Evan’s NHL Daily: Central Division Tiers, Are Canadiens And Avalanche A Trade Fit?

With the NHL season fast approaching, sites all over the Internet are coming up with tiers for the divisions, conferences, and league in general. We’ll take a look at one Central Division prediction and see what we think.

Pavel Francouz doesn’t appear as though he’ll be ready to start the year, so are the Canadiens and Avalanche a trade fit?

All that and more in this Saturday edition of Evan’s Daily.

Colorado Hockey Now

We posted some quotes and observations from Thursday’s rookie camp practice. The prospects played Arizona yesterday, and pulled out the win in overtime. Because of the wedding I was in, I wasn’t able to watch, but should have a small summary up today and I’ll be ready for tomorrow’s game.

Avalanche And Canadiens A Trade Fit?

With the Pavel Francouz news, the Avalanche will be looking for an NHL calibre goaltender.

The Montreal Canadiens might be able to help.

They’ve got a few goaltenders that could step in and backup Alexandar Georgiev, but the one that really sticks out is Casey DeSmith. He’s a little expensive at $1.8 million, but the trade cost should be very little, considering he was a throw-in last month in the Erik Karlsson deal.

The question, if you’re the Avalanche, is do you trade an asset for a goalie or wait and see if you can snag one on waivers? Montreal can’t keep all their goalies, so I imagine one may hit waivers. That may be the wise move for Colorado, but they’ve got some time to figure that out.

Central Division Tiers

Do you agree with Sportsnet’s tier ranking in the Central Division?

They’ve got the Avalanche and Stars in tier one, with Minnesota all alone in tier two. The Blues sit alone in tier three, while Winnipeg and Nashville are in tier four. The two young teams, Arizona and Chicago, sit in tier five.

I agree with the first two tiers, but I don’t see what other people see in St. Louis. Their defense is bad and their goaltending is bad. They do have the ability to score goals, but I wouldn’t put them above a team like Winnipeg right now.

National Hockey Now

What pissed off Sidney Crosby last year?

The Boston Bruins believe in Pavel Sacha and Charlie Coyle, but I’m not sure many others do…

Still looking for an NHL contract, Phil Kessel was skating with the Golden Knights players this week.