Absolutely nothing in that load of gooble garble you posted changes a thing mate. Try watching playoff hockey sometime. It’ll help.

Makar gets great pub and you can’t deny his numbers. It helps that he has highlight goals and incredible moves. All that being said, he absolutely stunk it up in the Dallas series. I still believe he was playing hurt in some fashion that limited his game. But I never heard anything after the series about an injury.

Id rather have lindgren if he comes at between 3-3.8 million.

Id trade manson and girard. One girard is small and liability in playoffs. Manson is injury prone. Plus the cap they get can spread the wealth.

Perbix is manson 2.0
They can sign him cheap.
Makar
Perbix
Malinski

Will man right side.
Then toews lindgren duomoulin left side.

That gives you mixture.

Id buyout wood sign armia and jeannot

So you and Ricoflasback seem absolutely convinced that Girard and Malinski are incapable of clearing players from the front of the net. Fair enough. Let’s pretend that’s the one and only defining skill of a good defenseman (because obviously, no quality blue-liner has ever done anything else, right?). Then surely there must be a stat, somewhere, that proves this devastating shortcoming. No? Just one little number to back that claim? Anyone?
 
And while we’re at it, can someone remind me the last time Makar physically threw a guy out of the crease with his bare hands? No? Strange, and here I thought he logged nearly 30 minutes a game. But apparently he never actually sets foot in his own zone, not at 5-on-5, not on the PK. Wild. Maybe there’s a special “Makar exemption” written into the defensive zone rulebook.
 
So this same Makar, ghostly presence that he is in the D-zone, somehow walked off with a second Norris Trophy? Incredible. I guess the voters must’ve seen some numbers… or maybe they just liked his bone structure. Who knows.

Middleton isnt awful he does ok, him and malinsky I think could pair well similarly to makar and toews. Devon makes up defensivley for cales offensive prowess its why they work so great. Girard is actually good just small and his price tag is why ppl always say trade cause we can find some bargains possibly on D manson if he stays healthy really is good. But hes an IF.

Our PP needs to be better the D was hardly to blame for the 1st round exit. The forwards getting bullied on the boards and open ice was more of an issue imo. Faceoffs needed to be better too. Simply put if the PP was doing even a decent job we probably swept the stars. They wanted to lose game 2 and 4 and we let them off the hook.

Bobrovsky was stellar not gonna lie but the panthers really did some good puck luck when he was out of place and moving side to side. Not mad tho cause I dont like the oilers.

Who ever said anything about trading Makar and Toews? It is about having a good mix of offensive talent and shutdown defense. The Avs are not great on the shutdown defensive side.
Manson, when healthy, is great, Unfortunately, he is now injured more often than not. Girard is a good defenseman, but the Avs already have good puck movers. Girard and Malinski have a hard time moving players away from the front of the net.
You mention the PP, but the Avs PK also did not do great against the Stars. The Oilers are a team that wins by outscoring the opponent. When their offense is stopped it exposes all the flaws of their defense.
Right now the Avs have 6 defensemen signed, along with 12 forwards. They can ice a full team. Is this the team the Avs want to start the season?

Lehkonen-MacKinnon-Necas
Landeskog-Nelson-Nichushkin
Wood-Coyle-Colton
Kelly-Drury-O’Connor(Injured)

Toews-Makar
Girard-Manson
Middleton-Malinski

Makar and Toews are elite offensive “D” men. They still add a lot of value to this team even though Makar had a pedestrian series against the Stars. Lindgren still plays hard and worth keeping, IMHO. Depth wise, I still like Middleton because he does add size and toughness. Malinski shows promise but again, much more on the offensive side than the defensive side. From there, it’s a crap shoot.

The Manson of four years ago would be great but he’s injury prone and he’ll be lucky to play half a season for anyone. Girard is a great “Ice Capades,” regular season player that eats up a lot of ice time. Come the playoffs, he is a distinct liability with his lack of size.

A key problem that isn’t addressed is that that management does not value a physical style of hockey. The Oilers outmuscled the Stars and the Panthers outmuscled the Oilers. The Avs? Another in a long line of disappointing first round exits. I know it isn’t an easy fix. But recognizing the problem is step number one.

Oh great, here comes another brilliant idea to trade Toews and Makar, because clearly what this team needs is less elite defense.

Meanwhile, Toews, Makar, and Girard are posting better PK numbers than Manson and Lindgren, but sure, let’s break up what actually works. And let’s talk about Manson: if playing with power and physicality isn’t part of his game anymore, then honestly… what exactly is he contributing, moral support? Bench decor?

The Oilers’ D-men had worse penalty-kill stats across the board, and they still reached the Stanley Cup Final. Guess shutdown defense is optional now. Also, minor detail, special teams work in streaks. But no no, let’s blame the penalty kill. I mean, who cares if the power play actually cost the Avalanche the series. That’s not nearly as satisfying to point fingers at, right?

And oh yes, just a tiny factor often overlooked, goalies. Apparently, they matter a lot when you’re down a man. Who would’ve thought?

https://www.nhl.com/stats/skaters?report=penaltykill&reportType=season&seasonFrom=20242025&seasonTo=20242025&gameType=3&position=D&playerPlayedFor=franchise.27&filter=gamesPlayed,gte,4&sort=a_ppGoalsAgainstPer60&page=0&pageSize=100

Yeah he seems closer to Mitts as far as being a slower play making F that struggles defensively and we saw how that ended

Take those same statistics and look at the PK. Toews was #30, Makar #36, and Lindgren #50. The issue is not puck possession, but the ability to keep the other team from scoring. The Avs do not play big. They got bigger centers, but still did not do well in front of the net scoring goals. The defense has a hard time stopping big forwards in front of the net and clearing puck and stopping shots.