The Latest on the Claude Giroux, Avalanche Potential Trade Scenario (+)

Been on the phone a lot today with several sources of mine throughout the NHL, with advanced insight into the potential trade of Claude Giroux to the Avalanche by the Philadelphia Flyers by the March 21st deadline. Here’s what I can report, with confidence:

• Giroux, 34 and in the last year of a contract with an $8.25 million cap hit, has let it be known to Flyers GM Chuck Fletcher that Colorado is his No. 1, preferred destination on a trade.
• If not the Avs, then Minnesota or St. Louis would be acceptable alternatives.
• The Flyers want to do right by Giroux, who has given a lot to the franchise. So, Fletcher will do his best to deliver him to Colorado – as long as he gets an acceptable package in return.
• But what would the return be? Ah, that is the question.
• One thing I’m sure of: the realistic, current roster player the Flyers would ask for is Tyson Jost. But after that, it becomes a guessing game.
• New Flyers assistant to the GM, Daniel Briere, was in Colorado last week, taking in the Avs-Tampa Bay game, then he was at a Colorado Eagles game the next night.
• From what I’m told, assuming Alex Newhook is off the table as a potential trade piece, the Flyers are essentially hoping for Jost and either one of three Avs prospects: Sampo Ranta, Justin Barron or Drew Helleson.
• And, maybe a mid-range pick, if they get one of those prospects.
• That’s the big dilemma facing Joe Sakic: Do you give up a good, young D-man prospect in Barron or Helleson, plus Jost, for a 34-year-old forward, to join a team that is already the highest-scoring club in the NHL?
• Young, promising defensemen don’t grow on trees, and Sakic is very wary of a deal that might be a repeat of the 1999 trade that sent another young, promising Avs D-man (Robyn Regehr) to Calgary as part of the Theo Fleury blockbuster. The Avs got about three months of services from Fleury, and the Flames got about 15 years of great defense from Regehr.
• That said, the Avs came within one fluky bounce of going to the 1999 Cup Finals with Fleury.
• If Giroux were to join the Avs, he would be a second-line left wing, on a line with Nazem Kadri. Giroux is a premier faceoff man, but so is Kadri. So, who would take the faceoffs on that line? It would depend in which dot the faceoff were to occur. Any draw on the left dot would involve Kadri. Any faceoff in the right dot would involve Giroux. The Avs would never lose a faceoff again, with that line on the ice.
• If Giroux were to join the second line, that would mean Valeri Nichushkin or Andre Burakovsky would be dropped to the third line. Would either of those guys take such a demotion in stride? That’s a concern of Avs management.
• The Avs would probably need third party to help facilitate such a deal. Unless they could convince the Flyers to take Burakovsky and his $4.9 million cap hit. That remains an outside possibility, though Burakovsky can be a UFA this summer, too. The Flyers would have to be assured they could sign him to an extension to accept him in a deal.
• There has been some chatter that Giroux really wants to play 1,000 games as a Flyer before he’s traded. But if that were to happen, he wouldn’t be able to be traded until March 17. That might be later than the Avs, or any team, wants to wait. He probably would have to give up that desire if he wants to be traded to a team like the Avs.
• The Flyers are also have believed to have scouted the DU Pioneers over the weekend, to take a look at Avs draftee Sean Behrens. But, he would be viewed as last resort if they couldn’t get a Barron or a Helleson.