Final Grades: Staff

Something else that I think gets forgotten, is that the D-men were given the green light to pinch in offensively again. I felt like it almost never happened last year. Yeah, with a mediocre defensive corp it allowed too many odd man rushes, but otherwise it helped the Avs create that offensive aggressiveness the team wants.

Hopefully the Avs can load up on puck moving defensemen that can clear the zone which will go a long way toward reducing the shots against.

Just for getting rid of Wolski.

We all know how much I love Wolski.

I would like to see the D get younger, faster, meaner and better able to move the puck next season. From what I see of our D-prospects in the system, we have all but the mean-factor. We could see a major transition/turnover of Av’s D-men during the next season. It seems the Av’s D-Corps for the 2010/2011 season is fairly set barring a trade or lights out performance by a rookie or two in camp next fall.

Well, let’s see how the extra cap space and certain players leaving plays out for us next season.

I think the issue with trading Svatos, Clark, and Salei this season was the difficulty in finding a trading partner. The situation could have been that those fellas were waved about on a huge flagpole, but no one even looked in their general direction. The Wolski and Smyth trade showed me that Sherman knows what he is doing when it comes to trades so I don’t think the issue was he didn’t try to cut the fat at the deadline. It could have been that the only offers he got for Clark, Svatos, and Salei were career fourth liners in the minors or a few “David Koci’s”. That would have been the same as just letting them go in the offseason for nothing in my book.

As far as next season goes, I think I will vomit if we spend 9 mil on someone like Kovalchuk. Yeah, he would be great to see in an Avs uni, but at what cost? His salary on the books would work for a season or two, but then our club would be handcuffed by it. I’m thinking ahead to the time when Duchene, O’Reilly, Galiardi and others get to UFA status. Can’t tell me if those guys play in the future like they did this season that they won’t deserve a huge payday. I’m not a big fan of one or two guys eating up a huge portion of the payroll. Teams have tried it. It doesn’t really work. It puts them in a situation like quite a few teams in the East. One or two bona fide superstars eating up cap space surrounded by fourth liners and roster filler mixed in with some styrofoam cut outs. Would we rather have one 55 goal scorer, or five 20 goal scorers? Personally, I go for depth. Especially with the Avs history of having a Mothra sized injury bug.

As far as the D is concerned, from what I’ve heard we have some decent puck moving young’uns coming up through the system. What I would like to see is the Avs get a guy that is like Adam Foote from 10-15 years ago. A scary, huge, knock your block off kind of guy. Everyone says that puck moving defensemen are few and far between, but let’s face it. Just about every team has at least one I can think of. Markov, Weber, Souray, Green, Bouwmeester (sic?), Byfuglien (he is originally a D man), Neidermeyer, Gonchar, Keith, Kaberle, the list goes on and includes half of the Avs D corps. Liles, Quincey, Cumiskey, we already have some guys that kind of know what they are doing with the puck. I remember we were talking about trading one of them at the deadline because between them and the guys in the system we had too many puck moving D men. The hard hitting guys are the ones that are more valuable in my opinion. Especially in the system I see the Avs forwards playing in. One thing that other teams did not lack when playing the Avs this season was confidence to come right into our zone and crash the net. I want them to have some hesitation, or if I get my wish, fear when approaching our blue line. When Stevens played for the Devils guys thought twice about just entering the zone didn’t they? If they wanted to keep their head attached to their bodies they did. It would also do well to keep Andy from getting knocked around so much.

All in all in my opinion we need a beastly D man or two and two or three awesome, but affordable, wingers. No superstars. No 50 goal scorers. Just guys that can put in 15-25 a year. If we don’t get them it’s no big deal for me. I would be happy if we just kept on keepin’ on in the same direction we’re going. I am already excited when I think that all the bad asses we had this season will be back with the experience and knowledge they gained as well as a full off season to work on their “problem areas” on the ice. Hell, a few of our kids are going to the World’s! That will just add to their growth and experience.

I just wonder what the real values of Clark, Salei, and Svatos were. I would think that a guy who made so many other great decisions would know that those guys needed to be unloaded. I’d be interested to know if there was any interest or offers for them and what the conversation was like.

Anyway, another great article, I completely agree with this. I think it’s also important to note that while Sacco had a very different team from last year, he got one that was chock full of rookies and that has to make things at least a little more difficult.

It is interesting that Sherman has went for prospects rather than draft picks in both of his major trades – I wonder if this is either a product of salary dumping, Sherman’s view for when the Avs will compete or simply because high draft picks are simply not dealt to other teams.

Either way, I think a lot of the season’s success should go to the scouting/drafting staff – probably more so than Sherman or even possibly Sacco – although they collectively had a very good year.

Nice work guys!

This is the first Coaching/Management grade that I recall and it’s a damned good idea.

Generally agree with your analysis.

if we spend 9 mil on someone like Kovalchuk

I will be amazed if his market value hasn’t dropped significantly during his stint with NJ.

For the Avs, he may fit in for 7 mil, maybe.

in my opinion we need a beastly D man or two and two or three awesome, but affordable, wingers

I couldn’t agree more. A fearsome stay at home D man and a couple LW would go a long way to improve this team.

"Oh, that’s all we need!", but a top-pair defenseman and above average wingers aren’t going to be all that easy to get, imo.

Ha, so true. Sorry, just gotten used to Joe Sacco creating magic from nowhere!

Also, looking through the list of free agents and I can’t honestly say there is anyone there who seems a perfect fit.

Can’t we just clone CGS