Quoting: rookescr96
Question for ya if your an Av's fan.
From an outsider's view looking at their team Girard looks like such an obvious player that should get traded to open up some more cap space. Likely won't happen anymore now that freagency is done. But $5 million for a third pairing guy that is an offensive defenseman and not on your first powerplay unit seems like an unecessary luxury?
Don't think he is a bad player but say you trade him to a team needing some help on the backend. Even if the return wasn't great you could've used that cap space to sign Bertuzzi for one year. Because Drouin ain't starting playoffs on that first line.
This is a pretty common question. I can certainly see why folks who don't follow the Avs as closely come to this conclusion, as it's completely logical from a surface view of the team.
First and foremost, Girard isn't a 3rd pairing player, regardless of how it may look on paper. Makar and Toews play a ton (24-25 min per game), and Byram and Girard get around 21. That's the team's top 4, regardless of how it's listed.
Really it's Manson, who plays roughly 17 min per night, is the luxury that the team may not be able to afford. His trade protection opens up after this year, and it wouldn't surprise me in the least if he was moved at that time.
The other thing I'll mention is that Girard is a pretty complete dman. He can hold his own in the dzone and plays the transition game the Avs are built for. He even plays pk pretty well. He'll obviously never be that big mean crease clearer, but he makes up for that with his other attributes.
Bottom line is that I think the team is higher on him than many believe. He's not untouchable, but I don't believe they have much interest in moving him for anything less than a really enticing offer that would provide both immediate and future help. Just my two cents