Joe Sakic is exactly who we thought he was

Like many Avalanche fans, I'm disappointed with the result this trade deadline. We were told everyone was being shopped. With the season long gone, the Avs were going to do anything they could to gain assets for the future. The Avs have known they weren't going to be a playoff team since early December and had three months to unload six UFAS from their roster for as many assets as they can. Today, the Avalanche traded two of those UFAS, and if the LA Kings don't make the playoffs and Sven Andrighetto is not resigned, the return is nothing. For a team that is now rebuilding, that is completely unacceptable.

The Avs led the league before the deadline with trade rumors. With names like Matt Duchene and Gabriel Landeskog on the line, the Avs were asking for the moon, and that was understandable. Those players were part of the Avs' most recent rebuild and valuable assets considered to be part of this team's core. If there is one thing Avalanche fans are happy to hear today, it is that Joe Sakic did not surrender his best assets for less than stellar results. But that being said, let's look what Sakic has done.

Sakic made three trades this season. Two of those trades were solids to veteran players; McLeod and Iginla to teams that may be playoff teams for minimal returns. If you couple that with his signing of veteran players like Iginla, Beauchmin, and Stuart to extra years and money than they would have gotten elsewhere, you wonder if Sakic is just living off that moment of handing the cup to Ray Bourque. Sakic is always been a classy guy that has treated the old guy well, but that persona just doesn't cut it as a GM.

Sakic was a legend and a class act for the Avalanche as a player. But as a GM, he's not enough of a jerk to make it like a John Elway or a Steve Yzerman.