I agree. His playoff stats were ok this year, but I barely noticed him on the ice except when he was blowing a grade A scoring chance. He runs hot and cold his entire career. He does some gritty stuff, but is he really an upgrade over Colton? Barely, but Colton had some good moments (and some bad) last year.

Never was that enamored with Rodrigues when he was here. Played a top 6 role that year in Colorado. Played a lot with Mackinnon, & still didn’t crack 40 pts. And had LONG stretches where he was invisible.

He’s a really solid third line wing. But he plays soft. And isn’t really a center (he can moonlight there in a pinch like Colton).

I just don’t think he adds much, if anything over what you have at forward currently. And his salary is essentially the same as Coltons. I think the Avs forward core is basically set & really deep. The focus should be on reworking the 2nd & 3rd defensive pairs.

Coyle was a bit of a mixed bag in his time with the Avs so I’m not opposed to trading him, but here fans are again trying to create the smallest third line in the NHL. This does not work! Coyle clearly is not some basher some experts claim he is, but even on the penalty kill having bigger bodies with longer sticks who eat up more space on the ice are VALUABLE. Drouin is clearly not cut out to be on the third line.

I was thinking something similar, but with Rodrigues as the center. He played there quite a bit in Florida, which was a spot the Avs failed to use him during his year with the team. As such, like you, I see trading for Rodrigues as a great segue to trading Coyle, since the former can provide similar steadiness down the middle for $2.25 million less.

The thing about Coyle, is he would be an incredible bargain as a 2C on the right team, but is far too expensive to be a team’s 3C. On the Avs, he’s the latter, so essentially flipping him for the much cheaper Rodrigues would make a lot of sense to me.