Colorado Avalanche F Matt Duchene Trade Rumors, Potential Fits

Colorado Avalanche F Matt Duchene Has Been The Subject of Trade Rumors in 2015-16; Potential Fits Should it be True

Since midway through the 2015-16 regular season, Colorado Avalanche F Matt Duchene has consistently found his name swirling around in trade rumors.

Sportsnet released a piece in early April addressing the possibility of a deal, and comments from Duchene himself regarding the possibility of being traded (article linked here).

Oddly enough, we released an editorial piece a week before the original Matt Duchene rumors surfaced suggesting that Colorado may need to entertain the idea of moving their star forward to address the major holes plaguing this team (a.k.a. the blueline).

The idea had less to do with his performance on the ice, and more to do with Nathan MacKinnon virtually being forced to the wing. With Carl Soderberg locked into the 2c slot, it’s a matter of Duchene simply being the odd man out.

Colorado’s only other options to acquire that top four d-man that can eat up big minutes:

a) Trade their beloved captain – sure, you want a little more production from Landeskog on the scoresheet, but it’s difficult to replace those intangibles.
b) Trade Tyson Barrie – although subtracting a top four offensive threat from the back-end doesn’t help solve things. Colorado only goes this route if trade talks go unsuccessful with the RFA.

How can the Colorado Avalanche subtract that type of talent/production from their lineup and still survive?

Well, there’s a couple young pieces on the way, and realistically the projected lineup for 2016-17 isn’t that bad without Duchene. Below is a very early rough estimation of next season’s forward group – you can obviously flip players around to different sides.

Landeskog – MacKinnon – Rantanen
Grigorenko – Soderberg – Iginla
*Compher – Mitchell – *Comeau
Martinsen – (FA Signing?) – McLeod
*(both RH-LW)

Colorado has a little over $52 million committed to 2016-17’s salary cap. With a bit of room to spend money in free agency, we can expect the Avs to sign a few players, possibly one of the higher sought after FA’s.

Potential FA Targets (Forwards) to Add Depth:

C Sam Gagner
RW Teddy Purcell
LW David Perron
C David Legwand
C/LW Nick Spaling
RW Dale Weise

Maybe a couple FA’s who had past success in Colorado?

RW David Jones
LW Tomas Fleischmann

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Potential Trade Destinations for Colorado Avalanche F Matt Duchene

At the bare minimum, the Avs would need to get a top-four defender that can play alongside Tyson Barrie on the second pairing. Finding a no.1 or no.2 upgrade would be preferred, but there’s a bit of flexibility with Beauchemin coming off a good year, and two years remaining on his contract.

*Note: These are not actual trade proposals. It is simply the groundwork for what the major pieces in a deal might look like.

Carolina Hurricanes

Let’s call this scenario unlikely considering it would involve the Canes sacrificing one of Justin Faulk/or Noah Hanifin. If Carolina feels the need to move any defender, it’ll be Ryan Murphy.

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Columbus Blue Jackets

The Blue Jackets managed to address one hole on the blueline, but ultimately created another one leaving the team without a no.1 center. You can’t blame Jarmo, Ryan Johansen struggled to step up in big moments.

Believe it or not, the Blue Jackets defense core got a whole got better as the year went on under new bench boss John Tortorella (with a few exceptions – yes we’re looking at you Fedor Tyutin and Dalton Prout). The Avs won’t be able to convince Columbus to give up on Ryan Murray, David Savard or Seth Jones, but they might be able to acquire Jack Johnson – that is if COL would even be interested.

Minnesota Wild

Another team starving for that elusive number one center, Minnesota, has a wealth of blueliners. It’s not surprising that trade rumors continue to surround players like Jonas Brodin or Matt Dumba after another early playoff exit.

A little unconventional to trade with a divisional foe, but sometimes you can’t help the circumstances. Look at Toronto/Ottawa as the Maple Leafs sent their captain to Canada’s Capital City.

Montreal Canadiens

The Habs don’t necessarily need to add another top-six center, but any upgrade in that regard helps spread the offense out. In this scenario, Galchenyuk/Duchene could rotate between the 1-2c slot until Alex fully develops his game.

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New York Rangers

Jeff Gorton has some tough decisions to make this summer after his offense once again let the team down. For too many years, the Rangers have been a defensive juggernaut from King Henrik through the entire blueline. Unfortunately, the ultimate goal of hockey is score more goals than opponent, so it doesn’t matter how many goals you prevent if you’re not scoring at least one more than the opposition/night on average.

It might not be a popular opinion among Rangers fans, but the center position needs a serious upgrade.

For Colorado, you might target Kevin Klein or Marc Staal (full no-movement clause). Another option (this won’t be popular either) is to force New York to retain 50 percent of Dan Girardi‘s contract. If the 32-year-old could re-establish himself in the Mile High city, a $2.75 million dollar cap hit turns into a bargain.

Ottawa Senators

Not so much that Ottawa needs another top-six center, but a shake-up is expected this offseason under new GM Pierre Dorion. In this scenario, Ottawa could move forward with Duchene/Zibanejad as a solid 1-2 option – both would be interchangeable between the top two slots.

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Package Deal?

Why not create a package deal for premium value?