I think jost accepts his QO.

I think you also see Cole and Byram together to start.

This team is so good. Joe Sakic is a genius.

who is the healthy then?

Graves. Which is crazy to say. DNVR was also speculating the Toews move might signal that EJ isn't healthy, so could be that he starts on IR?

Is Cole or a compher available for trade?

Yep, Compher

That's an overpay for Toews. It's more likely he gets somewhere in the same ballpark as Graves.

I think hell get 4.5 x4, but anything under 6 mill is not an overpay. toews is an elite defenseman

Elite? No, he's not elite. Makar, Heiskanen, Hughes, Carlson, those guys are elite. Toews appears to be a good player but he isn't the same place as those guys. The analysis from JFreshHockey puts him as the 58th best D in the league which is right at the bottom of 1st-pair tandems. So that means he's probably more suited to being a #2-3. Elite means #1, hands down. And he had a very similar year to Graves while both he (Toews) and Graves were playing with good partners so I would expect his deal to come in more around what Graves got.

I think you mean charting hockey had him as the 58th best defenseman. Hbanalytics ranked him as the 17th best defenseman, Dom (athletic) in his playoff preview said that he’s a #1 and I’m pretty sure jfreshhockey called him an elite defenseman - his numbers at even strength are incredible and he actually didn’t play with a good partner (mayfield).

I couldn't remember where that came from but that's a pretty big gap in the different rankings so it depends on how you look at it all, I suppose. The point, though, is that he is only two years into his NHL career and he definitely isn't putting up 50-70 points like the guys I mentioned. Now, that is probably because he is more of a "two-way" defender AND he played for a defense-first team so you can't fault him for that but, at this point, I don't see how he gets paid the $5M suggested at this very moment. He may turn into that guy and get that kind of money eventually but, right now, I see him coming in more at the $3.5 range or so. It may be short-term (2-3 years) so he can capitalize when the cap goes up again but I can't see them giving him a long-term deal at $5M with Makar, Landy, Gru (if they keep him) and Mac coming up over the next 3 years and a flat cap for at least the next two seasons. They definitely do want to sign him before arbitration, though, because they don't want it to be for just one year.

I can see him signing for 3.5-4 mill x 3. It’s possible. Trotz system is so demanding and he was still able to put up elite underlying numbers without a good D partner. Almost every players numbers took a hit after trotz became head coach. On the powerplay toews was a bit unlucky and he didn’t get to play on the PK (avs should definitely play him on there). It won’t be long before he’s recognized as an elite D in Colorado. He’s was in the 95th percentile for xGF% and 92nd for xGA. That’s more of an indicator that he’s an elite D than putting up 50-60 points

Yeah, I could see a deal like that, for sure. His arbitration hearing is set for Oct 31 so there is time to work things out.

Graves as a healthy scratch? you are delusional.
It is more likely Byram stays down to develop than it is that Graves is a 3 mil healthy scratch LOL