13 NHL Scouts At Avalanche Game Today

I’ve learned, over the years, not to get too excited when some scouts are in the building for Avalanche games. Some scouts are there most every game, for Avalanche home games. Some scouts live in the cities, like Denver, for the teams where they work for elsewhere.

But scouts from 13 teams, like there were today at the Avalanche-Blues game? Yeah, that’s a lot, much more than usual.

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire. I would say: there’s no question that some stuff is going on, information that’s being gathered on players. Thing is: the majority of scouts might have been looking more at Blues players than Avalanche players.

The Blues are rapidly turning into one of the league’s most disappointing teams, and their 3-2 OT loss to an injury-ravaged Avalanche team won’t quiet the trade rumors. Ryan O’Reilly, in the last year of his deal? Yeah, he’s probably going to be on the trade block. Vladimir Tarasenko, who only got his first power-play goal in 45 games today? Yeah, he’s on the trade block probably nonetheless.

The Avalanche probably need a second-line center moving forward, even when all their injured guys come back. So, the trade rumors won’t stop until March 3 when it comes to this subject. Jonathan Toews? O’Reilly? Someone else? Let the rumor mill spin.

But, yeah, 13 teams in the building today in St. Louis is a lot. There is a Christmas trade freeze coming soon, so we might see some trades right before that. Or, maybe we won’t. Maybe the scouts are just gathering information for further down the line.

Trades are a part of the business, whether players want to try to deny it or not. Most anybody can be had for the right price. It’s a business. In the end, players are cattle. Available to the buyer at the best price.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens.