You can’t have 3 contracts eat up over 40 of the cap and ice a cup winning team. Cale is going to get whatever he wants in a few years and that’s as it should be. Colorado has used the hell out of these 3 guys since the cup year and haven’t gotten out of the second round. Time to try something different. I’m going to wait and see what else CMac does to improve this team before closing the book on this trade

All the risk is on the Panthers, they’re the clear class of the East now. Total risk. The Avs got another pass first soft wing that can’t shoot. Wonderful deal.

Okay so there’s so much wrong here I dunno where to begin:

The cap rises for all teams, so the Av’s were going to have the same unbalanced, top heavy line up they have struggled with since 21-22

The cap rises for all teams and that means that the Avs internal cap of 12.6 is a nonstarter if they want any top end talent. Moreover, it means free agency is going to get out of reach anyways so why not just keep the elite guys you got and not worry about trying to pay Jake Guentzel like he’s Mikko Rantanen? The Avs have had a top heavy line up because Valeri Nichushkin hasn’t been able to stay on the ice or play in the playoffs, they refuse to accept the inevitable with Ladeskog, every bet they’ve made at second line center hasn’t worked out, their goaltending has been rotten, and they’ve been the most injured team in the league by a country mile and traded their one guy whose played 80 since the Cup year.

 I’m not happy to see Mikko go but it takes dominant lower 6 lines to win make it into the final rounds. 

There’s no such thing as a dominant lower six line. There are lower six lines that have timely contributions and that has less to do with actual skill and more to do with variance. Darren Helm, Nicholas Aube Kubel and Logan O’Connor is not a dominant line. Neither is Luostarinen, Okpassom and Jesper Bobqvist. The Avs play their top guys so much anyways and in the playoffs they play the bottom six even less. The 21-22 team is probably the best team of the cap era. Recreating that isn’t going to happen regardless of what management does. The teams that win have dominant top sixes and dominant top pairings. It wasn’t JT Compher, Darren Helm, and Jack Johnson that won the cup it was McKinnon, Makar, Nuke, Gabe, Nah and Moose.

When you add the cap hit and production (hoping Necas and Drury continue or even improve at their pace) this trade is a net winner and we get to stop talking about seemingly uncurable lack of depth. Even better if they are not done yet.

Necas is another pass first winger, as if Colorado doesn’t have enough of those, and Drury is a 1.75M fourth line center. Paying mediocre talent good money is what kills you, not paying top end talent top end money. Colorado hasn’t had the golden touch in years. Mittelstadt, Miles Wood, Georgiev, Johanssen, Tomas Tatar, and Ross Colton haven’t set the world on fire since getting here. All players that have either left or should leave soon. Since the cup Drouin was the guy that’s somewhat stuck and even he’s fallen off. They’re not going to have Mikko Rantanen to cover up the warts either.

Vegas’s early success was because they were so brilliantly able to pick the best 6th or 7th man from every team in the league. They didn’t get the allstars but every player was solid and they put together depth across all lines. It seemed unfair at the time, but that is how a winning team is formed.

This is rewriting history, yes they nailed the expansion draft but Vegas’ success is leveraging LTIR, no state income tax, 17 man rosters, and every other cap trick to the fullest extent. They were also the most aggressive team in the league by a country mile. Mark Stone, Jack Eichel, Alex Pietrangelo, Noah Hanafin, Thomas Hertl are driving success not Bellemare, Pickard, Perron or McNabb.

I appreciate MacFarland’s willingness to go big and take the risk it was always going to take to balance the line up

If the risk doesn’t work out you’ve killed the window for what will probably be your best player in franchise history. Would you rather take a chance every year trying to cobble together a bottom six or find a 50 goal scorer? One is a lot easier to find off the scrap heap than the other!

If your allstars get shut down the rest of the team needs the talent to create offense, this move brings them closer to that model.

If your Allstars get shut down you lose. If Cale and Nuke get shut down in the 22 playoffs the Avs lose. See what happens when Nuke doesn’t play in the playoffs. If Vasa gets rocked in the bubble fake years, Tampa loses. If Kane and Toews get shut down the Hawks never win. If Sid and Geno get shut down the Penguins lose. If Bob gets rocked, Edmonton wins. If Eichel and Stone get shut down I still get to make fun of Vegas. If Aaron Judge sucks the Yankees lose. If Mahomes sucks tomorrow the Chiefs lose, but really the refs probably carry them to another championship. If Joker or Jamal suck, the Nuggets lose.

Here’s the best part though: they still don’t have the talent to create offense! They just got worst at the top line and added an overpaid fourth line center. They got worse and didn’t add any of the types of players that they need to win! Absent another move, they’re just worse.

Here’s what is killing the Avs depth: Casey Mittelstadt and Nuke’s drug and health issues. Trading Mikko doesn’t solve those issues. They’re not only worse, they’re boring!

The cap rises for all teams, so the Av’s were going to have the same unbalanced, top heavy line up they have struggled with since 21-22. I’m not happy to see Mikko go but it takes dominant lower 6 lines to win make it into the final rounds. When you add the cap hit and production (hoping Necas and Drury continue or even improve at their pace) this trade is a net winner and we get to stop talking about seemingly uncurable lack of depth. Even better if they are not done yet.
Vegas’s early success was because they were so brilliantly able to pick the best 6th or 7th man from every team in the league. They didn’t get the allstars but every player was solid and they put together depth across all lines. It seemed unfair at the time, but that is how a winning team is formed.
Every body is talking about Miller and Nelson, but I’m thinking it will be a physical and defensive 2nd pair D-man.
I appreciate MacFarland’s willingness to go big and take the risk it was always going to take to balance the line up. If your allstars get shut down the rest of the team needs the talent to create offense, this move brings them closer to that model.

My guess is Chicago is re-aquiring their own 3rd so they can go after an RFA this summer the same way St Louis did with Broberg and Holloway

No one knows what the future would hold, no matter the deal. Is this the spark to get some changes to bring a cup? Would keeping Rantanen just keep the status quo of a great team that does not have enough to get back to the finals? No one really knows. All we can do is hope that what ever decision is made, it will work out. There are pros and cons to any deal. Past trades are based on what happens, no matter how good it looks on paper.

The agent represents the player so the team has to respect that and can’t ethically discuss the progress of negotiations with the player. It’s totally the responsibility of the agent to keep the player in the loop. It’s been published that the Avs would consider moving him by the deadline to avoid losing him for nothing after the season. It would be naive if the agent thought that was a bluff

My whole family is in mourning. My son did a school report on Finland and tied Mikko into it. My daughters would often march around the house singing the Rantanen song and even named a pet Mikko. Hope the reports about him being “blindsided”are not true. Not usually how the Avs run their business. Especially to a player that has meant so much to the organization.