Will The Colorado Avalanche Regret The Trades That Weren’t Made?
By Austin Manak
The Colorado Avalanche certainly weren’t quiet on NHL Trade Deadline Day. The Avs were flipping deals like hot-cakes in the final hours of the legal window for completing team-to-team transactions.
Surprisingly, two of the pancakes many thought the Avalanche would part ways with will be finishing their seasons with the Avalanche. That duo would be Jan Hejda and Daniel Briere, both of whom have expiring contracts at season’s end. So, why did these guys end up being too sticky to trade? Perhaps a little too much maple syrup, I reckon.
Jan Hejda seemed to be the likeliest player on the Avalanche roster to be traded. Hejda is in the final year of a 4-year contract, paying him $3.25M annually.
He is also just the type of veteran defender that playoff teams tend to love to throw assets at on deadline day. Leading into yesterday, the market for d-man seemed hot.
Look at the Philadelphia Flyers. Brayden Coburn netted a 1st and 3rd-round draft choice as well as Radko Gudas. Aging d-man Kimmo Timmonen fetched a 2nd and 4th round. Not a bad haul for Philly to nab draft choices in rounds 1-4 (granted not all in the same year) for a pair of defenders. Especially considering Timmonen is in the twilight of his career, and on an expiring contract.
Given those deals, I was optimistic that the Avalanche could get a 2nd round pick for Hejda as a fair price, and maybe more if they caught a desperate team at the right time. Considering the fact that Hejda is free to sign wherever he pleases after this season, and the Avalanche already have 6 contracts committed to defenders next season, it made a lot of sense to trade him.
The other guy still here is Daniel Briere. Surely, Patrick Roy was eager to have Briere continue his upstanding service to the organization being a healthy scratch every night. Otherwise, there really isn’t much reason to have kept him, except that there were literally no teams interested.
I have a feeling that there wasn’t a lot of interest in Briere, but I bet the Avalanche could have found a trade partner if they tightened their boots and got out on the dance floor with enough gusto. Briere is a proven scorer in the playoffs, and a veteran guy.
Anyways, I doubt the Avalanche would have gotten much for Briere, especially considering his $4M dollar salary this season. Still, from an asset management standpoint, something is better than absolutely nothing.
So, back to the main question at hand. Will the Avalanche regret not flipping their expiring contracts for assets?
To be honest, I don’t really think they will. Briere may have gotten a 7th round pick, which in the big scheme of things is practically inconsequential. The odds of a 7th round pick turning into an NHL player are slim, and you can’t exactly use a pick that low as bait for landing any fish worth reeling in.
As far as Hejda is concerned, it sounds as though he wished to remain in Denver. I also think there is a good chance that Hejda will re-sign with Colorado this offseason, which seems to be an option the Avs are seriously considering.
At first glance, it is easy to panic knowing that a Hejda extension will bring the Avalanche to 7 NHL d-man under contract. The same 7 guys who haven’t exactly been show-stoppers for the Avs this season. Furthermore, an extension is by no means guaranteed. We all remember what happened to Paul Stastny.
However, of the 7 d-man currently on the roster, I think Hejda is arguably the most reliable and consistent aside from Erik Johnson and Tyson Barrie.
I’m willing to give the Avalanche the benefit of the doubt at this point. I like Hejda, and wouldn’t mind seeing him back. I think he can still contribute in a bottom pairing role, and has always had good chemistry with EJ in a pinch.
However, there are a lot of big ifs that go into my acceptance of the Avs choosing not to trade Hejda.
- IF the Avalanche re-sign Hejda to a short-term (1-2 year, but preferably 1) year contract worth reasonable money.
- IF the Avalanche can somehow find a way to clear out a guy like Stuart or Guenin or both. Even Redmond and Holden have been inconsistent, and while I like both, wouldn’t be opposed to the Avs trading them if better options presented themselves.
- IF the Avalanche hold themselves accountable to legitimately addressing this blue-line. Heading into next season with the same 7 guys they have right now is unacceptable in my book.
- IF the Avalanche earn major brownie points with the hockey gods for not putting someone through the turmoil of being uprooted and traded mid-season.
Clearly, that’s a lot of ifs that need to happen. If they don’t, then I will change my tune to thinking that the Avalanche may not have handled this deadline so well after all.
Overall, I thought it was a decent trade deadline for Sakic and Roy. I like the moves the Avalanche made yesterday, and am optimistic about the young guys they brought in. Will the Avs regret those moves they didn’t make? At this point, time will tell. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go eat some pancakes.