Avalanche Pregame Notes
Avalanche Mailbag: Trade Deadline Fallout & Stretch Run — Ask Us Anything!
With the busy trade deadline behind us and a month remaining in the regular season, we felt this was a great time for a mailbag at Colorado Hockey Now.
Do you have questions about the Avalanche’s deadline moves? How about Mikko Rantanen landing in Dallas? Or the final stretch before the playoffs? Let’s talk about it.
Drop your questions in the comments below. We will pick the best questions and answer them at the end of the week. Every subscriber will get at least one question answered.
Get your questions in by 1:30 pm on Sunday!
All questions must be submitted in the comments section below.
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Mikko Rantanen Departed Colorado With a Complicated Legacy. Should That Be the Case?
First question:
It seems like Mikko was the big loser in his whole situation where he didn’t want to leave Colorado, and ended up signing for what the Avs were offering anyway (but for a rounding error). But as between the 3 franchises (Dallas, Carolina, and Colorado), who won and who lost?
Second question:
Is Brock Nelson and expensive rental for this year’s cup run, or do you think the Avs will try to re sign him? Same question for Ryan Lindgren.
At this point would it be better for the team if Landy didn’t come back? I mean we have wingers and having him come back at 7ish mil against the cap without the production would hurt. Maybe that cap space would be better spent on someone else and MacK gets the C
Makar should get the C.
It would seem that MacKinnon would be a favorite to wear the “C,” but most observers believe he doesn’t want it. Makar has been the de facto captain the last two seasons – he’s the one who talks to the media after tough losses, he’s the last one off the ice every game, and has been the heart of the team in the absence of Landeskog.
Avs have 8 million in cap this offseason.
If landeskog stays on LTIR then that means avs have 15 million in cap space if offseason. But if landy comes off LTIR then it just means avs have 8 million.
But I don’t know LTIR affects the offseason meaning i think the avs can only sign players after landy put on LTIR so they can be cap compliant before season
Landeskog can’t be placed on LTIR until the first day of the season. Teams are allowed to spend 10% over the cap in the offseason, or approx $9.5m over this summer.
Thoughts on why CMac and Bednar are never mentioned in the GM/Coach of the year conversations on national media?
No other GM re-built his team on the fly to the extent CMac has this year. And Beds keep it all running have to use more players than any other team in the NHL, due to injuries and suspensions.
The front office really emptied the cupboards for this playoff run. If the Avs are eliminated in the first or second round, do the costs start to look unacceptable? Or is this just what you do when you have 29 and 8?
Assuming Mikko really did wish to stay in CO, do you think he, his agent and Chris Mcfarland had direct conversation…and that Mikko knew of the $12M AVV was offered…and it was their final offer? I hear he wanted $14M from the Avs, he rejected $13.5M from Carolina, then signs for $12M with the Stars. I like our team now, but we’ll miss Mikko; and to have him in Dallas is terrible.
do you think to re sign Brock Nelson or is really a location player if don’t re sign i think it’s cost to much
If we could resign one of our three DL additions, which would you (AD) prefer? And which is most likely?
Fast forward to this seasons end, win or lose, where do the Avs go, and what can they do roster wise? I don’t like rental players, and the Avs threw away too much leaving them pretty much empty. I know your window to win is small, but if they don’t win it this year, have the Avs put themselves in a hole they won’t be able to climb out of?
Three awards-related questions. First question: It seems like award voters and media keep favoring other defenseman over Makar for the Norris this year – first Hughes and now Werenski after the former got injured. While those guys are (and were) having very good seasons, it still seems like Cale should be leading that race based on his numbers and two-way dominance from the blue line. So is he the new Victor Hedman: the defenseman who is a Norris finalist every season, but has his production questioned due to a Hart candidate teammate (Kucherov and MacKinnon), and winds up with only… Read more »
Question.
Do you think they avs try and resign Nelson considering they traded Ritchie or do you think they swing for fences and sign bennett to 8 year contract.
Considering they kept manson and colton do you think they get traded in offseason for cap relief.
They can only sign Bennett to a 7 year contract if he hits UFA
-Other than Wood (obvious), what contracts do you think the Avs try to move in the offseason.
-how do you see JB lining up our bottom two D pairings in the playoffs. Lindgren with Manson has been rough in early returns. Sammy squared has looked good, but lack of size might be too much for the post season.
We need Val for a legitimate run. Does anyone have a feel for how he’s doing since he came back from his suspension? I want to believe his relative comfort speaking English and his friendship with Blackwood are good signs. Am I reading too much into the small snippets we get from him?
I hadn’t heard he had a friendship with Blackwood, that’s great.
Additional question from me: Is there any chance the NHL will finally ditch the dumbest playoff seeding format in sports? With the Central being the clear best division in the league, it seems silly that three of the top teams in the NHL will have to play each other in the first and seconds rounds (again), while cupcakes in the Pacific get the much easier path. Is it going to take further expansion to shake things up in the best post season tournament in sports?
They should just do like ok 1st place central plays 8th play wild card from pacific. Then and place plays 3rd place from pacific.
You know what I mean
NFL seeding is worse.
No earthly idea why they don’t just go back to the old 1 – 8 in each conference seeding model. Nobody wants to see the same matchups EVERY year in the 1st round. Typical NHL. You only want to see the same matchups every year if it’s organic, where two good teams run into each other in later rds because they’re both that good
Nobody wants or desire to see Edmonton beat in LA in 5 for the 10th straight year.
Was it AAV or term that let the Avs lose Naz? I wonder what could have happened since 2022 if the team had kept a capable 2C.
To my understanding it was both but mainly AAV. That was 2 years after the pandemic started & the salary cap did not increase from $81.5m/year (per team) until 2023-24. I think most teams had to make some difficult choices.
I agree, the team hasn’t been the same since Naz left the team. I do think Brock is a really good fit. If the team can stay healthy (and Nuke gets a sober companion, or stays clean), I really believe they could have a longer playoff run.
Will Bednar encourage Necas to change his style of play in the playoffs? I love watching Necas but it seems he needs to play more in straight lines when the ice gets tough to earn in the playoffs. Canes fans felt he was a disappointment in past runs.
The significant cap raise for the next few years was announced AFTER Mikko was traded. If CMac and the front office had known that large of a cap raise was coming, it seems like offering Mikko 12Mx8 would have been much more feasible; still a hometown discount; and imo, no question. My question is: Did CMac and the NHL front offices know/expect (at the time of the Mikko trade) that the cap was going to raise so significantly? If so, it seems like a massive miss, or at best, terrible luck for the Avs front office to trade Mikko when… Read more »
Omg with the Mikko….we are a better team now period. Mikko did us a favor showing his true colors and allowing us to deal from a position of strength. He is gone, not coming back, time for the fan base to move on.
Lol. In the defense of all the Mikko fanboys. The team IS better. But that’s because of the ancillary deadline adds. If all they had done of significance was trade him for Necas & Drury. This team would be slightly worse off.
Everyone knows the Avs are a fast skating team. I have two questions about skating.
1st … Who do you believe is the smoothest skater on the team? (I’m always watching for this)
2nd ,,, which of our deadline era additions brings the best skating?
Would it be overstepping for the Avalanche to assign a handler type person to Nichushkin coming down the stretch? I feel bad even thinking such a thing, but he is so important to the team, and they are his employer. Just someone to hang out with him and give him support?
I’m was joking with a friend about him getting a sober companion. All seriousness though, Nuke has looked really good. I know he doesn’t do a lot of press but sometimes you can see the locker room after a game or hear from other players & it sounds like Nichushkin & Blackwood hit off a s Blackwood has taken interest in him.
Addiction is a beast and most people who move forward surround themselves with good people. I’m kinda hoping that’s the case.
I don’t think it’s silly at all. I think it would be silly after everything the Avs have seen in the past two years, his importance to the team & you have million & millions invested in him. If they DIDN’T have some sort of internal support staff or travel companion with him for the foreseeable future.
Going into the season Kovalenko, Calum Ritchie & Nabokov were considered coveted prospects. With Kovalenko & Ritchie gone and the Avs not having a 1st Round pick– has management discussed acquiring new prospects & draft picks? Do they have anyone else in the pipeline who could make a difference in the next season or two?
1st round picks only really matter if you’re a lottery team. And even then, not much is a guarantee outside of the first ~5 picks.
Not taking anything away from his abilities,but did Rantanen become the player he is because of who’s line he predominantly played on?
Depends who you ask, I would say yes. Jeremy would tell you he is the greatest player ever and carried the team all by himself.
Lmao. It’s funny I already had replied to your other Mikko Rant (no pun intended) before I came across this. I never said he carried the team. I just think a lot of people haven’t given him his due as an elite player (I know you feel differently). And have also dismissed his value by calling him a “MacKinnon merchant”. With him in Dallas it adds a component to this whole thing. Obviously the Avs couldn’t have foreseen him being there, especially before free agency. But if he goes off in the first Rd against the Avs & the Avs… Read more »
Can you shed any light a what the Avs are doing defense-wise? They needed a good 2nd pair RHD, but didn’t get one at the deadline. The goal with Lindgren was to give him less minutes than he played in New York and balance out the physical presence in the line up, but so far he isn’t playing substantially less (averaging 19:11 per game instead of 19:56) and is largely playing with Manson, leaving Girard and Malinski to play less minutes without the physical presence. That Lindgren-Manson pair looks not great and the underlying numbers say the same. Meanwhile, Malinski… Read more »
I wouldn’t mind seeing Wood find somebody else’s tooth on the ice and stick it in his mouth
Who would you prefer to see the Avs play in round 1 and why?
According to Pierre Lebrun, the Avalanche have offered Rantanen an 8-year contract at 11.65M per season. Carolina would have offered an 8-year contract at 12.5M per season but would have been willing to offer more since there was never a negotiation between Rantanen and the Hurricanes. On the morning of the trade deadline, Dallas was ready to offer a maximum of $12M per season to Rantanen. Rantanen would then have asked for 13M per season. During the day, Rantanen let Dallas know that he was accepting 12M per season. Also according to Pierre Lebrun, Rantanen decided to sign to allow… Read more »
In the summer of 2019, Rantanen had restricted free agent (RFA) status. While he threatened not to start the 2019-2020 season with the team, he finally signed a 6-year contract at 9.25M per year. Based on the signed contract and the information that circulated after the contract was signed, it would appear that Rantanen and his agent played a hard line with the Avalanche in 2019. In the summer, Rantanen was reportedly an unrestricted free agent (UFA) and still has Andy Scott as his agent. When it came time to trade Rantanen, do you think MacFarland anticipated difficult negotiations… Read more »
Rantanen’s AAV of 9.25M at the time of signing his contract in 2019 represented 11.3% of the salary cap. The Avalanche’s offer for an AAV of 11.65M represented 12.2% of a salary cap of 95.5M for the next season. Under the circumstances, do you think the Avalanche’s offer was fair? Would you have agreed to pay him at an AAV of more than 11.65M and if so, up to how much would you have been willing to offer him for an 8-year contract?
To fill the 2C job, MacFarland traded for Ryan Johansen. A few months later, MacFarland traded a first-round pick to get rid of Ryan Johansen and traded Bowen Byram for Mittelstadt. This season, MacFarland traded 1 first-round pick and top prospect Calum Ritchie to get Brock Nelson. The result of the races is that the Avalanche lost 2 first-round picks, Calum Ritchie and Bowen Byram to get a 2C who will be UFA in the summer and will be 34 at the start of next season. Do you think it was necessary to liquidate so many assets to find a… Read more »
When they won the Stanley Cup in 2022, the Avalanche had Makar (9M), Girard (5M), Toews (4.1M), Manson and Byram on their roster. These 5 defenders who could easily play in the top 4. On the day of the opening of the free agent market, the Avalanche signed Manson at 4.5M per year for 4 years. In the NHL, few teams can count on 4 defensemen who can play 20 minutes night after night while the Avalanche could have 5 in their lineup. Before being traded to the Avalanche, Manson’s maximum number of games played in a season was 50… Read more »
MacFarland has moved a lot during the season by acquiring 2 goaltenders, 3 centers, an elite forward, a top 4 defenseman and other depth players. The Avalanche have 9 new players, which means that MacFarland has changed 39% of the players on his team. It’s safe to say that the Avalanche now have a better team than they did in the first game of the season. Considering that MacFarland had to change so many players during the season and that he had to pay a high price to plug the holes in the lineup, how do you assess MacFarland’s work… Read more »
In the NHL, it’s normal to fire a coach after a few seasons. In the last 7 playoffs, Bednar’s team has only made it past the 2nd round once, despite the quality of the players on the team. If the trend continues, the Avalanche will meet Dallas in the 1st round and Bednar would face coach Peter Deboer for the 4th time in the last 7th playoffs. Bednar lost to Deboer in 2019, 2021 and 2024. Bednar has never won a series against Deboer. If Bednar loses to Deboer again this spring, would you fire Bednar? What are the reasons… Read more »
Jonathan Toews has expressed interest in playing in the NHL again. If you were MacFarland, would you try to woo Toews to join the team next season by offering him a tryout or a low-AAV contract?
Rumors indicate that New York Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello offered Nelson a contract of just over $7.5M per year for 3 years and turned it down. How much money and how many years would you give to Nelson who will be 34 next October?
At the trade deadline, the Pittsburgh Penguins made it clear that they were in a rebuilding situation. Sydney Crosby has still not been traded and he seemed to reiterate his desire to finish his career in Pittsburgh. Crosby is still among the best players in the NHL and he could certainly do well for a few more years. Kyle Dubas represents one of the worst GMs in the NHL and since he’s been in Pittsburgh, he certainly doesn’t make decisions to improve his team. The last time the Penguins won a series was 7 years ago and it will be… Read more »
Before trading Rantanen to Dallas, it seems that Carolina had an agreement with Toronto to acquire Marner (UFA in the summer) in exchange for Rantanen. The whole thing would have been aborted because Marner refused to waive his no-movement clause. Marner is a player who makes the other players around him better. He’s fast, carries the puck and he’s a playmaker. He has 7 seasons with more than 20 goals. He is almost at one point per game in his career playoffs. Regardless of the players’ salaries, who would you choose between Rantanen and Marner (1 year younger)? Do you… Read more »
After all the changes made to the roster during the season, including the liquidation of assets, if the Avalanche win the Stanley Cup, MacFarland will probably look like a genius. But if the team gets eliminated in the first round, the bad decisions of the past could haunt him. In the event of an elimination against Dallas in the 1st round, what do you think are the next steps? Dismissal of the coach? Dismissal of the GM? Plan B and if what is it?
The team’s depth problems were known since the elimination against Seattle or even before. The many holes to be filled in the lineup during the season most likely had an impact on the cost to be paid by the players acquired. It would probably have been wiser for MacFarland to trade Rantanen in the summer to relieve himself of the pressure on the other moves. Following Rantanen’s trade, all NHL GMs knew that MacFarland was going to try to move again since he had freed up space under the ceiling. The way things turned out, it seems like MacFarland had… Read more »
What factors lead teams to trade more or less frequently with certain teams over the years? The Avs, for example, have traditionally made a substantial number of significant deals with certain teams (San Jose, Washington, Arizona, Nashville, Montreal, Boston, Calgary) and few to none with others (Vancouver, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Dallas, Detroit, Columbus). Other teams probably have similar trading trends with specific teams. Is it just circumstantial based on need and availability at the time, does it depend on front office relationships among particular GMs, is it affected by the status of a rivalry, is there something more historical about it,… Read more »
VAN, EDM, DAL, PEG are all division and conference rivals at top of the standings. I wouldnt trade with them either. Also fuck detroit that is all
Yeah especially the division rivals issue explains part of it, but not all of it. This trend goes back over 30 years and the Oilers, Canucks, Stars and Jets/Thrashers haven’t been near the top of the standings during all that time, and the Avs have made major trades regularly with lots of other teams in the West throughout those years, including when some of those teams were good and the Avs were contenders, and while some were even in the Avs’ division (Calg, SJ, Nash). Fully agree with your last sentence.
If Landy can come back for the playoffs is he able to do a conditioning stint in the AHL near the end of the regular season without impacting his salary being removed from LTIR?
Why didn’t the Avs target another defenseman at the deadline? With how injury-prone Manson and Lindgren have been, are they really comfortable with their depth? I don’t know of a single team that’s gone deep in the playoffs that didn’t have to dress 7-8 defenseman. A bunch of NHL/AHL tweeners went for 4th/5th round picks. Soucy went for a 3rd. I know It’s not as simple as plug and play, but someone like Timmins or Desharnais has to be better than Middleton or a Johnson that had trouble cracking the Flyers lineup. On a related note, what happened to Ludwig?… Read more »
Do you think Rantanen’s holdout over his RFA contract contributed to the front office deciding to trade him? Could that have soured the relationship?