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Colorado Avalanche Rebuild: Augmenting the Core

By Nadia Archuleta

Dec 23, 2016; Chicago, IL, USA; Colorado Avalanche right wing Mikko Rantanen (96) celebrates his goal against the Chicago Blackhawks with his teammates during the third period at the United Center. The Avalanche won 2-1 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 23, 2016; Chicago, IL, USA; Colorado Avalanche right wing Mikko Rantanen (96) celebrates his goal against the Chicago Blackhawks with his teammates during the third period at the United Center. The Avalanche won 2-1 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports /
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Oct 29, 2016; Glendale, AZ, USA; Arizona Coyotes center Martin Hanzal (11) screens Colorado Avalanche goalie Calvin Pickard (31) during the first period at Gila River Arena. Mandatory Credit: Matt Kartozian-USA TODAY Sports /

General Needs

The Colorado Avalanche, even without blowing up the core, have the opportunity to clean house this offseason. Colorado has six players who will be unrestricted free agents after this season:

They also have five players who will be restricted free agents at the end of the season:

Potentially, the Colorado Avalanche could let all those guys go. Not only does that open up 11 roster spots, but it frees up almost $17 million. The Colorado Avalanche could use a good chunk of that to get a stud defenseman to partner EJ and a really good defenseman to further shore up the blueline. (Just no one over 30! Learn from your mistakes, Joe.)

From there, they could use the rest for some forward help and let young talents, such as AJ Greer and JT Compher, get their shots in the NHL.

I think it’s more likely the Colorado Avalanche will re-sign at least a couple players. I really don’t see them letting Zadorov go, and Sakic might choose to hold on to the other big piece in the O’Reilly trade, Grigorenko. (He’s have to take a deserved pay cut, though.)

The Avs will probably also keep Wiercioch, which means they’ll let Gelinas go. I’d rather they offer Gelinas a little less money and keep him, but I don’t know if that happens. Nieto might be able to earn a spot in the roster, depending on how he gels with the rest of the team.

Nonetheless, the Avs should still have some money and roster spots available. Let’s say they decide to keep all the players I just mentioned plus augment the blueline as I suggested. That still leaves room for Bigras to come up, and it results in a pretty decent defensive corps:

  • Erik Johnson
  • Tyson Barrie
  • stud defenseman
  • really good defenseman (possibly Karl Alzner)
  • Nikita Zadorov
  • Patrick Wiercioch
  • Eric Gelinas
  • Chris Bigras

With Gelinas and Bigras as your backup guys, honestly, that’s an improvement over anything we’ve seen on the blueline in a while.

The forward lineup is always a little more fluid. Let’s imagine Greer make the transition to the big team. Here’s what could happen, if the above needs are addressed:

Gabriel Landeskog-Martin Hanzal-Mikko Rantanen

visionary two-way playmaker-Matt Duchene-Carl Soderberg

Kunitz-type player-Nathan MacKinnon-AJ Greer

Blake Comeau-Mikhail Grigorenko-Joe Colborne

Cody McLeod, Matt Nieto

Don’t focus on the order of the first three lines. Instead, think of how awesome it would be to be so stacked offensively that one of the current core players skated on the “third line.”

Next: Avs Should Trade for Hampus Lindholm

I like this plan a lot better than blowing up the core. I also think it’s more what GM Joe Sakic has in mind. However, there’s one other option, and it’s one of expediency. Stud defensemen come at a premium, and they’re rarely exposed in free agency. To get one, the Colorado Avalanche may have to make a single big trade.

We’ll explore that option in the final post of this series.

By Nadia Archuleta for Mile High Sticking

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