Chris Kelly just got traded to the Bruins for a second round pick. What does than mean for the value of our assets? Probably sky high! There have already been posts/discussions about what we can get for our players, but we must think wisely. We are only one year removed from a playoff birth, two months removed from being 4th in our conference (fairly deep into the season). So although we are pretty much at the lowest of lows right now, we were close to being a solid team. With our valuable/tradeable assets, we could easily load up on picks and continue the rebuild. Is that the best idea?

We have proven talent, several players who could easily score 80+ points, Stewie who could go for 40 goals, Duke (if he reups) most likely good for another 30. And hopefully we will have Flash and Mueller back for next year. If you ask me, that is a scary good front six.

For the third line we could have Porter/Winnik/Gali/Radar...with quite clearly an odd man out. For the fourth line we could have whomever is left from the odd man out third line, plus Dupuis, Yip (is he a fourth line guy?), Mauldin, and anybody else I may be forgetting at the moment. I think we have a great group of forwards for next year.

We all know that our weakness is a the back end of the ice. Remember, we are in a rebuild, and we do have some

potential LEM help coming up next year. We could sign a FA in the summer to make our team respectable next year. With our potentially high pick, we could (and I think should) draft a D man high up in the draft. There are options for our defense.

Goalies? Yeah, that is a problem. Do we give Andy another chance? As good as he was last year, I think we are all in agreement that he overachieved. Is he as bad as he is this year? No, his career numbers say differently. He is clearly somewhere in between these two seasons. If no other options hit the FA market or trade market, I think he re-ups for another year, while we continue to look for an elite goalie. I think Vokoun may be available, and could be the Avs next goaltender. Another option I like (although this may be sacrilegious is to workout a trade for Cory Schneider). We have heard so much that he is an excellent goalie, and since we do have some expendable parts, maybe we do a win/win trade with the Canuks. I'd be ok with that.

Anyway, I guess what I am trying to say with this is that, we still have time. No reason to panic and blow everything up. We are still building to, not falling from contender status. Have patience Avalanche faithful, patience!