Avalanche Roundtable: How much has the offseason changed the NHL landscape?
With the NHL offseason basically over at this point (cue major trade announcement just to spite me), we’re going to do a couple of roundtables over the next week or two looking back at the changes made and how we all see the landscape going into the preseason.
Which single move of the summer did you like the most and least?
AJ: Michael Bunting signing in Carolina jumps out for me because he’s the kind of skilled tryhard that really thrives there and they need to keep finding ways to add scoring. There might be higher-impact signings elsewhere (Duchene in Dallas stands out) but in terms of fit and need, this felt like a really good marriage between player and team while keeping the contract very reasonable.
For worst move, I’m taking Kings for the decision to go extremely cheap at goaltender while heavily investing in the rest of the roster. The Kings have exited the postseason at the hands of Connor McDavid’s Oilers two years in a row and they responded by deciding a tandem of Cam Talbot and Pheonix Copley. Talbot is 36 and coming off a season where he battled injury problems and wasn’t very good. I know Copley was a huge reason they stayed afloat last year, but it’s a different world when he’s being given the responsibility of potentially being the full-time starter. Their safety valve is David Rittich, which is no safety valve at all.
It’s wild to me that LA consolidated some talent in the Pierre-Luc Dubois trade only to turn around and cheap out in net. Maybe it works out, but wow is that a ballsy risk to take with an otherwise playoff-ready roster.
Meghan: Ottawa and Detroit’s offseason in 2022 felt very similar on paper. Both found themselves out of the playoffs at the end of it all after taking big swings on some of the bigger names in free agency: Andrew Copp, Ville Husso, David Perron, and Ben Chiarot for Detroit and Claude Giroux for Ottawa. Ottawa gave up a crop of assets to bring in Alex Debrincat (including intriguing young goaltender Filip Gustavsson) only to lose Debrincat this summer.
I’ve been really critical of Detroit from that offseason and now this summer for being too quick to pursue what’s highly coveted by others without first considering fit. Ottawa moved a bit differently and has made decent efforts to separate from Detroit in how they’ve handled things. They were active at the deadline and bolstered their defense by adding Jakob Chychrun. Though there is still a concern in net (Can Joonas Korpisalo really be that guy?) and some tough contracts that they’re anchored to – the latest addition of Vladimir Tarasenko on a one-year deal at a discount is one of my favorites of the summer. The culmination of things Ottawa has done now through two seasons points to forward movement. Tarasenko at $5M in a top-six with the likes of Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stutzle, Claude Giroux, and Josh Norris is looking really good.
I didn’t love Arizona’s Jason Zucker signing mainly because it meant he didn’t end up in Colorado. The incoming cap bump meant a lot of one-year contracts that we might not ordinarily see, and I think 1x$5.3M for an offensive middle-six winger comes in a little rich. Maybe not for the Coyotes who had some room to spare, but inevitably for interested parties come the deadline. I can’t bring myself to fully hate it though. Know your worth, King.
Rudo: I really think Dallas knocked it out of the park with the Matt Duchene signing. $3M for a 55-point floor guy on a team that is in perpetual go-for-it mode until they age out is a huge boon and they have no long-term risk at all with it being a one-year deal. On the flip side, you have the Leafs signing Ryan Reaves to a three-year deal. I’ll let the player card do the talking on that one.
What were the best and worst moves made by a Central Division team?
AJ: I think the Duchene addition is the easy and obvious answer but I did love the Coyotes rolling the dice with Jason Zucker. They get a good player that maybe can contribute to a surprise playoff run (unlikely, but this is the NHL we’re talking about) or be one of the trade deadline’s most valuable commodities (maybe even drawing the interest of the Avalanche). That’s a win-win for a team moving away from rebuild territory and closer to a wannabe contender.
The move(s) that left me confounded is what Barry Trotz did in Nashville. Hiring Andrew Brunette? Aces. I actually love the hire. Giving away Ryan Johansen and buying out Matt Duchene? Fine with me, a GM wanting to get started on rebuilding the roster his way is very normal so that tracks. To do all of that, publicly say they want to get younger, then go into free agency and give multi-year deals to Ryan O’Reilly, Gustav Nyquist, and Luke Schenn? That makes them much harder to deal at the deadline if things don’t go well and at this stage of their respective careers, none is a leading man anymore. What’s the plan there?
Meghan: Dallas landing Duchene for $3M is incredibly fortuitous as others have mentioned. It’s just good business. Though a single player doesn’t often carry an entire team across the finish line (though Matt Tkachuk certainly did try to with Florida), Dallas was already one of the biggest threats in the Central, and they just got better. They’ll still have players with experience to go the distance in the Pavelski and Benn types, and Duchene won’t have to compete on a team where he has to be both the star power and grizzled post-season player (a role he has lacked in previously). He can just be a star.
St. Louis is imprisoned by cap and contract limitations of their own creation which prevented them from being able to do anything, except for around the fringes, which is boring and bad.
Rudo: Since I mentioned Dallas above I think Colorado and Arizona are the other winners of the Central. If Jonathan Drouin hits he could well end up one of the best moves of the offseason for Colorado and Arizona has done a really good job of walking that line of acquiring good players to help them push for playoff contention while leaving the possibility of selling off a bunch of pieces to keep the futures stockpiled. Jason Zucker may well help them be in it come the deadline or he could be packing his bags for a 1st, possibly both.
Which Avalanche move are you most excited about? (This can include draft stuff, too, if y’all want)
AJ: I was very tempted to go with the drafting of Mikhail Gulyayev here because the fit is just so good, but I have long been a fan of Ross Colton and his addition to the Avalanche roster is just what I think that group needs. He’s going to be a fan-favorite with his penchant for big hits, ultra-competitive attitude and the sneaky skill he brings to the ice every night.
If he gets comfortable in what the Avs are hoping will be a full-time transition to center, one of Colorado’s biggest weaknesses last season is a problem no more. He may not be their highest-scoring summer addition, but building a true Cup contender is about getting the puzzle pieces that fit the best and Colton should be a better fit in his role than what Alex Newhook was last year.
Meghan: Ben Meyers has been a fine dip into college free agency, he’s penciled in on Colorado’s fourth line for next season for $775,0000. Kerfoot wasn’t a bad fit once upon a time. Logan O’Connor continues to be one of the more economical contracts on the team.
Sam Malinski could change the conversation around college free agents entirely if they got this correct. He’ll have the opportunity to make Avs amateur scouting look so good. I still think it’ll take at least a full season before we can really know, but I expect him to have a chance to begin showing it next year. If Malinski can fill a future bottom-pair role, I’m doing cartwheels.
Between Kovalenko and Sam Malinski, Colorado could really make up some ground on the development/scouting side of things.
Rudo: Apparently I can’t stop jumping the gun on these questions because I’m hyped for Drouin but I’ll go down the list and take one on a personal level for Nikolai Kovalenko. This is a kid I have watched a lot of for a very long time and have been convinced for much of that time he’s an NHLer; at the end of this season, we get to find out for real.
