up guys like Compher (thought to be fair he was injured a very portion of the year) and Siemens, changing from a big, slow, soft team to one that was smaller, faster, and tougher. And of course after keeping things secret they did the right thing and sent Francois Beauchemin on his way.
Sakic and Roy deserve credit for completely overhauling the drafting/development department of the organization. It's still a work in progress but the system looks like it has legit prospects at all positions instead of a bunch of scrubs from only the OHL and WHL. The shift away from the extremely Euro-phobic tendencies of Rick Pracey may finally be starting to bear fruit as well.
Sakic also deserves credit for handling the Ryan O'Reilly situation as well as anyone could have been expected to. When it finally became clear that O'Reilly was not going to settle for Duchene/MacKinnon money, he got a decent-enough package for him. Grigorenko is a big fat bust, but Zadorov and Compher are good pieces thus far.
HOWEVER...he has completely fumbled the ball with Duchene. The uncertainty has been killing everyone, including Duchene.
We will see what he does coming up here. He needs to qualify RFAs today, and I'm guessing Mikhail Grigorenko and Eric Gelinas will not be among those tendered. Then he's gotta get Nikita Zadorov signed to a reasonable contract, get some assistants hired, and get ready for the season.
I'm guessing they'll be looking for a backup goalie and depth defender in FA. Maybe a depth forward but really, they could go with what they have.