It's the offseason, and it's still a couple of weeks until the draft. To kill the time, I figured we could use a "Top Players" list of some sort like a lot of other team-oriented sports blogs have done.
Now, I'm not talking something completely ridiculous like a top 100 list or anything, because let's be honest, in the history of the Avalanche, there haven't been 100 truly great players.
Instead, I propose we do a "Top 19 Avalanche Players of All Time" list, with 19 being the number for obvious reasons: 1) Joe Sakic and 2) it's a good, relatively low number in which we can probably cover all the really great players who wore the Burgundy and Blue.
Now, here are the qualifications for inclusion on the list:
1. Have spent at least one full season on the Avalanche roster.
2. Played very well as a member of the Avalanche (Teemu Selanne and Paul Kariya do not qualify, despite being great players in general).
That's not too hard, is it? Also, we're talking Avalanche players, not Nordiques players, so Peter Stastny doesn't qualify. We can do an all-time franchise greatest list at some other point.
What I need everyone to do is post their own Top 19 in the comments. Honestly, you only really have to post your top 16 choices because we already know Patrick Roy, Joe Sakic and Peter Forsberg will be the top 3 (in an exact order to be determined later). Fill out the rest of the list.
Once I get enough submissions, I'll consider everyone's choices, pick the order of the list and then make an individual post documenting the achievements of each player.
If you're having trouble remembering some of the great guys who were on the team, don't forget to check out the complete list of players at the Avalanche Database.
Get crackin'.
UPDATE: I sent emails to Adrian Dater, Terry Frei and Rick Sadowski trying to get them to play along. Dater and Sadowski haven't responded, but Frei did, and his list is pretty similar to most of yours. I'd put it up in the comments section but he hasn't given me permission yet and his email signature warns that any and all correspondence from him is to remain private unless he says otherwise. But yeah, he did send his own top 19 list, which was cool of him. Rick and Adrian, your moves.