GDT: Free Agent Frenzy 7/1/16

Contrary to the vigorous participation the Avs had last year, we shouldn’t see many significant moves today. There are a few holes to fill on the NHL roster and vast stretches of nothingness in San Antonio but few to none will be filled by players in high demand.

Coverage begins on TSN at 11am ET, don’t know about SportsNet but I’m sure it begins around the same time. The NHLN has it at Noon and I think they’re going to stream it on NHL.com concurrently but don’t hold me to that.

Priorities:

1. AHL starting goalie that can handle a few games in the NHL when tragedy occurs. This is the void left from trading Reto Berra to the Panthers and it’s not one you can just sign any idiot to fill. I bet the Avs have a guy targeted already and it could be one of the first deals announced.
2. Middle-6 forward for the NHL, preferably one that can play RW. This is a need but it shouldn’t be for long so anything involving more than 2 years isn’t optimum. I can see anything from a Matthias type to a McGinn type here.
3. Filler defenseman. Cheap, competent guy on 1-year deal who won’t get in the way of Z, Bigras & Gelinas but can fill in as needed. This is a deal where I see some real value in waiting for a few weeks.
4. Another NHL forward? Not completely necessary depending on how gung ho the staff are on playing lots of young players. Could range from a cheap Jack Skille type to someone who will be mainly NHL depth with a San Antonio mailing address.
5. The Rampage Roster. Without knowing where guys like Siemens, Compher, Grimaldi and Martinsen are in the staff’s virtual depth chart it’s really hard to say how many players are needed for the AHL club next season. Right now we can say there are solidly 3 forwards, 4 or 5 defensemen and a goalie. That’s not enough. Aside from the aforementioned goalie at the top of the list there needs to be a minimum of another 10 forwards and 2 or 3 Ds. Not all have to be on NHL contracts of course but some do for sure. Mat Clark is the only vet signed so there’s 4 spots for guys with 320+ games of experience available. I think they’ve probably got maybe half of these wrapped up already but will announce them en masse at some future date. As far as AHL contracts go, they never openly speak of them so any info there will have to come from external sources.

On the other side of the coin you have to give to get. The Avs will be giving these fine players to the league at large to do with what they please:

Mikkel Boedker
Shawn Matthias
Zach Redmond
Andrew Agozzino
Andrew Bodnarchuck
Jack Skille

Taylor Beck
Brandon Gormley
Nate Guenin
Patrick Bordeleau
Ben Street
Borna Rendulic

Plus a bunch of prospects that weren’t qualified like Meurs/Beaupre/Cheek, guys that went to Europe like Hish & Evs and Jesse Winchester.

As exciting as it is to see new players joining the org, it’s always (okay sometimes) sad to see guys that you’ve rooted for in one way or another leaving the team. Where do you see these fellows ending up, dear reader? Which ones will be back, if any?

/ / / / /

With low expectations and a silly trade season already, this should be fun. That is unless we have another DefCole 1 situation like we had between 2 and 4pm yesterday, but let’s not speak of that again. The trade market tends to calm a bit while teams are throwing away money on garbage Free Agents, but the Avs still seem like they have something they would like to do before the summer doldrums hit.

Swim out past the breakers and watch the world die.