Abba famously sang, “Take a Chance on Me.” While the 70s Swedish pop sensation certainly wasn’t singing about NHL players, I can’t help but find the meaning fitting when the NHL trade deadline has come and gone, and the Avalanche have added several new names to the lineup. Plucking players from their current teams, with only six weeks remaining in the season, hoping they will fit into our system with what the front office has seen on ice and paper is always a gamble. After all, we are dealing with humans. It’s like setting up your two best friends on a blind date (though with a lot of money and people’s careers on the line). Just because you think they’ll hit it off, it doesn’t mean it will end in a happily ever after. For the Avs, the only happy way for this story to end will be with another Stanly Cup. By making these late-season adjustments, the Avs have bolstered their roster to do just that.
Since Nazem Kadri signed with the Calgary Flames in the 2022 offseason, the Avalanche have needed a strong second-line center. Signing Ryan Johansen over the summer was an attempt to fill that void. However, the veteran didn’t meet the expectations required, and the Avs traded him to the Philadelphia Flyers in exchange for defenseman Sean Walker.
Walker, at 29, comes from the Flyers, where he has been having a breakout year with 22 points and averaging 20 minutes a game. However, his addition doesn’t solve the 2C dilemma, but in adding a defenseman, the Avs then had a surplus of D-men. Sam Girard has long been on the trade rumor, but in a surprising twist, young Bowen Byram was traded to the Buffalo Sabers for Casey Mittlestadt. While Byram was a key component to the Stanley Cup run, he has not made the leap the Avs had hoped he would. Part of that is due to continued injuries, and part might be playing behind the powerhouses of Cale Makar and Devon Toews. While I’m always sad to lose an Av, I think he will be a solid asset for his new club and allow him to perform in a new way.
At the expense of Byram, the Avs gained Mittlestadt, who has led the Sabers in goals this season. The 25-year-old joins the Avs with 14 goals and 47 points and constantly played well for his team. While he has no playoff experience, the Avs have plenty and will certainly show him how it’s done. After arriving in Denver, he said it was the most he has sweat during a morning skate in a long time. Welcome to the Mile High City, Casey.
After those two trades on Wednesday, the Avs added more depth with Brandon Duhaime and Yakov Trenin. Duhaime, from the Wild at 6’2”, brings a physical edge to the Avs. With the recent trade of Kurtis MacDermid on March 1st to New Jersey, the Avs lost some brute force on the ice. However, when MacDermid was in the lineup, his time on the ice was low, Duhaime will likely double Kurtis’s ice time. Now that he will be in an Avalanche sweater, we will forgive him for being a Florida native.
Trenin, who has scored ten goals this season, joins the Avs from Nashville, providing lineup flexibility and additional forward depth. With the recent news that Logan O’Conner is undergoing season-ending hip surgery, the more secondary scoring the Avs can get, the better.
As Bednar said after the recent trades, “The guys we added today are big, heavy bodies…They kill penalties and do a lot of the dirty work. They’re big, physical guys who play hard.”
While all those acquisitions came days ago, the Avs signed former foe Zach Parise in January. At 39, Parise sat out the first half of the season after failing to sign with any NHL teams. Most recently, he was an Islander, but we know him best for his long tenure with the Minnesota Wild. No matter our memories of him from before, once he donned the burgundy and blue, the past is past, and let’s get a Cup for the man!
With these acquisitions, it is clear that Avs’ general manager, Chris MacFarland, looked to fill the 2C position and add forward depth across the lines, but one area not addressed was goaltending. While Georgiev leads the league in wins, he also has the most games played. Without Frankie, the Avs have still not found their strong backup. However, young Justus Annunen is coming off of two back-to-back shutout performances. They did come against the worst team in the league, the Chicago Blackhawks, but he stopped all 61 shots in two games, which is impressive, no matter the team.
The Avs were busy this past week and took chances on Parise, Mittlestadt, Walker, Duhaime, and Trenin. Perhaps the team at Ball Arena can create a video of them clad in bright jumpsuits, a bedazzled belt, and platforms to the disco tune. Bellbottoms aside, it is time to see if their maneuvers will pay off. Let’s remember that Arturri Lehkonen was a 2022 trade deadline acquisition, and he scored the game-winning goal to cliche the Stanley Cup.
Let the countdown to the playoffs commence!