Yes..we are all aware of the salary cap constraints. And no one is operating under the illusion they can retain everyone.

The issue lies with having someone at the helm who can replace said departing players with equal or better talent. Kadri priced himself out. For the sake of argument we’ll say that’s true. Even though a GOOD GM (see Bill Zito in FL). Might get creative & extend the term so that the cap hit is lower. But CMac was worried about Naz’s age. Because he had his eye on 2029 back in the summer of 2022 for some reason. But I digress…

The main issue is how many top tier assets has he spent since trying to fill that hole? Same thing to a lesser extent with Compher. He finally had the guy (Coyle) & traded him because he was too impotent to find a different way of unloading Wood’s contract. Which he doled out. Which at the time was a bit of a head scratcher. Same as trading for Colton (a wing) & paying him the market rate to play out of position.

I could go on & on in more detail. But I’ve done so countless times. Why so many in this fanbase contort themselves into pretzels trying to defend this guy is maddening. I’ll leave it at this. A GM’s job is to ultimately improve the roster year over year. Outside of the goaltending which could’ve gone nowhere but up from where it was. Where has he done that?

Agreed.

I am seeing a lot of selective memory and cap amnesia in this Cmac skewering re-hash. Everyone knew Kadri and Compher were going to get paid after they won the cup. E-rod was invisible a third of the 21-22 season and was also going to get paid.I loved having Mikko and IMO the sum of Necas/Drury and then Nelson/Coyle was greater than the cap-strapped, top heavy team they could field while keeping a player who could and would have had all the power after the trade deadline. There was no indication he was going to be team-friendly from him or his manager, he played hard-ball and didn’t get the result he wanted.

Byram was also going to get paid and looked like was one blow to the head away from the end of his career. Did anyone here think the 2c position was not solid trending toward amazing after Mittelstadts first season here? Could anyone have anticipated his stall and inability to regain confidence in his second season?

The Wood contract was not the worst over-pay and he was quite effective at his role until his back was hurt and he started losing time and playing injured when he could skate. Coyle was a good add but didn’t really mesh and maybe (?) had a Mack conflict.

They go into this season with more cap flexibility than has existed in years. They are solid at goal, have cap and a number trade chip players for improvement at center, bottom 6 and blueline depth. They got an OGWAC who can play net front and pair with smaller nimble d-men.

The 1-4 play-off format really sucked for the Av’s and sucks in general, 1-8 just is a more fair format in general and not because it screwed the Avs. The best teams in the conference should not play elimination in the first round. More will be revealed and it is not all doom and gloom.

I don’t want to speak for him, obviously. But it seemed he got a lot of blowback after the Avs were eliminated. And wrote that piece stating McFarland should be let go.

I recall lots of comments from readers who seemingly couldn’t fathom a writer who operates a website. Penning an editorial that doesn’t perfectly align with their view of the front office & the job they’ve done.

He was also criticized (at least I’m assuming it was directed at him). By local Avs front office simp Eric Lacroix. For advocating that CMac should be canned for the Mikko debacle.

That was all very, very well articulated & said. The minus stuff is so silly. If you don’t like somebody’s takes or point of view. Take the time to craft a counter argument.

As I said in a comment the other day, that you may or may not have seen. I think you & I agree on a LOT more than we don’t. It seems that we have much more in common regarding the Rants trade too. The whole point of dealing him was to get deeper. As it stands now, you could make a legit argument their bottom 6 is worse than when he was traded. Which is inexcusable.

Now could they make some moves between now & the start of the year? Absolutely, but the ufa market is pretty barren. And as nothing Macfarland has done illicits much confidence that whatever trades he makes will make them objectively better.

I think CMac needs to go, if for no additional reason, for how he handled the Mikko trade. As Aarif said in his May 4th post that CMac should pay w his job for bullocksing up that deal. He gambled with Mikko, blindsided him, and due to Mikko’s performance, the Avs were eliminated in rnd 1. OOOOFFFF! Sakic’s his boss, but he and Josh Kronke must still have faith in CMac. I don’t get it. Here’s a question, maybe w too much commentary, that I submitted a few days ago:

“The Avs offseason activity has been less than low-key to date. They were fairly well set at forward w 11 of 12 that were starters at the end of last season. Now due to moves to free up cap space, they need at least a 3C and a bottom 6 winger. In addition to those needs, Avs biggest need was to re-tool the D corp. To date they added Burns at likely $3 to $4m x 1 yr. They need at least a LH shot, 2nd/3rd pairing D, to play w some combo of Burns and Manson, assuming G is still on the team. Using this as a baseline of needs (a 3C, bottom 6W, and a 2nd/3rd pairing LD), how does Avs mgt make this work? Is there any chance that MacFarland can pull this off without getting fleeced before the start of the regular season? There’s also the pouting Necas and his expiring contract looming. It seems CMac will get hosed on that deal if it festers past Oct 7th. There have been a string of bad deals he has been the mastermind of since he was promoted to GM in July 2022 – letting Naz walk, Lars Ellers for a 2025 2nd rnd pick, RyJo at $4m x 2, Byram for what turned out to be a 2026 2nd, 2025 3rd, and prospect from CBJ, letting ERod go, Mikko for Necas, Drury and picks. There are probably several I’m forgetting. I think that the last best skater trade was Barron’s and picks for Lehky, and Sakic was GM at that time. Last year, he did make good moves with the goalies after that situation was past bad. Count me skeptical.”

Aarif didn’t answer it. I think that demonstrates there’s not much of an appetite for negative commentary about the Avs front office by the readers.

Jeremy,

I think you have made a lot of good points, but the minus mob has decided that saying anything negative about the Avs is a bad thing, but these are the same people who apparently love to lose in the first or second round every year. Cultish behaviors combined with a naive level of privilege mindset that players like Makar and Mac are to be taken for granted.

It is illogical for any Avs’ fan to assume that Landy is going to play all 82 games and for all we know, the Avs have a plan to give him a game off every ten games or so. All it takes is one move, one hit, or something else and he is back to the LTIR.

Season after season, Bednar overplays his top two lines tiring them out for the playoffs. Having a weaker 3rd and 4th line will only exacerbate his tendencies to do this.

If Nuke is an addict (which I’m not deriding or making fun of) then apart from his injuries, he is and will continue to be a risky asset to rely upon.

I’m willing to hold off any criticism of the Coyle trade for now to see what the Avs do at the trade deadline, if not before. But trading him means a few things: 1) Backs up your criticism of CMac’s signings, particularly of Wood. As Aarif pointed out, the Avs had to include a player like Coyle to get rid of a bad contract with Wood. That proves what a terrible signing it was by the Avs; 2) It defeats the reason I and others could stomach the loss of Mikko: to build the depth of the team. While the Avs’ top two lines, health permitting, are as strong as ever, with the loss LOC (who tends to be injury riddled and yo-yo like on 5 on 5, our depth on the bottom lines is as bad as ever; and 3) there is absolutely no doubt that our very mediocre penalty kill last year will be even worse this year when you factor in the loss of LOC and Kirivanta remaining unsigned. When I talk about a player’s size, many on here just think I want size for hitting and absorbing hits, but taller players play with longer sticks and longer sticks protect more of the passing lanes and increase the chances (even if slightly) of a pass being stopped or deflected on in those passing lanes. Losing 6″4′ Coyle clearly makes our PK worse, not to mention worsen our continuously glaring weakness of face off percentage wins.

When you factor all of those factors, should the Avs have really unloaded Woods and Coyle? Wood’s annual salary was not the killer, it was the length coupled with a MTC. It was a very reckless contract to give, but given the Avs’ lack of depth in the bottom lines, it may turn out to be extremely shortsighted to not keep Coyle and Woods. Time will tell and what the Avs do with that extra cap space created will ultimately be the difference between us winning the cup this year or losing in the first rounds again. Given that the Avs lack draft picks, giving up an expiring contract like Coyle now may only end up prevent the Avs from having that extra trade chip at the deadline to acquire a true difference maker for a playoff run.

Trade for Crouse. Dude is a solid middle six player wnd can fit incase of injuries

I’ve already beat the point to death of how trading Coyle was horrid asset management & just overall dumb. I can’t be the only one who is really disgusted with this front office & their inability to learn from their mistakes.

This is going to be another year where they rotate a bunch of warm bodies from the Eagles in & out of the bottom 6. None of which will provide any stability or offensive production. Bednar will then do what Bednar does & start to overplay his top guys. Which will then lead to CMac scrambling mid – season (again) to acquire pieces on the fly.

So much depends on the top 6 staying available & healthy. And is anybody confident that outside of Mack, Nelson & Necas they can do that based on track record?

Lehky is good for 20 – 25 missed games a year on average. Nuke is always hurt or suspended. Everyone assumes Landedkog is good to go. Based of a whopping 5 game sample size. So that’s half your top 6. And outside of Colton they have know one capable of playing 3rd line mins. Let alone playing up in the lineup if injuries occur. But hey im glad they signed Brent Burns!! Lol