FanPost

Some one over at ESPN may actually have been paying attention to Hockey

As many Avs fans are looking toward the new season with suspect and bewilderment, Scott Burnside thinks the San Jose Sharks might be heading in the same direction as the Avs.  Back in early July, Burnside looked at the free agent signings and other moves of the Sharks and compared them to the Avalanche organization of not so many years past: Boyle trade creates questions for both Sharks and Lightning.

All of a sudden, the San Jose Sharks look like the old Colorado Avalanche, filled to the brim with aging stars ready to hunt down the Stanley Cup and with warning flags going up all over the place for the future.

Though the Avs still have some of those aging stars and did actually find some success on 2001, we have seen the so called fruits of acquiring playoff rental players in exchange for young talent. San Jose has yet to hoist the Holy Grail of Hockey getting knocked out of the playoffs in the second round in each of the last three seasons.

The moves are reminiscent of the path followed by Blake's old team in Colorado, a franchise that damned the torpedoes and assembled a talented, veteran squad that won a Stanley Cup in 2001. Since the lockout, though, the Avs have struggled to replenish their reserve of young talent and have yet to return to contender status.

The Avs do have some good youth in the program, but the distance between veteran players; Joe Sakic, Adam Foote, and Milan Hejduk; and young future stars like Paul Stastny, Wojtec Wolski and Marek Svatos may be to big of a gap to keep the Avs among the elite organizations of the league. Are these young stars ready to take over the reigns for the Avalanche? Will San Jose learn from the Avs mistakes before it's too late?

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