Don't Panic

So the Avalanche just fucking blew my mind last night with an absolutely ridiculous trade that immediately convinced me that Pierre Lacroix has gone completely insane. How in the world could we deal away a budding star power forward and our best D prospect? Erik Johnson is good if we can keep him away from hungry golf carts, but 19 points in 55 games? For Stewart and Shattenkirk? And last year’s savior for Brian sodding Elliott? Are we still building from within? What the hell is going on?

Then I paused for a second, took a few breaths to calm down, and the puzzle pieces slowly fell into place. Things will be fine. Our front office, thankfully, hasn’t totally lost its collective mind. We’ll survive and the sun will rise again in the morning.

Shattenkirk is completely expendable - we always knew that some of our incredible stockpile of D prospects would be traded. Granted, we didn't know we'd send the best of the bunch packing, but Elliott and Barrie have been tearing up the WHL so hard that the distinction is hardly there anymore. They're similar offensive defensemen with strong intangibles (Scholastic Player of the entire CHL/leading all WHL dmen in scoring for Elliott, captainship/Top WHL Dman/World Juniors for Barrie). Shattenkirk’s phenomenal passing and vision will be missed, but these two will ease the pain.

Nobody can fill Stewart's niche. He's going to be a great power forward, and for the first quarter of the season he was maybe the best in the league. But consider our wingers next year - Mueller, Flash, Jones, Hejduk, Gali, and Hishon should all be capable of playing on a scoring line. Olver and Stoa are in the picture, and Yip and Porter make acceptable injury stopgaps. Forward is a position of depth for us, even if Stewart does things nobody else on the team can do. We're left with a big hole up front for now, but who cares about this year, we're Languishing for Landeskog, baby!

Anderson is no better than Budaj this year, and it's still questionable whether last season's heroics were a fluke. But it’s becoming evident that he wasn’t going to return. Maybe he priced himself out of Kroenke’s range? Maybe he’s sick of bailing out our pitiful excuse for defense? Maybe he’s seething because management refused to get some ice girls for him? Who knows. But getting something for him beats letting him walk, even if it would’ve been nicer to pick up somebody useful.

Fun Fact: Brian Elliott wasn't horrible last season either, and he's the sort of inconsistent/struggling but talented player we've been trading for lately (see: Mueller, Hunwick, Flash). The only issue is that we still don't have a sodding full-time goalie coach for some reason, which is kinda sorta pretty important for the whole developing thing. He’s also not particularly better than Budaj if he’s to be our backup next year, and presumably lacks the team attitude/supernatural shootout skills too. And Anderson is more likely to rebound, so it most likely isn’t a question of acquiring new trade bait either. Yeah, I'm not sure where I was going with this one either. Moving on!

Apart from that, neither Stewart nor Shattenkirk is particularly great at defense – Stewart in particular gets away with a lot of coasting because he plays with a fantastic two-way centre in Stastny. McClement, despite looking like nothing but a throw-in, is a top-notch defensive forward and penalty killer for the Blues, one of the best in the league if you believe the hype from the STL blogs, which I will choose to do so I won’t feel as cold and empty inside. Johnson, despite struggling a bit this year, brings size and the potential to be the number one dman we’ve lacked since Blake’s departure. He could be very, very good in the near future.

Astute readers may remember that our PK this season has been a mind-boggling clusterfuck of inconceivable failure. O'Reilly and Galiardi have been great considering their age, but aren't at a level where they can be effective opposing power plays every night. McClement gives us some much-needed stability there. You may also recall that our defense is weaksauce on account of it being packed with smallish puck-movers (like Shattenkirk) and lacking a true number one. Liles has had a great year, but he can’t shoulder the load himself. While O’Byrne’s presence allows him to play his offensive style, it also forces him to be the only offensive producer from the blueline. The ineptness of the rest of the D corps makes them the best in their own zone as well. They make a good second-pairing combination, but they're being leaned on to play as both the top shutdown and offensive line and they're wearing down. Johnson’s presence gives them breathing room and allows them to struggle for a night without crippling the transition game and allowing five goals.

This trade is all about improving the defense, and we’re dealing from positions of strength here. I feel like Stewart and Shattenkirk are worth more, but I’m clearly unbelievably biased here (for what it’s worth, Puck Daddy tentatively thinks we won this trade) and the team as a unit will be better and less of a sieve in the long run. Johnson and McClement are hardly ancient, so just because we’re no longer building from within doesn’t mean we aren’t still looking at the future. And if the Blues do alright this year but terribly the next, that draft pick becomes a nice bonus too.

My first reaction was that this reeks of desperation, and it still sort of does. But it makes sense. Weber and Seabrook aren’t just going to fall into our lap; number one dmen cost more than Cumiskey, Yip and a pick. It was clear that we needed one, and if this is the cost, so be it. Forwards are easier to draft and develop quicker anyways. The Plan is shifting now that management has seen the team play and identified our weaknesses, but it’s still there and we’re sticking to it. All is not lost.

Unless of course this is all part of some insidious scheme to meet the cap floor exactly next year. But that could never happen, right?

... Right?