Colorado Avalanche: A Boston Bruins Trade that Makes Sense

Colorado Avalanche GM Joe Sakic may be working out the details of a big trade with the Boston Bruins while he’s visiting their city.

Colorado Avalanche GM Joe Sakic is hanging out in Boston, and it’s probably not for the clam chowder. Word on the street — aka, Twitter — is Sakic is likely talking trade with the Boston Bruins.

Sakic, assistant GM Chris MacFarland and Avalanche scouts attended last night’s Bruins game vs the Montreal Canadiens.

Apparently Sakic had a long conversation with Bruins GM Don Sweeney:

Don Sweeney and Joe Sakic spoke for most of second intermission.
— Fluto Shinzawa (@FlutoShinzawa) February 13, 2017

In this day and age of the internet and, you know, smartphones with video chatting, there’s not a lot of reason for GMs to meet in person to talk trade. Unless they might be brewing something big.

It’s no secret that Sakic is shopping everyone save Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. His ask for Colorado’s two best forwards, Matt Duchene and Gabriel Landeskog, is high, though — an NHL-ready defenseman, a prospect and a draft pick.

The Avalanche and Bruins have previously been connected via trade rumors. Earlier in the year the grapevine — again Twitter — was speculating that Sakic was willing to ship Avs captain Gabriel Landeskog to Boston for a package that included defenseman Brandon Carlo. Sweeney is reportedly the one to shut down the deal and later stated to all and sundry that Carlo was off the table.

For purely emotional reasons, that suited me just fine. I’m having a hard time coming to terms with the idea of trading our captain for a player the Colorado Avalanche could have drafted outright.

During the 2015 NHL draft, the Colorado Avalanche traded Ryan O’Reilly, and part of the return was the 31st-overall draft pick. It was widely speculated that Colorado would use that pick to select Carlo. Instead, they traded the pick for three — #39 (AJ Greer) in 2015, their own second-rounder in 2016 (Cameron Morrison) and their own pick in this year’s draft.

The point of that is that the Avs had the chance to choose Carlo with their #31 pick in 2015, but they traded it away. Our current captain seems a high price to pay for A.J. Greer and Cameron Morrison.

Here are the details on Carlo:

Embed from Getty Images

Position: Defenseman

Age: 20

Height: 6’5

Weight: 203 lbs

Shoots: Right

Drafted: Drafted by Boston in 2015 (2/37)

On the flip side, Carlo really is a valuable player. Boston Globe columnist Kevin Paul Dupont said the following of Carlo:

"“By my eye, he is their best defenceman drafted, brought in and put into place since [Ray] Bourque.”"

More from Mile High Sticking

Putting it that way, Landeskog for a young Ray Bourque actually isn’t a bad trade.

That said, even Dupont isn’t really saying Brandon Carlo is a future Hall of Famer. And while Gabriel is having a tough year this season, he’s barely striding into his prime. He won the Calder Trophy for rookie of the year, he has immense leadership capabilities and he’s a fierce competitor. When he drives the net, he’s hard to stop.

With that in mind, Sakic needs to stick to his guns. No way would I call a straight Landeskog for Carlo trade a win for the Colorado Avalanche. Carlo projects as a stay-at-home, shutdown defenseman. If that’s all the Avs want, why not just call up Duncan Siemens, who’s nasty to boot?

No, if the Bruins want to make a straight up trade, maybe they need to cough up last year’s first-round draft pick, Charlie McAvoy. Indeed, that may well be what’s in Sakic’s mind since he’s attending the Beanpot Tournament tonight. McAvoy is playing in said tournament.

Here are McAvoy’s details:

Embed from Getty Images

Position: Defenseman

Age: 19

Height: 6’0

Weight: 208 lbs

Shoots: Right

Drafted: Drafted by Anaheim in 2013 (1/14)

McAvoy is scouted as a talented, two-way defenseman with power skating and a sound hockey IQ. However, he hasn’t even gone pro yet. I guess I’d want Boston to throw in a high draft pick if they wanted Landeskog for McAvoy.

Of course, Colorado had the #10 pick last season, so technically they could have drafted McAvoy themselves. That’s why I’d feel more comfortable with at least a second round pick or a depth player thrown into the mix.

If the Colorado Avalanche have their hearts set on Colorado native Brandon Carlo, though, Sakic has to get a lot more in return for Landeskog. Yep — draft pick and prospect. Supposedly there are other Boston prospects playing in the Bean Pot, so maybe Sakic is looking for that ancillary player.

MORE FROM MILE HIGH STICKING: The Avs Have a Beauchemin Dilemma

To be clear, my preference is that Sakic not trade Landeskog — or Duchene — at all. After all, Gabe just bought a house in the upscale Hilltop neighborhood.

More importantly, as much trouble as the Colorado Avalanche have on defense, they’ve been having even more on offense. Trading one of their best forwards for a defenseman seems like the worst case of robbing Peter to pay Paul.

By Nadia Archuleta for Mile High Sticking