A Look At Remaining UFA's: Who Should The Avs Sign/Condem To The KHL?

The Avs look like a pretty good team on paper. Ok, don’t look at the defense, that still needs work. More on that later. But as with any NHL team (yes Canucks fans, that means you, your team isn’t perfect so just stop it already) there are holes, and ways to improve. The NHL website recently released a list of the top remaining UFA’s. So let’s take a look, shall we, at the remaining top free agents left on the table, and we’ll see if they are worthy enough for the Avs to save from the KHL.

We’ll throw in Patrick Roy’s projected line combinations to help you judge where a certain player would be on the team:

• Ryan O’Reilly — Matt Duchene — P.A. Parenteau
• Gabe Landeskog — Paul Stastny — Alex Tanguay
• Jamie McGinn — Nathan MacKinnon — Steve Downie

Brendan Morrow, LW. We haven’t seen any Avs fans on Twitter, Facebook, or anywhere else, talk about how the Avs should sign the former Stars star. And you know what we think of that? Good call. Morrow would be useless on the Avs. He would be a 3^rd line guy at best and maybe play some powerplay time, but we have enough players like him that don’t want as much money, and haven’t been beaten up their whole careers. Morrow is still a great player, but only on teams that need a veteran guy who can play on the 2^nd line wing. Carolina, Florida, Edmonton, Calgary, and other really bad teams come to mind.

Vinny Prospal: LW. See above entry but just take out the fact that Morrow is still effective and a bad team can use him. Have fun in Europe Vinny, it’s been a slice!

Flip Kuba: D. The Avs need help on their blueline, that’s no secret to anyone. But is Kuba the right guy? No. he isn’t. but could he help? Yes he could. Here’s an idea Avs management, yes we’re talking to you too Joe Sakic, get rid of Hunwick, Sarich, Benoit, and Hejda, and bring in Kuba. He is an offensive minded guy, gifted passer, great at breakouts, an anchor on the powerplay, and just all around talented. Now, is he a Drew Doughty, Ryan Suter, or Kris Letang? No. but he would be a perfect replacement for Dime-A-Dozen Hejda on the 2^nd line D. And he will probably be pretty cheap.

Ron Hainsey: D. The Avs need a bit of a pick me up on D. Broken record much? But the Avs don’t need Ron Hainsey. Hainsey is like a miz between Erik Johnson and Ryan Wilson except with way less skill and ability. So really, as much as he would fit in on our backend because of that, we should just leave him standing in the unemployment line. Go get him Oilers!

Simon Gagne: LW. Would you like a really talented 1^st or 2^nd line winger that is always top five in league scoring, is healthy as a horse, has blistering speed, a great shot, and good hands? Then jump in your time machine and go get Simon Gagne in 2006. Next!

Ilya Bryzgalov, G. Something tells me these guys are unemployed for a reason. Its obvious why Bryz wouldn’t fit in with the Avs. He isn’t any good anymore, hes getting old, he’ll be making a ton of money of the geniuses in Flyer land nd still want a huge paycheck, because he’s Russian (yea we went there. Russian player rant coming soon as well), and Varlamov os our guy. Period. We were going to do a “why you hef to be” joke but we instead opted for less popular “your momma joke”. Hey Ilya, Your momma is so Russian, that when Stalin…no nevermind this isn’t going to be appropriate. Have fun watching the Olympics on your TV.

Damien Brunner: RW. The only use Brunner would have on the Avs is if after every tough loss, they tied him up like a piñata in his old Wings jersey and beat him with plaster molds of Claude Lemieux’s arms.  

So there you have it. One player is deemed good enough by us and our expertise to don an Avs jersey for this season. Do you agree? Disagree? There is always the option for RFA offer sheets to guys like Franson and Pietrangelo, but Sakic doesn’t seem like a lowballing screw up likeJay Feaster.

A Numbers Game: #13

By Kevin Goff
@BrgBrigadeKevin

Well, when I first suggested about writing the piece for #13 with the Colorado Avalanche, I was certain I'd find a few more names than there actually are. Going back to when the Colorado Avalanche were the Quebec Nordiques, a grand total of three people have ever donned jersey number 13. Since moving to Colorado, there have only been two, so this makes it a little interesting, especially since you can't really say that either of them were the worst.

The Best:Valeri Kamensky. When the Avalanche first came to Denver, Kamensky might have been one of the most overlooked stars on that heavily loaded team. Everybody knew about Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg. But then the Avalanche added Claude Lemieux and acquired Sandis Ozolinsh early on in the season. Add in the big trade for Patrick Roy and you're barely even thinking about Kamensky. 

Don't forget though, during that 1995 -1996 year, Kamensky had career highs in goals assists and points. He had 38 goals and 47 assists for 85 points. He also had 10 goals and 12 assists for 22 points in that year's run to the playoffs where everybody was overshadowed by Joe Sakic's domination. Kamensky had a deceptively huge shot, great hands and immense skill. 

I had the good fortune of being able to interview Kamensky when I was writing with Bleacher Report a few years back where I got the chance to reminisce about winning the Stanley Cup. Truly an awesome experience. 

The Worst: By process of elimination, the only other 13 for the Colorado Avalanche was Dan Hinote. I wouldn't want to refer to him as the worst anything, though, as he was a very useful player on Colorado's 2001 Stanley Cup Championship team. He was a fast, physical, wrecking ball of a player that could show some offensive flash from time to time. A great character guy that knew his role and performed it very well, but didn't have nearly the kind of talent that Valeri Kamensky had. So, rather than call him "The Worst", perhaps he is just "The Second" number 13. 

There really isn't an irrelevant 13, but if you want to go that way, we can call Mats Sundin, who was the only other player in the franchise to wear 13, this one since he wore it while he was a member of the Quebec Nordiques.

Also in the Series:

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A Numbers Game: #12

(This is a series that will run through the offseason that highlights the best, worst, and most irrelevant players to wear each number from 1 to whenever there isn’t enough players that wore a certain number to do this. So…here…we…go…)

We were shocked when we thought about it and realized how many players have worn #12 for the Avalanche. But it follows the trend with these lower numbers in a sense that no one really wears them for more than 2 seasons. 12 is also the number of seasons it’s going to take the Canucks to rebuild and still not win a Cup. Come on, we all know it’s true.

The Best: Brad Richardson. Richardson was an anchor on the 4^th line, and a great penalty killer. He wasn’t the most memorable Av in the few years he played, but compared to the other #12’s he tops the list. Richardson was one of those guys that would come to the rink, play a hard, solid game, go relatively unnoticed, but still be vital to the team. You know guys like Richardson are playing good when you never hear their names. The Avs traded him at the 2009 draft in order to move up and select goaltending prospect Peter Delmas. Yea, that really worked out guys. It’s not like there hasn’t been instability at the 4^th line center position these past few years before Mitchell. Oh well, Richardson has a Stanley Cup, and he deserves it!

The Worst: Ok, time to stop being so nice. Kevin Porter, you were horrible. Slow, bad with the puck, a waste of a roster spot, a bad penalty killer, no hands, and hey, whoever told you that you have to be at 30 feet away from a goalie before you shoot on him LIED. How many failed Hobey Baker winners is it going to take for them to realize that being good in College doesn’t mean you don’t need to step up your level of play, hockey sense, and work ethic when you make it to the show? Hey  Junior Lessard, Marty Sertich, Peter Sejna, Ryan Duncan, Matt Gilroy, Andy Miele, and yes Kevin Porter, we can smell you from here. There is a reason you never made it in the big leagues. Porter was one of those guys that, when Sacco dressed him in favour of a half-eaten bag of Cheetos and Pierre Lacroix’s unborn great great granddaughter, you just shook your head and thought “What were you thinking?” and cried after another inevitable Avs loss. Good riddance.

Mr. Irrelevant: Darren Haydar. He once played for the Thrashers before coming to the Avs for a game. Yea.

Other #12’s

Chris Simon – winner of the “Stop getting suspended, oh nevermind enjoy the KHL” award

Shean Donovan – winner of the “The doctor misheard his parents when they tried to spell out his first name for the 1^st time” award.

Radim Vrbata – Only wore 12 for a few games, but we wish he was still here.

Mike Keane – came over the 1^st time in the Roy trade. 2^nd time: no one really cares.

Chuck Kobasew – winner of the “millionth bad player decision by Greg Sherman” award. The trophy for that one is rated R.

Also in the Series:

1    2   3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10    11    12    13    14    15    16    17    18    19  

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A Numbers Game: #11

(This is a series that will run through the offseason that highlights the best, worst, and most irrelevant players to wear each number from 1 to whenever there isn’t enough players that wore a certain number to do this. So…here…we…go…)

How does an NHL player become number 1 not once, but twice? They work hard, play harder, and develop a superstardom status among their peers and NHL fans. But in the case of the following Avs players, they just wore #11. Many players have worn number 11 with this team, and many of them aren’t notable in Avs lore whatsoever. So let’s take a look shall we? Oh, and 11 is the number of goals Tyler Seguin will score this season while still being compared to as better than Phil Kessel. He isn’t by the way.

The Best: New comer Jamie McGinn gets the honour of being touted as the best number 11, but it wasn’t a walk off. We were very tempted to put tough guy Chris Dingman in this slot. Dingman, believe it or not, was a pretty important piece in the 2001 championship puzzle. Sure he wasn’t any Sakic or Tanguay, Blake or Bourque, but on a solid Stanley Cup roster are guys like Dingman who make the superstars jobs a little easier night in and night out. So, having said that, we are going to call it a tie. Maybe McGinn wouldn’t have to share this honour if he didn’t hit the post as much. This video features a Dingman fight: 

The Worst: Jeff Shantz. 74 games in the Mile High City and only 9 points to show for it. He was the 4^th line center but he wasn’t very good defensively, and oh yea, he was part of the Drury Yelle trade. Good god what was Lacroix thinking? I wonder why Shantz was never given a new contract. Good riddance.

Mr. Irrelevant: Darius Kasparitis. 11 games in Colorado, 0 points, +1. Yea you don’t get much more irrelevant than that.

Other #11’s:

Owen Nolan – Winner of the “Thanks for letting us trade you to become a better team defensively so we could win the Cup without you, oh and good luck in San Jose because they have SUCH a good team that will definitely go places in the playoffs in the next 20 years” award. That one was very expensive to carve on a trophy.

Keith Jones – winner of the “2^nd best Av to become a TV Personality” award

Pascal Trepanier – This was Trepanier’s 3^rd number with the Avs

Andrei Nikolishin – Winner of the “First guy to fall on Steve Moore’s back after Bertuzzi punched him from behind” award.

Cody McCormick – Buffalo should have given him more opportunities.

Phillipe Dupuis – Another pretty good 4^th line center we let go to Toronto

Also in the Series:

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A Numbers Game: #10

By: Guest Writer, Adam Stark

@StarkSAdam

(This is a series that will run through the offseason that highlights the best, worst, and most irrelevant players to wear each number from 1 to whenever there isn’t enough players that wore a certain number to do this. So…here…we…go…)

#10. Not exactly a highlight number for the Avalanche. In the Nordiques days the number had a bit more power to it. Well actually that is not true. Number 10 seems to be the number you give to a guy to use for a year or two. But hey Guy “The Flower” Lafleur wore it for two seasons with Quebec at the end of his career.

The Best would have to be Troy Murray simply because while wearing it he was part of a Stanley Cup winning team in 96. He played 63 games that year with 7 goals and 14 assists for 21 points. That is second most points in a year for anyone wearing big bad number 10. Only Ville Nieminen had more points as 10 with 24. While Nieminen was also part of a cup team he was wearing number 39 while doing it so doesn’t count.

The worst choice is honestly probably everyone else on the list. Well maybe not the worst everyone else is just irrelevant. I will give the worst to Brad May because he caused trouble for the Avs as a Canuck and I am not sure why he was ever brought to the Avs twice!

The irrelevant is seriously everyone else not mentioned. Josef Marha, Warren Rychel, Serge Aubin, Wyatt Smith and Kyle Cumiskey. All these players did close to nothing much in the games they wore good old number 10.

Also in the Series:

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A Numbers Game: #9

(This is a series that will run through the offseason that highlights the best, worst, and most irrelevant players to wear each number from 1 to whenever there isn’t enough players that wore a certain number to do this. So…here…we…go…)

One day, as the official Avaholics Unanimous fortune teller has told us, #9 will be retired by the Colorado Avalanche. And by fortune teller, we mean a magic 8 ball I found in a box of kid stuff stashed in my basement. We asked if Tyler Arnason’s #39 would ever be retired and this is the response we got:

I don’t remember the Magic 8 Ball being that intense.

The Best: M-m-m-m-Matt Duchene! Not only is he the best ever to don #9 for the Avs, and will be the best ever to don #9, he has managed to overpass several other candidates that were in no way deserving of the title. Even if Duchene wasn’t very good, we’d still name him the best because he can score sick goals like this:

The Worst: Paul Kariya. See “The Worst” section on our #8 analysis. You weren’t very good Kariya.

Mr. Irrelivant: Brad Larsen. Larsen wore three numbers for the Avs over 5 seasons. That is a lot of numbers. And when he did play for the Avs as a number 9, he didn’t really do much. Not compared to everyone else. So congratulations Brad Larsen, on earning the prestigious honor of being mentioned by our writing staff.

Other #9’s:

Mike Ricci – If Duchene had worn another number, Ricci would have won. Winner of the “sickest flow” award.

Also in the Series:

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A Numbers Game: #8

(This is a series that will run through the offseason that highlights the best, worst, and most irrelevant players to wear each number from 1 to whenever there isn’t enough players that wore a certain number to do this. So…here…we…go…)

Do you find it strange that more forwards have worn #8 for the Avs then defenseman? We do. Only 5 players have worn this number for the Avalanche, but even if 15 players had worn it, the three impressively well written choices we always present you with would be the exact same. Oh, and 8 is the number of years from now it will take Teemu Selanne to retire and not score 30 goals a year. What a god…for other teams.

The Best: We could’ve two ways here. But that would have been silly so we decided Sandis Ozolinsh (Our spell checker just exploded) is the BEST #8 in Avs history. When the Avs traded away former 1^st overall pick Owen Nolan, who was a rising star and still improving every year, for a Latvian defenseman with inconsistent numbers, they were skeptical. But then that all went away. 19 points and a Stanley Cup in the playoffs to go along with 13 goals in the regular season will do that. Ozo would be an offensive dynamo for the Avs until he was traded in 2000 for Nolan Pratt and a ton of draft picks that never amounted to anything.

The Worst: Teemu Selanne. This is the only well deserved “worst” list you will ever find Selanne on. Selanne managed to save his worst season of his career for when he played for the Avs with a whopping 32 points in 78 games. He should be putting up those numbers now considering he’s 70-something, but no. He had to blow it on one of the best teams on paper in NHL history. Don’t worry Teemu, we didn’t need you against the Wild in the playoffs.

Selanne not scoring for the Avs

Mr. Irrelevant: Kevin Shattenkirk. We’ve beaten the trade to death so we won’t talk about it. But bottom line is this: he didn’t get enough time in Colorado.  Have fun sitting in your empty office twiddling your thumbs all day Sherman. If it was our decision we would have fired you so hard that you wouldn’t get a job managing a 7 year old rec hockey league in Louisiana. We hope you’re warm under that pathetic little blanket that Patrick Roy and Joe Sakic have created for you.

Other #8’s

Wojtek Wolski – runner up for the best. Obviously not taking into account his time spent with Florida and the Rangers.

Jan Hejda – winner of the “Guy who goes unnoticed most games only because every other defenseman on the team is messing up so badly” award. The trophy for that one looks weird.

Also in the Series:

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