NHL Teams Think Avalanche Trying To Go ‘Big’ At Trade Deadline

It’s March 4, which means we’re just four days away from the NHL Trade Deadline, and the Colorado Avalanche haven’t made a real move yet.

Sure, they moved on from Kurtis MacDermid over the weekend, a trade that gives them a little bit more wiggle room both under the salary cap and in terms of being able to add another contract, but that’s far from a big move. Heck, MacDermid wasn’t even in the Avalanche lineup most nights.

Everything is likely to change this week.

“There are teams who suspect that they will try to do something big,” Elliotte Friedman said of the Avalanche on the NHL Trade Deadline edition of 32 Thoughts.

It’s not really a surprise what they’re after, though.

“Center, no question about it,” Friedman said. “Someone said to me that they wouldn’t be surprised if Colorado has gone after centers who haven’t been on people’s radars yet. Like, people maybe you wouldn’t think of that that player gets traded at this time. Those are the kinds of players that they think Colorado has looked at.”

He then started to list off some of the names that have been discussed before, including both Nick Bjugstad and Alex Kerfoot, who he mentioned a few weeks back. In addition, the “usual suspects” like Scott Laughton and Adam Henrique.

Friedman reiterated again that he believes the Avalanche were in on Chris Tanev, which others have mentioned before, so wonders what they’ll do on defense, if anything. He then addressed the elephant in the room that hovers over everything surrounding the Avalanche heading into the Spring.

“This whole Landeskog thing. Maybe it’s just the extremely paranoid nature of the NHL, but there’s a lot of people that seem to think he’s going to show up on April 20 or 21, whatever it is. We’ll see, but if he is coming back, you have to go for it,” Friedman said.

I would be genuinely surprised if Landeskog showed up for game one of the playoffs, but never say never, I guess. I still lean towards the idea that the Avalanche are going to protect their asset going into next season, knowing they can’t afford for him to suffer a setback.

They also mentioned that, despite Justus Annunen‘s shutout last week, the Avalanche could still hunt for a backup prior to the NHL Trade Deadline.

As always, temper your expectations ahead of the NHL Trade Deadline. There’s only so many moves a team can make when they’re this tight up against the salary cap, but it does sound like other teams around the league think the Avalanche are trying to make a splash. Lots of conversations are had around this time of year, but not everything comes to fruition.

We’ll see what Chris MacFarland has up his sleeve. The Avalanche have told me they expect him to speak either Wednesday or Thursday to the media. Whether or not that’s before or after a move is made is still to be decided.