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PostPosted: Mon Apr 23, 2018 5:55 pm 
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https://www.bsndenver.com/joe-sakic-ple ... ing-it-up/

Sakic had his first offseason presser today.

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The team hasn’t decided on a new AHL coach yet. That AHL team will play in Loveland starting this fall, moving from San Antonio. The team parted ways with their most recent AHL coach, Eric Veilleux.

Sakic expects defenseman Connor Timmins to make the club out of training camp.

By saying he hopes the Avs become even younger and quicker, it might be a strong signal that potential unrestricted free agents such as Blake Comeau and Mark Barberio may not return. Maybe that’ll be totally wrong, but it’s a sign probably.

Sakic is OK with top prospect Cale Makar going back for a sophomore season at Umass-Amherst, but hopes – and sounded like he expects – him to turn pro when the season’s over.

The Avs expect to name a new ECHL affiliate at some point soon.

He had essentially a “we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it” demeanor when asked about the status of goalie Jonathan Bernier, who can be UFA on July 1.


Sakic stressed the team is "staying the course," and will not "chase" free agents. I don't expect, and actually hope, they don't make a big splash in free agency. Of course, a phone call to John Taveras's agent would be just due diligence, but apart from Paul Stastny there's no one on the market who interests me.

I honestly wouldn't mind Comeau and Barberio coming back, but I think there are players in the system who could provide something potentially better. Both were acquired as "interim" measures and both have done their job admirably.

I fully expect Patrik Nemeth to be back next season. Yeah, drove me up the wall at times but he was also a waiver-wire pickup who played 2nd pairing minutes virtually the entire season. He was Bednar's "closer" and did a lot of the big defensive work to hold down leads. I was mostly against him coming back but his performance in the playoffs convinced me otherwise.


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PostPosted: Thu Apr 26, 2018 12:25 pm 
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He won't win but Jared Bednar has been nominated as a finalist for the Jack Adams trophy.

https://www.milehighhockey.com/2018/4/2 ... nhl-awards

Normally I can't stand the criteria on which they base the voting on this award but I don't really have a problem with these three nominees. Obviously I'm a bit biased when it comes to Bednar because I pretty much bought in from Day One. I'm hoping he at the very least continues to prove the doubters that remain in Avs fandom wrong.


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PostPosted: Thu Apr 26, 2018 12:39 pm 
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Any other year and I think Bednar would've won it. Alas this is Gallant's.

They're in a great spot cap-wise. No big pending UFAs this season or next other than Varlamov, who they may not want anyway by then. Plenty of time and cap room to throw long-term money at Rantanen, Kerfoot and Zadorov.

In the meantime, I assume they've learned from their mistakes and won't sign any UFAs on their last legs. They might even be cool with a EK-Barrie-Zad-Girard-Nemeth-Barberio top-6, for all I know.

I don't see them being in on the big UFAs, but they've got plenty of room for a sandpaper-type like Komarov, Nash, Ryan etc.

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PostPosted: Thu Apr 26, 2018 1:04 pm 
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Geez, Rantanen! :shock:

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PostPosted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 2:18 pm 
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Bosc wrote:
Geez, Rantanen! :shock:


What? What's happened? Are you referring to his participation in the World Cup?


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PostPosted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 3:02 pm 
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Speaking of the Worlds, turns out the Avs were REALLY banged up. Nikita Zadorov, Patrik Nemeth, and Gabriel Landeskog all turn down offers to go to their respective teams, citing injuries. Nemeth says he's going to need surgery.

Oddly enough, Mikko Rantanen seems set to go despite the fact he clearly played injured. This has led to some confusion amongst Avs fans concerning said injury. He and the organization clearly acknowledged he wasn't 100% but wouldn't go into detail as to what the injury was and its severity. To his credit, he said it was no excuse for his middling postseason performance (even though it kinda was). I'm sure if it were a severe injury that risked getting worse, he or the Avs would say no.

So far the only guy from the Avs I know is going is Sven Andrighetto for Switzerland.


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PostPosted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 4:13 pm 
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Pokecheque wrote:
Bosc wrote:
Geez, Rantanen! :shock:


What? What's happened? Are you referring to his participation in the World Cup?


No...the year he had!

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PostPosted: Fri Apr 27, 2018 4:22 pm 
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Bosc wrote:
No...the year he had!


Oh, you had me worried there for a sec... :lol:

Anyhow, yeah, he was the team's best offensive weapon apart from MacKinnon. I used to get a bit sheepish about making the comparison but really he's very similar in terms of physical build/skillset to Marian Hossa IMO. He can pretty much do it all.

I really want to get one of the new Avs jerseys, still torn though on who to get. It's either gonna be Rantanen or Girard, but I'm almost 100% positive Girard will be switching from 49 to 94, the number he wore in the Q and his brief stint in Nashville (it wasn't available in Colorado due to Andrei Mironov having taken it first, but he's gone now). But I'm thinking I'm still gonna get Rants' 96 because he's quickly become one of my favorites.


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PostPosted: Wed May 02, 2018 11:51 pm 
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Avs sign 27-year-old Czech netminder Pavel Francouz.

https://www.nhl.com/avalanche/news/aval ... -298404626

It could be nothing, it could be a very shrewd acquisition. Only time will tell.


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PostPosted: Thu May 03, 2018 9:10 am 
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Francouz put up video game numbers in the K and I heard some kvetching from Edmonton media about how little Colorado paid for him compared to what the Oilers paid for Koskinen, but there's a big difference, literally: Francouz is 5'11/6'0 and Koskinen is 6'6.

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PostPosted: Tue May 08, 2018 10:31 pm 
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Avs sign 2017 5th rounder Igor Shvyrev.

https://www.denverpost.com/2018/05/08/i ... avalanche/

This is great news. The new Eagles affiliate gets another skill player and the Avs get another high-end prospect. Word has it he would’ve been picked a lot higher but fell because no one thought he’d make the jump.


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PostPosted: Wed May 09, 2018 11:11 pm 
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I'm hearing one major draw for both Francouz and Shvyrev is the fact that even if they don't make the team and start in the AHL, they're only an hour or so away from the NHL. Having the Eagles a stone's throw from Denver is a big improvement from where the affiliates used to be (Hershey, Cleveland, and San Antonio previously).

No ECHL affiliate named yet. PLEASE let it be the Swamp Rabbits!


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PostPosted: Thu May 10, 2018 7:36 pm 
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Here is the slow-news-day item: Defenseman Mark Alt, a late-season waiver claim, gets re-upped for two years. It's a two-way deal, but he's also not waiver exempt so I'm guessing they slapped the extra year on so that he'd pass through more easily. In any event he's a perfectly good 6/7 guy, size, speed, and decent puckmoving ability. Some say the Avs jumped on this because it's very likely Mark Barberio, that other waiver claim guy, won't be back. We'll see I guess.

If nothing else, it led to this nice bit of punnage: https://twitter.com/Avalangelist/status ... 6247442432

The blueline corps for next year, barring any huge moves in the offseason, will look something like this.

Zadorov - Barrie
Girard - Johnson
Nemeth - Timmins(?)
Alt

That's a HUGE if on Conor Timmins, who should probably spend a year in the A before making the jump. There's also Nicolas Meloche, who might turn into the first big win for the Avs' development team as he spent time at both the ECHL and AHL levels this last season and went from afterthought to top-pairing guy.

This might also be the end of Duncan Siemens' time with the Avalanche, but again, we'll see.


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PostPosted: Fri May 11, 2018 2:39 pm 
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My best stab at an Avalanche opening night 2018 lineup if the team stands pat this offseason...

Gabriel Landeskog - Nathan MacKinnon - Mikko Rantanen
Sven Andrighetto - Tyson Jost - Colin Wilson
Alexander Kerfoot - Carl Soderberg - J.T. Compher
Matt Nieto - Alexei Kamenev - A.J. Greer
Extras: Gabriel Bourque, Dominic Toninato

I think the Avs will at least make a phone call to Winnipeg Game 7 Hero Paul Stastny, but I'm simply not sure what he's looking for. If I was him I'd know it was my last and best chance for long-term financial security, so I'd be going for max market value. But he might be looking at other things as well, so I just don't know. He'd be a great addition to fill in that 2nd line spot, and while he's 32, I don't see him aging like a lot of other NHLers might.


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PostPosted: Tue May 15, 2018 3:52 pm 
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Mark Barberio re-signs with the Avs for 2 years, $1.45 million AAV. He was making $700,000 previously.

I'm fine with this. He was shaky to start the season, got up to speed and played a very solid top-four role as the season progressed, and you really noticed the hole in the lineup when he went down with a long-term injury. He actually formed a very solid pairing during the team's 10-game win streak with fellow waiver-wire pickup Patrik Nemeth. I think part of the frustration is that he has all the tools to be a top-flight guy (size, skating, puckhandling, shooting) and occasionally has outright disastrous games where he seemingly can't do anything right. But all in all, he plays a quiet, low-event game with decent underlying numbers. He is the King of the chip-shot out of the zone, which is better than Nemeth, who was king of the frantic fling down the ice for a whistle.

So that leaves Nemeth himself as probably the only other vet on defense to be signed yet. I'm sure it will happen. Conor Timmins doesn't really have a spot, which is fine since he should start out in the minors anyway.


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PostPosted: Wed May 23, 2018 12:27 am 
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Image

I'm fairly certain that's the insanely hot Lauren Gardner on the left holding the mic, but I don't believe Zadorov is ogling her...


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PostPosted: Tue May 29, 2018 12:23 pm 
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More minor news, the Avs re-sign Gabriel Bourque to a one-year deal of, I believe, $950K. I'm glad he's sticking around. Decent physical guy who has a good defensive acumen, but not much in the way of puck skill. That's pretty much the guy you want as your 13th forward.


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PostPosted: Tue May 29, 2018 1:50 pm 
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Some pretty major news in Avs fandom--longtime TV play-by-play voice Mike Haynes resigns.

https://www.milehighhockey.com/2018/5/2 ... ude-sports

I'll be honest, I have mixed feelings about this. I thought Haynes' overexuberance was a plus when he was teamed with the steady and knowledgeable Norm Jones on Avs' radio broadcasts. I also really liked the TV team of John Kelly and Peter McNab. That all got messed up once Altitude took over. Kelly left to helm St. Louis Blues broadcasts (his old man had the gig way back when so it was his dream to follow in the guy's footsteps, no hard feelings) and Altitude hired Doug McLeod of "Mystery, Alaska" fame alongside McNab. The first game was so disastrous they fired McLeod and rushed Haynes into the TV booth, where he's remained all these years until now. I never really liked Haynes and McNab as a broadcast team. They were fine, but I felt Altitude could have, and should have, done a lot better.

I'm hoping this isn't health-related. Haynes had to step away from the booth briefly a few years back to undergo surgery on a brain aneurysm that actually affected his sight :shock: but he fully recovered.

I just hope Altitude takes their time and gets the right person (man or woman, I honestly don't care so long as they are good) for the job. They have been notorious in the past for going cheap in that department.


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PostPosted: Wed Jun 06, 2018 2:28 pm 
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This is so weird regarding Haynes. Not a peep, not a word from Altitude following his abrupt departure. People like Lauren Gardner and Marc Moser, who have pretty close working relationships with him, haven't even made mention of it. I can't help but think more will come out in the months and years to come, and it won't be good.


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PostPosted: Wed Jun 06, 2018 2:32 pm 
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Few teams are in as good a position this offseason to add assets as the Avalanche. They have loads of cap room to spare, in fact they're in the potentially dangerous position of HAVING to add salary just to get to the floor. There are two approaches teams have taken to this situation. They can do what Arizona has done under Chayka and take a couple dead contracts here and there to make up the cap room, or they can do what the Sabres did under Tim Murray and actually spend money on a player. Unfortunately the "we gotta spend it somewhere" player ended up being Matt Moulson, who was waived, demoted, and then exiled to Ontario, California. I guess that beats Rochester, NY though.

I'd just as soon the Avs try to stay out of the free agency craze in July, because you just know some extraordinarily stupid bidding wars will be taking place given the circumstances. But if there's mutual interest, and I've no reason to think there isn't, I wouldn't mind the Avs bringing back Paul Stastny. The Avs' biggest weaknesses last season were winning faceoffs (worst team in the league by a huge margin in that department), secondary scoring, and overall team defense. Stastny addresses all three of those things in one fell swoop. And it's fine that he's 32 at this point because if players develop as they should, he could be transitioned to a 3rd line (and maybe even 4th line) role in subsequent years. It just makes too much sense not to do, unless he decides to sign a huge contract offered by someone else. And that would totally be his right given that this is his last, best chance to truly cash in.

Apart from that I don't see anyone that fits the Avs needs to a large degree. I don't think Tavares will hit free agency, but maybe I'm wrong.


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