Petro in avs is most likely destination in my book. The only down side is that you have a pretty heavy right side and you have no money for makar and landeskog come next year

I mean, if we're gonna go all in... Then you assume that we let go of Calvert, Bellemare, and Bonino. The expansion draft starts to look ugly unless you can convince EJ to waive his M-NTC, NMC though. If you can't, then you risk losing Girard assuming you protect 7F, 3D, and 1G with the 3D being Pietrangelo, Makar, and EJ.

If you can swing Compher/Graves/Donskoi to Seattle, then you might, MIGHT, have enough for Landy, Makar, and Grubby.

Doesn't make sense for the avs long term .People mentioned signing Makar, landy, est. But in 3 years Mckinnon will also need a new deal and there's no reason why he won't ask for Mcdavid money. Makar could ask for 8 mil+ on a long term deal, Landy will get a slight raise. Avs need to save thier cap. If they sign someone it needs to be short term. They already have a really good young roster, just don't mess it up.Timmons also looks really good and there would be no where for him to play

How do you sign makar?

In the Expansion Draft ideally EJ would waive his NMC, but if not we could go the 8 skater route and protect Mackinnon/Landeskog/Rantanen/Kadri + Girard/Makar/Pietrangelo/Johnson, and let Seattle choose between Graves and Burakovsky. Losking Burakovsky would be annoying, but he's far from irreplaceable. Alternatively if Newhook has pulled a Makar by being boss right off the bat in the 2021 playoffs we could promote him to 2C and trade Kadri with 1 year left to UFA, and thereby protect Burakovsky as well.

Whatever happens it's clear that we need to have a plan and some clarity on the EJ situation for the Expansion draft.


Maybe it's a tricky situation in 2023, but by then we may have won a cup (or two... or three), so it would be worth it 100%. The key is to maintain some flexibility by not handing out impossible NMC's.


With a pen, on paper.

Seriously though, in this AGM the likes of Calvert, Bellemare, Bonino would be replaced by ELC's (Bowers, Newhook, etc). Someone like Compher/Burakovsky/Graves could get lost to Seattle, saving a big chunk as well. I've done 2021/22 AGM's featuring Pietrangelo many times to show that it works, just go look at my AGM history.

The only way it makes sense (imo) is if they trade EJ. They can't pay their right side over $20M (likely closer to $24M)... I mean I guess they could but it doesn't seem like the best strategy.

nothing is worth losing Mckinnon IMO. If you win a cup in the next three seasons before his contrsct is up it's not worth losing him. He's the face of the franchise

Grubauer is injured every season, time to cut ties.

Pietr doesn't solve anything on this team, RD is solid, and Makar has a solid chance at the Norris next season if he continue to progress, rolling EJ down means less minutes at $6M cap hit.

better off taking that $9M, getting a stable and healthy goalie, and rounding out of the 3rd line with some true grinders that can chip in offensively, as the entire offense in the last playoffs rolled off the top 2 lines and fell short thereafter.

I agree with this, but MacKinnon isn’t going anywhere. Everybody seems to think COL has this massive cap crunch, hint they don’t, they only have Rantanen and Girard currently under contract into when MacKinnon signs his extension. I mean when his contract kicks in Compher, Donskoi and EJ are all off the books. It’s my pet peeve on this site that somehow TOR can add to a roster when they have Tavares, Matthews and Marner at all basically over $11M but somehow COL who just has Rantanen over $7M is going to have cap problems signing Makar and Landeskog.

Fair point, but don't forget that by the time Mckinnon needs a new deal assuming you land Pietgangelo the Avs have Girard, Rantanen, Makar, Landeskog, and Peitragelo all on the books for big bucks. Makes it tough to give Mckinnon 12 mil per and fill out a roster. Won't have Byram, Timmons, Kaut, Bowers, graves, etc on ELC's anymore eigther

The flat cap era should be over with a new tv deal and Seattle revenue coming in too. And true Byram and Newhook will get healthy raises they can still be bridged as well as Bowers and Kaut. Graves I think is gone, and at least a couple from existing prospects like Ranta, Kovalenko, Helleson, Mutula, Beaucage and definitely Annunen will fill in lower tier roles. But yes the most important thing I think Sakic can do this off season isn’t over commit length wise on any UFA deals.

I think you’re lowballing some of your offers on that 21-22 look.

My only issue is the term on the Graves contract. I think the sample size is too small to offer him that much, even though 2.75mil is reasonable for a defenseman. He's a good candidate for arbitration, and something around $2.75 on a 1 year deal makes sense. No sense in taking the risk when he's going to be a RFA again next season too.

Not only that, but he regressed during the playoffs, especially when he had to play away from Makar. He needs to prove he can be better in the playoffs. Your suggestion is a good one.

So, aside from the inevitable cap constraints that would come up with a deal like this and the fact that the right side would be overloaded, I have one main issue with signing Petro, as tempting as it may be:

UFA contracts in general have notoriously bad value. 80% of the time, you get a lot less than what you paid for. This has a lot to do with the age at which most UFA's are signed - late 20's and early 30's. Petro is 30 right now (he'll be very close to 31 when the next season starts). That's a lot of money and term to throw at a 30+ D. Almost all players peak around 27 and maybe plateau for a few years after that but the decline after 30 is sharp. Now, it's possible he stays healthy and productive into his mid-to-late-30's but it isn't likely. In that sense, you probably aren't going to get full value for his contract and you may really regret it 3-4 years in but have no recourse because he'll also ask for an NMC but who would take an aging, declining guy making $9 mil anyhow?

Also, I think making a bunch of assumptions about what will happen during the expansion draft or whom you might be able to deal and counting on that money to be there isn't a prudent move. It's better to assume that all of the contracts you have will remain with the team and you'll be paying them and work out the numbers from there. And assuming that a bunch of prospects will be ready to step into full-time roles as veterans leave is suspect, at best. There is no way to know who is going to be ready and able to contribute until they get to that point. With that in mind, it's going to be very, very tough to get all the core players to stay and build a good team around them if you add a 7x9 deal for Petro to the mix.