Happy to see Byram succeed, he just seemed stuck as the 3LD bc of how good Girad and Teows were, so happy to see him succeed

And the Avs got their Center

After the honeymoon period. This is still on point.

This trade was bizarre and Sabres fans didn't understand overloading the left side while sacrificing their best center.

Byram had a small scoring streak and doubts were put to rest.

Now?!

The trade is looking really bad right now. I just don't get the plan here at all. Why did we need to trade maybe their best forward, certainly their best playmaker, to get a 11.5m defenseman a partner who has pretty much the same strengths and weaknesses?

Yeah, I wonder if Colorado is regretting this trade right now. No defense at all what so ever right now.

If Colorado doesn't make this trade they don't have a 2c, gotta pick your poison

Didn’t they already have enough scoring power though?

No, all of the offense was running thru the top line and top pair; they needed a secondary scoring threat and had no 2C options.

Also, your post seems reactive to game 1 vs Winnipeg where we had Sam Girard and Jonathan Drouin injured; both impactful players on our overall team defense/transition game. Mittelstadt was a major positive factor in that game to keep Colorado within 1 goal; not to mention Sean Walker's impact (who we would not have acquired without moving Byram). You can't ignore all of that just to imply we needed Byram back.

7 goals on 23 shots, at one point it was 3 goals on 7 shots. The problem is Georgiev not being reliable until he has faced 15+ shots. Probably 2 of the Winnipeg goals are not really anything he can do about; but the Avs need someone who can be "cold" for long stretches while they dominate possession and not give up a goal every 3 shots.

Mitts isnt the problem.
It's instead the goalie that cant stop a beach ball.
Sakic should have addressed this at the TDL, they look like Oilers 2022 with Mike Smith in net, just need Georgiev to allow a goal from the defensive zone to be truly 2022 Oilers but to be fair many GMs didnt bother with the goalie position at the TDL, besides the Devils, of all teams.

Truly bewildering, indeed.

Goalies are bizarre that way. We see guys like Sorokin that works better with higher shot totals. Then, again, we see guys like Adin Hill perfectly comfortable with little work load. Goalies are all about rhythm and staying calm in the net, less movement so that things dont open up. Having Jake Allen on HNIC was fascinating as he replaced Kelly Hrudey in the booth. Allen was talking about the triangle openings in goalies and not the pucks leaking through the five hole. It's all about how you move keeping everything square and not letting your extensions/stretching to create gaps.
Speaking of a goalie, the Avs could have had for little to nothing.
Allen was great in Jersey with a terrible defensive club and he was very good in STL as well with structure.
He struggled in Montreal with a 3 goalie system with little playigng time behind mostly rookies on D. I don't know why the Avs didnt try to land him at half retention like many Habs fans suggested. Allen was one of the most experienced and steady guys to be had. Avs win game 1 easily with Jake Allen.

From what I understand the Avs were in on Allen and Ullmark at the deadline; for whatever reason (probably cap management and 2-3 other deals going down) they didn't pull the trigger.

I think it was a game of chicken. They all waited for someone to blink. The rumoured price all year for Allen was a 2nd and the Habs ended up with a conditional 2nd.

Yeah I'm pretty sure the Avs were involved in Allen for a while; perhaps the "shiny object" of Ullmark being available made them put it on the backburner and then they ran out of time when Ullmark didn't waive his NMC.