Comments on: Offseason Playbook: Defensemen

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 07 May 2008 21:02:44 +0000

You soured on Sauer =) Classic!

By: Bob in Boulder

Bob in Boulder — Wed, 07 May 2008 20:34:19 +0000

I agree that Hannan hasn’t been worth his contract. I wonder if there would be any chance in hell of them moving Hannan in a trade and using the cabbage saved to land Campbell? Heck, move Hannan and Clark, if possible, then sign Footer, Liles, Finger and Campbell and add them to Salei, Leoprone and Cumiskey. And yes, I’m a Finger guy over Sauer. I soured on him during the RW series.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 07 May 2008 19:52:36 +0000

I’m not a hockey x’s and o’s guy, but I believe the lack of a point shot really hurt the Avs this season. Their power play unit started to pick up a little bit in the second half, but from what I saw it was attributed mostly to Salei’s shots from the blue line. As much as I love the Salei acquisition, I don’t consider him the big gun out there and is maybe above-average at best with his shot. I certainly miss the days when the Avs would plant Blake in the center of the blue line and play a 1-3-1. It seemed like teams were packing it in against us while we unsuccessfully tried to make complicated passes between the forwards around the net. Smyth is one of the best in the biz in front of the goaltender, and I thought he was grossly underutilized in that role. As awful as his defense is, I was hoping they would have signed Souray to provide that but they went Hannan instead (I still think that’s a questionable move to this day).

By: overlord

overlord — Wed, 07 May 2008 18:35:55 +0000

I think that if Sakic does not return we will NOT sign or even go after any big names for forwards. With all the young talent coming up in our forward postion I can easily see re-signing Foote and Liles and then taking up until the trade deadline to determine how the young guns with consistently play. And I vote for Thoe to be shipped out and maybe Budiaj as well, go after a for sure starter in goal and have Wieman as an occasional back up…no more goalie by commmitee!

By: Jibblescribbits

Jibblescribbits — Tue, 06 May 2008 06:38:56 +0000

I like Rozsival. He takes a bad penalty or two, and he can have give aways, but he seems to have a good shot from the point. His passing isn’t horrible but there’s definitely the occasional WTF was that moment

By: Mike the Avs Fan

Mike the Avs Fan — Tue, 06 May 2008 05:36:46 +0000

Oh, I just noticed Paul Mara is a UFA, his slapper is very good, now there’s an option that would be a lot cheaper than those other guys, but it would provide us with what we need most–a bomb from the point. Wow, it’s gonna be a intriguing offseason lol.

By: Mike the Avs Fan

Mike the Avs Fan — Tue, 06 May 2008 05:35:18 +0000

In my opinion, the Avs should definitely re-sign Finger. I think Clark is underrated, but I do agree with Jibble, he is making a bit too much, but oh well, we can’t change that. We definitely have to get Foote back on board, Kizsla (or Frei, not sure) wrote that Foote will be back next season with a hometown discount, so that helps. I also think it’s time to let Cumiskey be a regular player. I think he’s old enough, let him play. That pretty much makes Liles expendable, but Liles played extremely well after the deadline, if he keeps that level of play up, then I definitely want him back. It’s a tough choice to make here.

Personally, I just don’t see us acquiring any new defensemen, except for maybe some back-up minor-leaguers, in case the plague hits again. We could certainly use a bomb from the point to help out the PP, but who would provide that out of the UFAs? Streit, Campbell and Redden are more puck-moving guys, and I don’t know much about Rozsival or Stuart. Jay Bouwmeester is a realy beast, but I think he’ll want a lot and we won’t be able to offer him too much. I think we have enough on defense, we just have to sort out who to keep and who to let go. While we could use some help, I just really don’t see us signing any of those UFAs. It’s going to be hard to decide that though.

By: thedoctor

thedoctor — Mon, 05 May 2008 23:14:16 +0000

while I agree this team missed Clark and his puck-possession ability a lot against Detroit, I’m not sure that the personnel had as much effect on the losses as the shockingly poor matchup between our system and Detroit’s.

Obviously we have too many D for this to happen, but bringing back the same crew next year would not surprise or disappoint me. It’s the system (and coach[es])that need to change more than our D. I really think this could be a SC defense with a better system and the Theo from Minnesota. Especially if they can convince Liles to come back and then jettison both Finger and Sauer, as unlikely as that is.

By: David Driscoll-Carignan

David Driscoll-Carignan — Mon, 05 May 2008 22:09:46 +0000

“Anyway, I think Sakic plays a big role in this. God forbid that the man retires. If he does, I think FG saves money by letting Liles go, and makes a run at Hossa and Rolston.”

preferably Rolston, but yeah I agree with this.

By: David Driscoll-Carignan

David Driscoll-Carignan — Mon, 05 May 2008 22:07:16 +0000

“So We can get 2 Kyle Cumiskeys? do we really need 2? The one we have under contract should be enough right?”

I’ve been working on some new templates to put in those links automagically, and I missed one in the copy and pasting. fixed!