Don't Hate Too Much on Sakic Over The Deadline

Well, another year, and another trade deadline has come and gone. Some teams improved, some got worse, some stayed the same, but we don’t care about those teams. We care about the Avalanche. How did they do?

The trade deadline outcome for the Avalanche can only be summed up with one word: Mediocre. It was not widely successful, mildly successful, or even terrible. And here’s why:

The Pending UFA’s: John Mitchell, Rene Bourque, Fedor Tyutin, Jarome Iginla, Cody Golebeuf, Andreas Martinsen.

Here is the problem, and the whole reason, primarily, that the trade deadline was not a complete failure for Joe Sakic. If a team is in the playoff hunt, meaning they are a decent hockey team, or if they are contenders, which means they are a great hockey team, why would they want any of these players? Mitchell has had a terrible offensive year, and he has slowed down speed wise. He can kill some penalties and gets into the dirty areas decent enough, but these types of players are quite common these days, and there are many with offensive upside. Mitchell also carries a $1.8M cap hit, which is hard for a team to justify if they aren’t getting a whole package 3^rd/4^th liner.

Bourque has been hurt, and before he got injured his production and play slowed right down. Weird for a 35 year old to slow down in this league right? Tyutin would be decent on the 3^rd line, but once again, contendin and decent teams already have a few Tyutins either on the 3^rd pair or in the pressbox.

Moving Martinsen was great, Andrighetto still has some upside, and will at least be a good farm team addition. It would have been shocking for a team give more players or draft picks for a 4^th line UFA player. Good job by Sakic on that one.

Here is where it gets iffy. The return for Iginla, who could flourish in Sutter’s system/playing with Kopitar, is a 4^th round pick that could totally disappear if the Kings don’t make the playoffs and other conditions are not met. This would be acceptable IF the Avs did not retain half of his salary. If the Kings miss the playoffs, the Avs are paying Iginla to play for another Western Conference team. But let’s remember the Avs may not have had a lot of options. Iginla carries a $5.3M hit, a number that playoff teams usually can’t afford, or they would have spent the money elsewhere. Sure, Carolina could have easily afforded him, but why would they want a rental player for their non-playoff team?

Landeskog and Duchene? Why rush to get a deal done and maybe not get everything you could possibly get? It isn’t the worst thing in the world if the Avs wait for the draft, OR, maybe not trade them at all, then trade them for a poor return because there is a deadline. Think: they could have traded other players and it could have been a lot worth. Beauchemin? Any team who sent a scout to these games would not want to take a chance on him.

So try not to hate on Sakic too much for the lack of interesting moves. His hands were pretty much tied for the most part. With the options he had, it wasn’t the worst day. It wasn’t the best day, but not the worst, and with the season we have all endured, how can we ask for anything more? We aren’t going to talk about the other minor league deals but we will leave you with this: Did the Avs acquire Cannata because they are thinking of trading a goalie and they want a minor leaguer to fill the void left when Spencer Martin is called up?

Maybe.