Kaut passed through waivers twice this year and so did Jacob Macdonald. Are you really trying up say the avs gave up high value here? Neito is the best player in the deal

Dude you are being ridiculous

Also foudy is 100% not being moved for a rental especially Monahan good grief

Timo Meier is looking for $9,000,000 per

And that offer would be blown away by both Buffalo and New jersey.

You really seem to have it in your head that Friedman and Lebrun are just some random beat writers or something. Is it because you’re American and there are no real insiders there, that you can’t get it through your head who these guys are?

They don’t just state their opinion, and when they rarely do, they preface it by letting you know it is strictly their opinion. They have their credibility on the line.

He wouldn’t say it, if he didn’t have some inside knowledge. Take this info, digest it, let it sink in and believe it.

I’m Canadian and live in Canada. I see insider trading almost every day.

I can comprehend what Lebrun and Friedman are saying clearly you can not

They routinely give their opinion. 32 thoughts podcast is filled with marek and Friedman giving out their thoughts opinions and ideas on what teams might do.

Lebruns exact words. LeBrun: I think the Colorado Avalanche is the team to monitor when it comes to Sean Monahan. What do you think “I think” means. That’s prefacing his opinion

Players never get exactly what they’re looking for, I’m sure his agency is set at 9 at the moment, it’s very early in negotiations. I’d be surprised if he got more than 8.5. Buffalo and New Jersey could make very competitive offers, but i doubt they’d blow this offer away. Buffalo definitely wouldn’t. New Jersey could if they offer Nemec but I don’t see them doing that.

Jeez what a biased framing. They gave up Martin Kaut (#16OA in 2018, 47 career NHL GP) and Jacob MacDonald (29 year old 3rd pair/7th D type with 78 career GP) for Ryan Merkley (#21OA in 2018, 39 career NHL GP) and Matt Nieto (30 year old bottom-6 with 600+ career NHL GP and 55 playoff GP on top of that). Or, the Avs and the Sharks swapped struggling older prospects and the Avs also got a cheap veteran with tons of experience for an AHL depth player. Don't act like it's similar to them trading Drew Helleson or Justin Barron a year or two after they were drafted - Kaut was #16 5 drafts ago.

Monahan to the Avs specifically also ignores the fact that right now the only reason they show $7.2M in cap space is because of Gabe Landeskog's $7M on LTIR - he's expected back by the deadline, so if the Avs trade for Monahan, they're going to have find a way to clear out about $2.9M in cap space in order to activate Landy. I just don't see the fit, even if Lebrun thinks the Avs are a "team to monitor" with regards to Monahan.

Regardless. They have no use for Merkely whatsoever. He’ll never even play a game for them let alone become an nhler. Kaut will probably end up with a bottom 6 role, the same role that Nieto plays… They gave up a current/future bottom sixer for a veteran that helps them more now, even if its slightly. They don’t care about their future bottom 6. They’re trying to win now. Olausson is at best a bottom 6 player, the 2nd is late and is lucky to even become a 4th liner.. They would 100% make this deal.

Is Monahan their 1st option? I highly doubt it, but there are a ton of teams looking to acquire the same players. There are far more buyers than sellers this deadline. They could easily strike out on a guy or two and set their focus on Monahan.

I’m sure they’ll make the money work, unless you’re suggesting that Colorado isn’t going to add anything,.. because every player they look to acquire for an upgrade at C is going to come with a 3 mill cap hit with or without retention.. minimum.

They have a large use for merkley. Their d prospect pool is the weakest part of their farm stystem, they are hoping to rebuild him up bc his talent and skill set meshes exactly what the avs do and how they play

You really don’t have a grasp on what the avs do and what their needs are

Again you just make up everything, they do care about their bottom 6, that is literally what they are doing with their prospects, the reason they moved kaut is bc he couldn’t be consistent enough, bednar does not want unknown effort levels with his bottom 6 players,.

Olausson Has a nhl level talent that teams can envision in their top 6, that’s his shot, it’s elite,. That’s how a guy like mike Hoffman made a career, his game wasn’t elite but his shot was. He was a top 6 winger for the majority of his career with that talent, I don’t think you know much about Olausson either

Dude I wouldn’t make claims about the avs when you don’t know a thing about them

So you’re telling me they care so much about their future bottom 6 that if they strike out on their initial targets and Monahan is still available, that they will not trade a likely bottom 6 prospect (Olausson, Foudy) for said player?

A bottom 6 player that you can sign for 1 mill at any time in free agency.. they just can’t lose that basic prospect even if it means helping them win in THIS years playoffs? Don’t kid yourself.

Yes bc they care about a dynasty and keep their team together as long as they can, not burning assets for players who aren’t even upgrades to what they currently have in compher and Rodrigues

You really are starting to embarrass yourself, you make a lot of claims about the avs and they are just so wrong I am wondering if you are doing this on purpose

Monahan is didn’t become suddenly amazing in 20
Games, he is a very flawed player, at the cost you want for him avs can get a better player than him. You are over rating his value and demand.

Monahan is a very flawed player? He’s a 27 year old player who’s battled injuries.. at full health he was a 70 point first line centre. Minimum a very high end 2nd line centre.

In Montreal this very season he was on pace for almost 60 points playing with Dadanov, Hoffman, Armia etc. he was doing that playing with complete trash. Those 3 were garbage.

His health in a concern, this deal is moot unless he comes back fully healthy before the deadline.

Don’t claim that he’s a flawed asset when healthy, that is ridiculous. He was awesome for the Habs when healthy. The talk of the league.

As for a “Dynasty” they sure as hell won’t be a dynasty if they don’t improve their C depth this deadline. They’re mediocre this season. They know they have to add, and they will.

Monahan is poor defensively, a weak skater and has a track record of being awful in the playoffs

That is the definition of a flawed player, you act like fans and other teams having watched him the last 8 past seasons or so, they didn’t all disappear bc he played 20
Games in Montreal

And no his most common linemates was Anderson,
Suzuki and caulfield and most common pair were those 2
This info can be looked up you know

Monahan hasn’t been a high end anything for like 3 seasons now. He was moved to the 4th line in Calgary for a reason. Again 20 games in Montreal didn’t make him a high end 2c fixing his bad defensive and poor skating

Saying they have no use for Merkley is just not looking at their roster construction at all. Erik Johnson is their current RD3, he turns 35 next month and is on an expiring deal. The only other RHD they currently have in their system besides Merkley are Wyatt Aamodt (25 year old undrafted free agent with 8 points in 30 AHL GP this year), Nathan Clurman (24 year old 6th rounder from 2016 splitting time between the ECHL & AHL this year), and Josh Jacobs (about to be 27 year old journeyman who's played for as many organizations as he's played NHL games to date - 3.) After trading Drew Helleson and Justin Barron last year they have a huge hole in their RHD depth, and Merkley both is younger (22) and has more NHL experience (39 career GP) than anyone else currently in their system.

Kaut's a year older than Merkley and has scored the same amount of points (6) in more NHL games (47 vs 39) than Merkley. Not saying he can't carve out a decent bottom-6 role, but most folks would take the 22 year old RHD who's still on his ELC over the 23 year old winger on his second deal, if only because of the positional scarcity and the extra year of team control.

And you still didn't address the question of how Monahan would fit onto the Avalanche's cap. Josh Manson & Bowen Byram are expected back after the All-Star Break, which you could argue clears about $1.5M in cap (assuming they waive Brad Hunt & Andreas Englund); if Gabe Landeskog is activated as expected (first week of March) his $7M goes back on the books. Since they're only running 12 forwards right now, I wouldn't be shocked if they don't waive any of their current forward group and have a depth guy traveling with the team. Once Landeskog's off LTIR, there's only about $200K of extra space available - meaning that Colorado likely has about $1.7M in wiggle room at the deadline. Not sure how Sean Monahan's $3.1M retained cap hit is going to fit into that, and I think once you talk about Colorado having to add *another* asset to get a 3rd team to retain Monahan down to an affordable cap hit, the acquisition cost makes less sense than just targeting a slightly less productive player that fits under the cap (Nick Bjugstad or Ivan Barbashev spring to mind as comparable options.)

What you’ve mentioned is a good argument for why he’s not a full fledged 1c, but it is not a good argument for why he’s not an attractive asset to add to a contender. Those teams already have 1c’s. In Colorado’s case they’re trying to add a 2c, Monahan would be night and day better than anyone they have to fill that role right now.

Even if he ends up going to a different team to be their 3c, they’ll still pay a premium even for that role because it is so critical in the playoffs. Hell if you don’t have a high end 3c and your 2c ends up injured, youre screwed. If said team needed to put Monahan in that role it’s basically be like they didn’t lose anything..

Again, don’t speak about his value when healthy. He is incredibly valuable.

If you want to talk about health, fine. Like I’ve already said, this deal is moot if he doesn’t come back fully healthy. I wouldn’t even be surprised if Montreal is keeping him out longer, just to make sure he’s healthy enough to play in the playoffs.
Considering he is their greatest asset at this years deadline.

They don’t care as much as you about their “system”… Tbey have Makar and Manson on the right side. Theyre set for multiple years. Merkely will never even play a game for them, I PROMISE you that.

He’s not better than compher or Rodrigues, even Newhook has better under lying numbers than him

You are really over rating monahan, clearly bc you seriously he could be a 1c if healthy which now in know you are trolling so I’m going to leave this thread

No point in continuing a convo with trolling points like that, especially when you have continued to just fabricating everything just to be proven incorrect

jesus, you'd think if a fan of ANY team in the NHL would understand the likelihood of an AHL guy getting a call up because someone got hurt, it'd be a fan of the team that literally just had to emergency call-up a guy from juniors so they had enough healthy skaters for last night's game. but go off, i guess.

Late to the party here, but just want to circle back on the Lebrun stuff. Colorado doesn’t really talk to media about their trade aspirations. They’re very tight lipped. I can’t remember the last time we heard rumors about an Avs trade before it happened.

If an insider is reporting on Avs moves, they’re likely either speculating or being fed something from another team. The Avs front office doesn’t talk.

Loose lips sink (champion)ships

This is what I have to assume OP is referencing Lebrun said



So, speculation and rumors, nothing beyond that.

The point is Merkely is not going to be an nhler.

Lebrun wouldn’t say it if there weren’t some truth to it. But regardless, if you don’t trust any insiders, then just use your brain. It’s pretty obvious that the Avs have interest in Monahan.

Yet the forward that's a year older and has been less productive in his NHL time is a "future bottom-6er" according to you.

Feels like you're just spinning everything to make it match the narrative you're trying to push here, but you do you pal.

Merkley is an offensive defenseman who doesn’t produce much even in the ahl.. he sure as hell isn’t going to produce in the nhl. Kaut filling a bottom 6 role is far more likely.

Who do you think the Avs are going to look to acquire at the deadline to upgrade at C? Not Horvat, Not O’Rielly, Toews is unlikely though I’m sure they’ll try. There are like 6 people in this thread. One guy thinks the Avs have zero interest in Monahan, which is obviously not true. Do you think they have no interest or that this is too high of a price to pay?

He’s better than Compher, Rodrigues, and Newhook. Rodrigues and Newhook are wingers though so not sure why you even brought them up. If they considered them upgrades at C they’d be currently playing C, but they’re not.