After a second tough loss in a row to a Northwest Division rival, the Colorado Avalanche are at the bottom of the division, looking up at Edmonton and Minnesota, and are now barely even within shouting distance of the Calgary Flames and Vancouver Canucks. As the trade deadline approaches and the rumors start flying, names like Peter Forsberg will be dancing through the minds of a spoiled Avalanche fan base that not only expects to make the playoffs every season, but expects to end up lugging Lord Stanley’s Cup around the Pepsi Center ice surface every season. Potential trades to bring in established high profile players could conceivably help the Avs squeak into the Western Conference tournament, after which, anything could happen. After all, last season, Edmonton snuck into the playoffs as an 8th seed, and came within one game of winning it all.
My message to neophyte Avalanche GM Francois Giguere and the aforementioned spoiled fan base is this: take a lesson from the Toronto Maple Leafs. For the past five seasons, the Leafs have mortgaged their future to bring in players like Ron Francis, Brian Leetch, Owen Nolan, and Phil Housley. All of these players were brought in to help Mats Sundin drag a mediocre Leafs club into the playoffs as a lower seed. All of these players cost the Leafs, at the least, potentially valuable draft picks, and at the most, young players like Brad Boyes that have already made an impact with their new club. All of these players came to the Leafs well past their prime, and aside from helping the Leafs with their annual first round bitchslappings of Ottawa, were largely ineffective.
In addition, GM and fans, take a lesson from the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Penguins had a successful 12 year playoff streak end in 2002, spent a couple playoff-less seasons rebuilding through the draft, and seem poised to turn the Eastern Conference into their own personal stomping grounds for the next 10-15 years.
This Avalanche team seems to have more in common with the Leafs than the Penguins, as Joe Sakic plays the Mats Sundin role of “veteran leader trying to drag his subpar team to the playoffs”, and the Avs aren’t completely bereft of young talent like the 2002 Penguins were. There is a solid core of young players in Denver, starting with John-Michael Liles, and including Wojtek Wolski, Paul Stastny, Marek Svatos, and Peter Budaj. In addition, there are other promising young players in the pipeline, players like Codey Burki, TJ Hensick, and Ryan Stoa. There will be a temptation with Avalanche fans (and administration, no doubt) to call for a trade or two to bring in veterans to help Sakic take the Avs to a 7 or 8 seed, maybe have one successful round, and an inevitable beating at the hands of a younger, faster, better team (remember last season?)
With all due respect to those that don’t want to see the playoff streak end, think long and hard about these questions: Are you willing to sacrifice a year or two in order to allow this young team to properly develop, the way the Penguins have done, into a power? Or are you so desperate to keep the playoff streak alive, and keep the pie-in-the-sky playoff hopes of this season alive, that you’re willing to turn into the Toronto Maple Leafs?
