NHL Trade Rumors: Colorado Avalanche Need to Re-Tool
By Ryan Ritchie
NHL Trade Rumors: The Colorado Avalanche are a mess right now and need to shake up their roster. They’ve got some great incoming prospects in the near future, but the depth chart has a few glaring holes that need to be addressed.
NHL trade rumors continue to swirl around the 30th placed Colorado Avalanche. They dropped to 12-24-1 (25 points) following their loss to a less than stellar Canucks squad on Monday night.
Well, I took a lot of heat from Avs fans at the start of 2016-17 when I predicted Colorado finish dead last in the Western Conference. It’s far from a certainty with the likes of Arizona sputtering along, but there’s a reason I predicted they do so poorly. Simply put, this club has been completely mismanaged under the guidance of Joe Sakic.
Between his insistence to keep the team core together and failed attempt to address holes in free agency, it’s understandable why Patrick Roy resigned so late in the offseason. The time to re-tool was last year and thinking you can fix your problems with other teams unwanted scraps is a pipe dream.
Fortunately for the first time GM, Sakic has plenty of time to redeem himself and make up for his errors. He has enough quality pieces in place that Colorado doesn’t need to go through the painful process of a rebuild. Instead, they can re-tool on the fly and help make this team competitive again in the very near future. There’s just one catch. It may mean taking a small step back in order to take that giant leap forward.
In today’s piece, we’ll explore the future depth chart, problems/or issues that need to be addressed, trade options, and potential solutions surrounding the Colorado Avalanche:
Future Bright Spots
Impact Prospects on the Way
C Tyson Jost
LW A.J. Greer
C/W J.T. Compher
Tyson Jost is currently on full display at the World Juniors. His dominating presence comes as little surprise given his progression over the past year and a half. This is the same guy that broke Connor McDavid‘s scoring record at the U18 Championships. Pretty safe to say, Jost should be an impact top-six center in the near future. If the Avs don’t look to sign him in a few months from now after his first year of NCAA hockey, it’ll be top priority the following spring.
Both Greer and Compher have NCAA experience as well, although Greer joined QMJHL Rouyn-Noranda mid-season in 2015-16. The pair began their pro career in 2016-17 with AHL San Antonio, with each scoring at a near point-per-game pace as rookies. I’d call them potential 2nd/3rd liners in the near future. Greer is strictly a LWer, while Compher is listed as a RH shooting C/LW.
Fringe Prospects Expected to Have NHL Impact
C Rocco Grimaldi
D Chris Bigras
Grimaldi came over in the Reto Berra deal with Florida. The 23-year-old center is a highly-skilled prospect standing just 5’6 180lbs. A top-six future in the NHL seems unlikely, but he could fit somewhere in the bottom six playing more limited minutes.
It’s still too early to project LHD Chris Bigras. He got his feet wet with 31 games of NHL experience in 2015-16, but the 21-year-old is still two or three years away from making the full-time jump. At best, he may fit into a no.4 role playing around 18-20 minutes/night, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see him settle into a third pairing as a no.5 d-man.