Welcome to hockey mountain high your go to avalanche podcast presented by Superbook
Sports. I'm air of Dean of my high sports and today once again joined by Peter Bob the
athletic the return of JJ Jures will be coming soon but he's still trying to figure out this
whole father thing so we're gonna give him a little more time here. He's got a deadline
I don't know if it's a trade deadline or a later deadline but we'll have him soon but in the meantime
that JJ is not back but the other one is because the avalanche just traded for terrible transition
Jack Johnson from the Chicago Blackhawks something that Peter you and I and even JJ have spoken
about since September the return of Jack Johnson at the trade deadline and here we are it has
happened but the surprising part is the avalanche are trading Andreas Englund to the Blackhawks for Jack
not a conditional seventh round or something crazy like that. Yeah I was I was surprised that
that they decided to trade England here I think he's been pretty solid for for the abs this year
but I think this pretty much shows I don't think the Blackhawks my sense is that they were not expecting
much if anything for Jack Johnson they wanted to do right by him and send him to where he
wanted to go and that was Colorado so if if Colorado was just gonna give him what they would
have taken whatever for it so I think what's pretty clear is that one the abs trust Jack
Johnson more than England and two the abs probably never trusted Andreas Englund as good of a
story as he's been to play in a playoff game and so they added a guy that people can debate whether
or not he should be trusted I think if he plays the way he did last year he should be but they
acquired a guy who clearly the coaching staff trusts and thinks can play in those situations and
Jack Johnson's an interesting case because his his advanced numbers are really really bad this
year like like very very bad but I think a lot of that is because he's playing for a really really
bad team like that impacts things he's playing 20 minutes a night in Colorado he's gonna be playing
much more sheltered minutes and so you you've got to think that he's probably still capable of
doing the same things he did last year which was filling in if there's an injury in the playoffs
and playing playing 10 minutes a game or whatever he played yeah I mean the the biggest thing is
it's not just sheltered minutes in terms of the amount of ice time he's playing it's sheltered
minutes in terms of competition I mean yeah we all remember we all remember opening night we all
remember you know Jack Johnson the lone guy in a Blackhawks jersey partaking in the huddle as they
watch the banner raise to the rafters and you know you get all that hoopla out of the way the day
after they all got their rings and Jack was able to be a part of it and then lo and behold opening
draw Chicago Blackhawks have their top line and their top deep hair of Seth Jones and Jack Johnson he's
not gonna play that type role with the avalanche he's absolutely not last year he was quote-unquote
a second pairing guy in the playoffs after the injury to Sam jarred but really he was getting
fifth six months ice time on the ab six most six most yeah yeah I should say EJ was ahead of him
too so it's very clear that to me the avalanche went back to something they trust you know sometimes
it works sometimes it doesn't we've seen other teams do this Chicago once brought back Andrew
lad I think they brought back Chris first D get some point like teams like to go back we've seen
Tampa Bay bring back Zach Bogosian after he left to go to Toronto for a year and then came back and
rejoin the team so teams like to go back to those pieces that they trust and they know with Jack
Johnson is just a matter of has he completely lost it whatever it was that he had last year has he
completely lost it as he passed that or can he provide the same it he provided last year because
if he can then you got you know hopefully kill McCar coming back soon bow and buy him healthy Josh
Manson's healthy you have Sam jarred healthy you have Devon Taves healthy Eric Johnson obviously
is the one wild card right now with his health and one hoebe back but you'll have Jack Johnson
playing with the same set of guys he was playing with last year you know this time EJ's out instead
of Sam jarred from the playoffs and obviously he has chemistry and knows both Sam jarred and EJ so
it's not like any of those guys are new basically the bands back together the top seven from last year
your main six plus Jack Johnson is your number seven the only difference is the reason why it was
a little bit puzzling for me is because I always thought that number eight maybe even number nine
spot would be Andreas Engle and but it goes to show that they're sticking with Jack and then you
got Brad Hunt as the numbers eight guy let's call him the Ryan Murray replacement well and then
we also have to wonder if the abs are done I mean I think Eric Johnson's injury we don't know the
timeline but it doesn't necessarily seem who knows when he's gonna be back and how he'll look when
he's back so it wouldn't shock me if the abs go try and add another more solidified
defenseman a guy who they would trust as like going into the playoffs with him as as one of their
top six defenseman and then you have Jack as the number eight defense minute because I think that's
probably the ideal role right is if Jack Johnson's your eighth guy heading into the
playoffs you've got backyard Brad who can play eighth or ninth you've got you've got uh
you've got Eric Johnson who you don't really know what his health situation is I'm sure they're
internally they have more of a sense of that that they're not telling us and then you've got
McDermott who I think is a valuable presence in the locker room but I think is also probably not
someone who's ready to play in a playoff hockey game especially of the caliber of the games by the
end of the playoffs last year with the way Tampa Bay and Colorado were skating around yeah absolutely
whether you want to call Jack the number seven or the number eight guy to me he's your fourth most
he's your fourth best left-handed or left D guy that you want to play granted Brad Hunt's a
lefty but he's been playing on the right side like he was yesterday because of the injury to EJ but
I kind of I think you're you're on you're on to something here with the with the extra
defenseman because you know right handed defenseman we know are kind of a luxury in the NHL there
isn't a lot of them to go around and when you have them you know you're kind of fortunate and the
avalanche last year their top two right handed defenseman for most of the season were Kelma
Carnerk Johnson and then they went out and traded for Josh Manson and that was before this year
where it's very noticeable that EJ you know has taken not a step back where he's useless but
he's taken a step back compared to last year his offensive numbers his ice time his general role
has taken a step back from where it was a season ago where you know you can see the avalanche on
the left side are ready to rock you know you got Devon Taves bow and bottom Sam Gerard and
when you need that next guy to step in when an injury happens like what happened to Gerard last
year you got Jack Johnson or even Brad Hunt but on the right side it seems like you got
Kelma Carge Josh Manson Eric Johnson on the third pair who's now injured and then Brad Hunt who
can play there so it feels like there is a hole there if Eric Johnson's not ready or if maybe
Eric Johnson like Jack Johnson becomes the number seven number eight guy you never know but
I think you're on to something there I think there there might be a right handed defenseman spot
that they're looking for and I want to say Scott Mayfield who I think you mentioned to me once
is a right handed guy so maybe somebody of that calibers is some someone they can bring in yeah
now the tough thing with that is that the I don't think the Islanders are going to sell
they want again today I don't know if they shut out the Winnipeg Jets yep yeah I don't know if they're
it doesn't really feel like that's a front office that if you're going out and getting bow
or bad it doesn't feel like they're going to be in the mood to yeah to sell but you never know I
I think that there are there are guys out there and if the price isn't right for any of them then
maybe you roll in with with Jack Johnson is your seven and hope Eric Johnson's healthy I mean
it's going to be interesting I'm curious how they're going to handle all of this but I I think that
it's at the end of the day the abs trusted Jack Johnson more than they trusted Andreas
Anglin they viewed him as a slight upgrade and this is a time of year where if you can make
you got everyone can debate like if it is a slight upgrade but I think they probably looked at it as
like on the ice maybe it's a wash maybe even Andreas Anglin's a little bit better but in the room
Jack Johnson carries a lot of weight he I mean you saw how the guys reacted the first night of the
year when he got to be part of the banner raising ceremony like this was a really really well
liked guy really well respected I think that probably they kind of viewed it as this is someone who
our room will really respond to who can be a leader who brings some of those intangibles and
yes maybe you're giving up Andreas Anglin but clearly they thought it was an upgrade and it was
a one for one swap so the black hearts are trying to do right by Jack and the abs saw it as an upgrade
yeah I mean it's the same reason why they went out and got Matt Niedo there was a clear hole that
Matt Niedo someone of a Matt Niedo caliber player should have filled and who better than a guy that
you know will fit into the locker room you know will be welcome into that room you know that
you know you know what to expect from him assuming he hasn't dropped off which Niedo's numbers have
shown he hadn't dropped off since leaving the avalanche so similar idea they went out and got
Jack this is the role he's gonna play they know what you know what you're gonna get from this guy
you know you can just dust off the number three that he wore a season ago give it to him
and be ready to rock and roll so that's obviously the latest of the avalanche trades we'll get into
the rest of the NHL trades here in a little bit but let's start with obviously they went out
yesterday the afternoon in the afternoon after or sorry before the Calgary game earlier that
afternoon they traded Shane Bowers to the Boston Bruins for goaltender Keith Kingcade who better
enough 168 NHL games most known for being the goalie that uses a whole bunch of emojis on Twitter
so that's what Keith does I've heard he's a great guy he's a great locker room guy he's a great
personality but what he does is he provides depth for the avalanche goal tending and to acquire him
is going out the other way is obviously Shane Bowers a Boston kid um what's how facts kid went
to Boston University went to Boston University I should say but let's start with kind of your
thoughts on that deal yeah I mean I think that I saw people on Twitter asking me could the abs
have gotten more for Shane Bowers like why do this now and the fact of the matter is is that Shane
Bowers was on waivers earlier this year and no one claimed him so it's it's easy I think to say
how did they not get more for a guy who's a former first-round pick I think like fans kind of view
their own prospects as more valuable than they probably are and I think this trade is an example
of that I think I personally really want to see Shane Bowers do well he he's had just a really rough
rough luck with injuries I mean his first NHL game he gets hurt a minute 46 and that's brutal
third shift yep yeah I'm glad he at least got in a game for the abs and at least has that monkey
off his back but I don't know I think that this is a deal I think that doesn't necessarily mean that
Pablo Fransos is out longer than initially expected Jared Benner addressed that last night it's more
just to have insurance in case he is and I think even if I think it's even beyond this current
Pablo Fransos injury I think they just probably were looking at it as last year in the playoffs they
were one injury away from Jonas Johansson playing in a Western Conference final game and they probably
didn't want that to be the case again so they went and added a guy who is is a serviceable number
three goalie I on I don't know much about his play he has a nine 10 say percentage in the AHL so
he's been fine down there he's he did well in his one game he played up on the NHL this year but
definitely someone with experience and I think someone that they just probably internally trusted
a little bit more than Johansson or or in and in at this point yeah and then to correct you on
that it was it was and in that would have stepped into the Western Conference final yeah what did I
say yeah yeah Johansson was Florida but yeah I mean that's that's the situation that would happen
this year one of and in or Johansson would have to step in not that you're gonna win a Stanley Cup
on the back of Keith Kincaid but it's an extra body it's the same reason why when the Toronto
Maple Leafs had injured Freddie Anderson and Jack Campbell they went out and traded for insurance
in the form of you know Dave Riddick like you just you want to make sure you have extra bodies in
there not put players in positions where they're gonna get completely hung out to dry your kind of
in over their head and not that Johansson in and in can't come in and win a game but you don't want
to be in that situation so there's nothing wrong with showing up depth what I noticed from this
deal similar to the angling Jack Johnson deal is like even if it's a seventh rounder the avalanche
are interested in just giving away draft capital where you know you look at the avalanche is
depth chart you look at where Shane Bowers is on that depth chart and they said you know it yeah
sure it's a fourth string or third string or fifth string whatever number you want to give him
goaltender but rather than give up a draft pick that could be some kind of an asset let's just give
them a player that we know isn't going to be you know part of the long-term future here isn't
going to get another opportunity basically a wash same thing with Andreas Englund rather than going
out and trading a conditional six or seventh for Jack Johnson on a team that's already very low on
draft picks let's just give them a contract out for a contract in and and that's something you're
seeing around a lot a lot around the NHL for salary cap implications obviously it's a little bit
different for these deals because these are players that make you know less than a million dollars can
be buried in the minors some of them are two-way contracts some of them are players already playing
in the minors some of the players that are bouncing back and forth like Andreas Englund has been
has been up and down this season so I think it's it's a case of the avalanche saying if we know this
guy's not going to be part of it you know not that they're going to go trade Evan Rodriguez for you
know a forward but if these guys lower down the lineup are guys that we don't see as guys that are
going to get in for a playoff game and probably not next season why give up a seventh rounder when
we can give up this guy so especially because that's just don't have many picks and that yeah
exactly they don't have many picks so even the picks they do have like you know why trade a fourth
rounder for Patrick Nemeth again when you can trade a guy in Shane Bowers and maybe Boston says hey
maybe we can rediscover something with this player and even if they do all the power to them I don't
think the avalanche had any intention of finding something in Shane Bowers so whether he does good
or bad elsewhere isn't going to change the fact that he probably wouldn't have had that chance here
so that's something that I'm kind of noticing I'm curious what they do the rest of the way
but we'll see that's two trades obviously two minor trades I don't believe that's all the
avalanche are going to do but so far they're busy like the rest of the NHL is there's been a lot
of deals but this is this is the start for Chris McFarland of what should be a pretty wild five
days ahead between now and Friday yeah I can't wait for it to be over yeah you and me both
I'm just on my phone all the time like oh geez yeah but yeah I had little side story I had friends
visiting for the weekend and they wanted to go skiing or hiking on Friday or Saturday you know
before the flames game and I'm like look I can't go anywhere where I'm going to potentially lose
cell phone signal and the avalanche are going to go out and trade for Ryan O'Reilly or something
before Toronto traded for him and lo and behold they traded for Keith Kincaid on that
Saturday which not a big deal but still you just you got to be on your phone you got to be on top
of things so from there let's move on to the on ice play of the Colorado avalanche who are now
13 2 and 2 in their last 17 games ever since that infamous loss to the Chicago Black Hawks
and Jack Johnson yep back when there was a little bit of a murmur of is this team even going to make
the playoffs and the very next game I think it was a very next game they came out and beat the
Ottawa Senators 7 to nothing and have not looked back since for losses it is such a small amount of
losses that I can even name them out they were up three to one on the Anaheim Ducks and they blew
it in loss five three they had a one nothing lead against the Penguins and they blew it late in
regulation and lost it over time they got shot out by the lightning and they lost four three to the
lightning also in a game they were up three to one so three of the games you had a lead and you had
a lead late and you probably could have won that game and then the fourth one obviously a complete
goose egg five nothing shot out loss but those are the only losses they've had in the last 17 games
they look really good right now are they healthier than they were before yeah are they fully healthy
no but they look a lot more polished yeah and it's the next couple games are going to be a big test
for them and I think that's going to be really interesting they have Vegas who's leading the
Western Conference and then they have New Jersey who's one of the best teams in the east maybe we'll
see Timo Myers debut that would be fun yeah but it's it's going to be a it's not going to be an
easy couple games but I think it'll be a good like test of where the abs are at because so far they've
the last little bit they played some good teams but I think it's been a lot of uh teams that are kind
of not necessarily powerhouse teams um which I don't know if Vegas is but New Jersey's kind of
close to that at this point and I think it'll be two good hockey games and I'm excited to see kind
of how they how they look and knows and then I don't even know what the schedule is after that but
they they look like you said more polished I think that just getting some of those guys back and
having that depth down the lineup allows them to rest a little more and I think Jared Bedner made
a really good point yesterday about the depth scoring from guys like Malgin and New Hook chipped
in last night and uh Comfer I guess he's more on the in the top six at this point but like some of
the O'Connor had a big goal recently like the fact that those guys are putting the pucks in the net
means that the abs can roll all four lines more throughout the the whole game so then their big
guys aren't tiring out as the game goes on so I think uh I think that all matters and um yeah I
think it's it's resulted in some good um good play by the apps yeah well everything you just said
it's not just the next two games it's the next three the because of very nice game
Dallas on the road the day after the trade deadline 1 30 p.m. Saturday game so yeah those are three
big games I mean whether Vegas is a powerhouse or not with a Dallas is a powerhouse or not those
are the two teams in the Western Conference with a higher points percentage than the Avalanche
which is something you could have said about the Winnipeg Jets just two or three games ago just a
week ago um but the Avalanche went into Winnipeg destroyed the Jets four goals on five shots on
Connor Hellebuk who's one of the best goalies in the NHL um and now Winnipeg is you know they've
already been in a little bit of a rut and now they get shut out by the Islanders like you said
the Islanders want today the Jets are the team they beat they shut them out for nothing to the
point where even the Minnesota wild are ahead of Winnipeg in the standings now obviously Colorado
is in the driver's seat on both those teams with the games in hand so they're looking really good
right now I know they haven't beaten a lot of teams that are you know the top obviously you can
only play the schedule ahead of you but they've built better habits they're not it just seems like
early in this stretch this 13 2 and 2 run you still didn't know what you were going to get any
on any given night you know you had obviously that stretch where they were just destroying teams
Detroit 6 3 Ottawa 7 nothing Calgary Seattle 4 to 1 4 to 1 uh or sorry Calgary Vancouver 4 to 1
4 to 1 you went into Seattle you needed overtime and the and the shootout with Frankie and Net but
they had those games where they were destroying and it looked like they were going to do the same
with Anaheim up 3 to 1 and then obviously the Ducks came back in one they had the St. Louis game
where Jordan Bennington you know was being challenged by Guillard Giav in that game the
Avalanche had a multi goal lead St. Louis made it close it still felt like those third periods
were an issue they were having trouble closing out games they went to Minnesota Capri's off-score
made it 3 to 2 they had to kind of scratch and claw to close out that game they went they had
the Tampa Bay Lightning here at ball arena they had a 3 to 1 lead they lost I believe 4 to 3 in
the shootout I think it was 3 to 1 in that game so there was a lot of issues with the third
period it felt like they were winning games they were racking up points but it didn't seem like
they completely had figured out how to get that polish game going but now it feels a little
different the Calgary game was a big statement one to me after the Winnipeg game because yes Calgary
is a team that's 9th in the west right now and it's kind of it's getting to the point where if
this continues for another week of Calgary losing in Minnesota and Winnipeg can get some points it
might the west might be all but figured out already because they are starting to drop down a little
bit there right now the flames are four points out of a playoff spot and the team ahead of them
has two games in hand and they're just you know it's starting to look more and more like they're
they're gonna struggle to get in but regardless of all that the avalanche went into Winnipeg on the
road had this game came back at home second of a back-to-back which they had already dealt with
two times earlier not only won the game but they had a two goal lead heading into the third period
and rather than having that late surge on the flames they dominate the third and you need a
goalie to stand on their head they had a strong opening shift to the third period almost scored
only had three shocks but only limited Calgary to five closed out the game just a masterful
performance in that sense so they seem a lot more polished now their goalies playing better
which we're going to talk about here in a sec something just feels good about this team and it
has to do with the depth picking it up it has to do with the top guys having more consistency
and it obviously has to do with the goalie yeah no I think those are all those are all good points
and it's yeah it's certainly starting to feel a little bit more like they did at points last year
where it was complete performances not squeaking out wins but really kind of dominating teams
like fully and and we're seeing that last little bit and it's it's led to them kind of
ascending in the standings and now these next few games I think are going to be really interesting
because those are going to decide I think you could this is a big week for them because this kind of
can obvious there's a ton of games left but like this this next little stretch could kind of
show which way the winds are blowing of if the abs are going to be able to kind of keep this hot
stretch going and end up with the top seed in the division or even the conference or if they're
going to be more a kind of middle of the pack team in the conference and maybe not have home ice all
the way through yeah I mean the fascinating thing to me with the avalanche is obviously you can't
count the covid seasons because both those playoff formats were a little wonky ever since the playoff
format changed in 2014 the avalanche have either been the top seed in the central or a wild card
number eight seed they've never been in that two three matchup they've never you know kind of been
that middling team they were always like you know they won the president's trophy in 21 they were
the top seed in 22 not the president's trophy winner but the best in the west but in 2018-2019
they were the second wild card team so that middling pack is where you start of sort of see the best
matchups that's where St. Louis Minnesota was a season ago Toronto Tampa that's where this year
like I saw you tweet Toronto and Tampa one of them is going to be out the Rangers and the devils are
probably going to play each other in the first round one of those two powerhouses are going to be out
teams that have now traded for Vladimir Terasenko the Timo Meyer trade is becoming pretty much
official as we're doing this podcast and the Rangers still want to add Patrick Kane and one of the
teams that traded for either Terasenko and likely Patrick Kane or the team that traded for Timo Meyer
gone in the first round Tampa Bay three straight Stanley Cup finals or the team that traded for Ryan
O'Reilly gone in the first round so those are always the tougher matchups and for the avalanche
if you end up in that 2-3 matchup there's a huge chance that you're either playing a Jake
Audinger or a Connor Hellebuck in the first round and that's going to be a little bit different than
facing Nashville without UC Saros a season to go so this stretch will be really really big but at
the same time I feel like a week and a half ago we were talking about these back-to-back and
if the avalanche could just kind of come out of this a little bit you know stay in a float and
they lost the first one and over time they won the next five they're five and own their last five
games five game winning streak two sets of back-to-back they've swept through them
but it is going to be a big three games here starting with Vegas on Monday at home at ballerina
and then obviously the Devils which might be the Timo Meyer debut game yeah and tomorrow I would
guess is the barbershev debut game that's right yep Vegas also acquired Ivan Barbershev they traded
a former first round draft picking from 2021 Zach Dean for him so players are coming off the
are coming off right now so we'll see how that goes but before we get to the trades let's talk
about Georgie he's been pretty good lately he's up to a 9 20 safe percentage now his 25 wins are
fourth most in the NHL which like I mentioned yesterday is tied with former teammate Igor Shastirkin
and when I mentioned that to Georgie he kind of lit up a little bit you saw that look in his eyes
on he said oh yeah and you know kind of like I know he looks really good right now he looks
really comfortable really confident you know getting into that 40 game mark which is a career high
anything past 34 he'd never done before is kind of where there was a little bit of worry that maybe
it's going to start to be too much for him but it feels like that's when he started to settle in
to that early season early October Georgie form that we saw yeah and I mean he's top 10 in the
league and goals saved above expected according to evolving hockey and this was someone who the
abs when they traded for him we're going into the season counting on the fact that he would get
better playing more they thought that he there was maybe some untapped potential there in New York
that if he was able to play more games he would be able to find it and so far he has and like he
said he's played really well of late I think the teams played a lot better in front of him I think
that's made a huge difference like he's made some nice saves that points but he hasn't had to really
stand on his head and and I think that's kind of how this avalanche team was built it wasn't built on
needing a goalie to stand on its head it was built on having a superstar cast of skaters
and a goalie was good enough to get the job done behind them and so far Georgie has been up to the
challenge and and it's been I know he's I'm sure he's enjoyed the the season he's uh
he I think he and Pavel friend so it was good along while they were hanging out in Vancouver and it was
it's always good when you have a goalie partnership that has kind of some mutual respecter or friendship
so so I think that it's been a good fit and he's uh Jared Bedner talked about learned from when he
kind of had that tough stretch when the with the team had a tough stretch where they I think lost
seven of eight or whatever and he he wasn't at his best the team wasn't at its best in front of
them and Bedner said he thinks that you already have learned from that and now that he's kind of
being relied on a lot with Pavel friend says out he's been up to the task yeah absolutely I think
you know the avalanche were placing like you said they were hedging their bed on him getting
better as he plays more but ever since training camp that's been what Georgie himself has been
saying I just need to play more and if I play more and if I play every night and you know I've had
parts during the regular season where I've said like you know you guys have four games in six days
you guys have a back-to-back coming you guys have a this you guys have a then he goes I'll play I'll play
I'll play I want to play every night I want to play every game when he had that you know what Jared
calls that that mental reset after playing 12 or 11 whatever was straight games and Frankie came back
you know he came out of that stretch and he was playing well and I told him did that stretch
help you he said it's hard to say because I would have rather played those games too this is a guy
that had just played 12 straight games also so this is this is the kind of guy he is he's like a
low-key competitor you know not as outwardly about it as you know maybe guys like Jordan
Bennington are you know former abs like Patrick Wyman Philip Grubauer he's very low-key about his
competitiveness but he wants to be in this position he's relishing in this role it's what he's wanted
and you know it looks like the avalanche found something here Darcy Kemper in Washington
hasn't been bad this season but at five and a quarter million and in a season where every single
dollar counts it's it's looking like the avalanche so far before the playoffs as of now made the
right move saving 1.8 million you know enough money to get you almost a full Evan Rodriguez who's
been a you know a nice depth piece as well so um so far so good for them so far so good for Georgie
I don't want to get too carried away with him just because I know right now uh you know Frank
he's out we don't know when he's gonna come back but at the same time if he's not back how much is
Georgie gonna play here obviously the more the avalanche win the last Jared's gonna feel inclined
to have to lean on him and really overplay his top guy which has been the story pretty much all
season the abs from their top defenseman to their top forwards to their number one goalie it's always
been if they're fighting for a playoff spot to the end and if they're you know in that race they're
gonna have to keep overplaying these guys but if they can kind of get a little bit of an advantage
in an edge they can start to rest these guys a bit and now you're feeling like you know like a
week ago before the five game winning streak became a five game winning streak you're very
comfortable throwing in use this anon and who didn't play a game in all of 2022 hey you take the
blues we just traded O'Reilly let Georgie sit for a night and anon and won then Georgie came in
and he's won since so seems like they have a good thing going here with Georgie and and it's working
for the abs it's working for him and so far so good yeah I think so far so good as the right
assessment because honestly what's going to determine the whether that was a good trade or not is
how he does in the playoffs and we won't know that until until the playoffs come around yeah um
right now in the playoffs I believe or right now in the sports books I should say as I transition
over to this ad read the avalanche are still the number one team in the western conference and I
think number two in the NHL in terms of the odds to win it all behind the Boston Bruins I still love
what you said last week I think it's one of the better things I've heard to describe the discrepancy
between the east and the west where the east is so strong and so powerful that it's hard to
imagine any team in the west being able to handle them except for the avalanche but at the same time
you could see the avalanche losing to a Dallas or Winnipeg or whoever and that team going to the
final and just getting destroyed or you know beaten by the eastern conference um but on that note
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the avalanche are battling Vegas tomorrow they might have to battle them in the playoffs so
uh very very on-brand for this ad read but with that Peter I want to transition over to the fact that
we have seen a ton of trades around the NHL and now the Timo Meyer one is become pretty much
all but official I think it's become official it has okay great so the Timo Meyer trade and
there's a lot that has come back from that uh but let's start with kind of your thoughts on
how the deadlines going and what you're seeing yeah well I think the the biggest from an Ambs
perspective the best thing that has happened for them is that everyone is going from the west to
the east like this is it's it's really been kind of a migration of of Timo Meyer and Ryan O'Reilly
Vladimir Terasenko but Horvat potentially Patrick Kane like those are superstar level players and
they are all moving to the out of the abs way now there've been some medium sized trades that have
kind of led to like for example barbershop going to Vegas and and uh once was played dad and I'm
going to uh Dallas Nino going to Winnipeg like there's some notable trades for sure but I think
it's pretty clear that that these east teams are stacking up for a playoff that is going to be a
gauntlet in that conference and in the west it's going to be a little more uh wide open for I don't
know if I'd say the abs to lose but it's it's kind of like the abs are probably going to go in with
the most talented roster and no team has has uh done anything to change that substantially
especially with Mark Stone's entry in Vegas so I think that from an abs perspective that's my
big takeaway and from a league wide perspective it's just that whole a-cav these playoffs in the
east are going to be I mean it's going to be nuts and we we mentioned it earlier but New Jersey or
either New Jersey or New York is going to be gone before the first round those are both teams who
have traded away their uh their first round picks or well New York traded away a first round pick
it wasn't theirs but then you have I don't know you've got Tampa and Toronto and Toronto both of
those teams have traded around their first round picks like we're going to have teams that traded
around away first round picks and they're going to be home before the second round and that's not
something you see every year and I think it's going to make for a really intense playoffs and it's
going to be it's going to be fun to watch yeah absolutely I mean right now before we kind of
recap these trades with the Mark Stone injury kind of top of mind with the west how it is right now
not to get carried away but when you look at the lineups even without a gay bland discog
if gay bland discog doesn't play does that to you say the avalanche for sure can't win the west
no I mean I think it hurts their chances yeah but I absolutely hurt their chances yeah I mean I
don't know if they're still the favorites they honestly they might be but I definitely think that
I don't I don't think the abs can beat an eastern conference juggernaut without gay
braver yeah but I still think that yeah in the west I think that they're they're good enough to
to get through just about anyone I mean it's I've I've said it a couple times like it feels like
everyone in the west have their chance to kind of pull away from the abs when the abs were scuffling
and just none of them kind of did that and now you're seeing other teams going to funx Dallas has
been in a bit of a rot lately Winnipeg is kind of seems to be struggling right now Vegas is I
think they've kind of come out of it but right after the after stone left the lineup they were
really struggling for a bit so you're seeing a lot of flawed teams in the western conference where
in the east you look over there and it's like these teams don't have any holes whereas in the
west it's like there are holes kind of up and down the lineup it feels like for most of these teams
it seems like two of the better teams I mean part of the reason why this is is to the better
teams in the western conference last year were Minnesota and St. Louis and Minnesota is hanging
on right now they're in a playoff spot they look like they're probably going to be in one of those
final spots but you know they could be third in the central if they you know continue to
see Winnipeg fall but they've taken a big step back and obviously the St. Louis blues like
I'm trying to think do the St. Louis blues reminds me of the Philadelphia Flyers a year ago is there
another team I'm not thinking of but the seeing the expectation going into training camp of like
let's build on what was it 112 points last year and taking the avalanche to game six to
trading Tarasenko, Mikola, O'Reilly, Barbieszev, Achari, Achari,
I mean they're they're kind of honestly they they in a few ways remind me of the Winnipeg Jets
last year where they went to the second round obviously they got swept in the second round by
the Canadians two years ago but then yeah but then last year took a big step back and it just
kind of felt like everything went wrong and the vibes were off and it wasn't good but but that
doesn't mean they don't have talent exactly yeah it doesn't mean they don't have talent and it
doesn't mean like I don't know if I'd picked the blues to make the playoffs next year but I wouldn't
be shocked if if they did I'm not I wouldn't bet on it but like if they go out and say O'Reilly
comes back say they use their three first round picks to trade for a legit top four defencemen
like all of a sudden then you're like okay this team's back to kind of being what it was
two years ago but I mean I think what what you're seeing over there right now is just it's clear
they've missed David Peran since the start of the season a lot of their best players have
underperformed they don't really have a defensive core that makes sense and now they're kind of
running into trouble where they're they have their coach saying like yeah essentially that their
best players aren't giving the effort that they need to and I mean I think Craig Barooby's a good
coach like I stand by that but I don't know if it makes you wonder like something's off there
and and you wonder how that's gonna end well when a peg ended with their coach I mean they got a new
coach but it was partly because their coach stepped down halfway through the season yeah
replaced by an interim guy who's no longer there um you start to wonder if maybe Barooby I mean
hey coaches their word eventually goes still maybe it's coming to the time where Baroobay's
time in St. Louis is coming to an end you never know but it is a little fascinating to just go back
on topic of like why the Western Conference is the way it is obviously the avalanche losing
cadre Burakovsky then having the Landis Gog injury then all the other injuries that came with it
um kind of brought you know kick them down a notch because you know there's an alternate
universe where the avalanche are the defending Stanley Cup champs like Tampa Bay was for all
those years last two seasons and you know had a great regular season the following year after
winning a cup where like right now atop the league wouldn't be six eastern teams with the
best points percentage it would be like I don't know Boston then Colorado then five more eastern
teams than the rest of the West but Colorado dropping which now they're back in the top 10 which is
wild um Colorado dropping the way they did plus the St. Louis Minnesota thing vegas coming back by
now stones injured you know losing out on Timo Meyer at the last minute to New Jersey seemed like they
were the two finalists um it has looked good for the avalanche but just to kind of go through and
recap those trades um the Maple Leafs obviously we talked about them getting rhino Riley last week
the Rangers brought back their own depth guy in Tyler Mott and then you know vegas traded
the Shea Weber contract it looked like ultimately they were making trying to get away from the
LTR situation a little bit open up some flexibility Chicago acquired Nikita Zaitsev who's probably
gonna slot right into Jack Johnson's role and you saw Boston kind of shift from Girianov to a couple
guys from Washington Dimitri Orlov and forward Garnet Hathaway in a trade that also involved a
lot of draft picks a first a second and a third plus forward Craig Smith avalanche acquired
Keith Kinkade for Shane Bowers like we had mentioned the Canucks acquired craft stops from the
Rangers for William Lockwood and a seventh round pick uh the Jets getting like you mentioned earlier
need on need a writer from the national predators for a second rounder so pretty hefty price for a
depth guy Alice bringing in of Guinea Daddon offered Dennis Girianov the Golden Knights bringing in
Ivan Burbersheft for the prospect Zach Dean and then obviously the Jack Johnson deal and then
the Timo Meyer contract which I haven't found the entire uh 2023 first round pick
uh conditional 2024 first round pick Shakir Mukama Doolin Andrea Johnson the Sharks retain 50% of
Meyer's six million dollar cap hit um I think there was also who's the other guy that I'm missing
on Andreas Jan and Andre Johnson Nikita Octioek Fabian Zetterlund uh and a seventh rounder okay so
here's the full deal I didn't even notice how much New Jersey was getting so that's everything
San Jose was getting New Jersey gets Timo Meyer Scott Harrington Santari Hataka Timor Ibrahimov
Zach Emman these are all real people and Colorado's 2024 fifth round selection I don't even know
how the hell that ended up in San Jose in the first place uh Devin Dubnick wow they traded a
2024 pick for Dubna no no no wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait
I think so is that Kogliano no Kogliano was a fifth uh let's look I think did I say fifth yeah
2024 fifth round pick oh yeah but that might be Kogliano okay yeah all right yeah trade it away
March 21st um yeah yeah now it's wow that's a lot of guys one two three four five six seven eight
nine ten eleven twelve thirteen pieces in this trade yeah confirmed by the San Jose Sharks just wild
um the conditional 2024 first round draft pick is the devils must reach the Eastern Conference
finals in this year or next year and Meyer plays in 50% of the games in 2023 then it will become
a top 10 lottery 24 for strong draft pick if those do not happen it becomes a second so either way
they're either giving up first in a second or two first um just a lot of draft picks going back
and forth which the avalanche don't have a lot of um I think the biggest takeaway like you said
aside from the fact that the east is stocking up is what's left for the west to do I mean
chikrin Jacob chikrin obviously that's someone that you can see Patrick Kane looks like he's
going east as well um but what else is out there it looks like it's it's you know aside from Jacob
chikrin it's probably going to be depth guys you know which isn't the end of the world Artory
Lacking in was a depth guy Josh Manson was a depth guy um but it just looks like there's just
not much left for the west in terms of big name you know the sexy name is is no longer
available for the western conference yeah yeah it's it's it's interesting I mean I I think
yeah well we'll see is left I think there's I mean there's always people we don't expect
to get moved and and we'll see if we'll see what happens it's five days and
plenty of phone calls between GM's um before before we we know for sure
Craig Morgan who covers the Arizona Coyotes um a couple days ago confirms something that
Elliot Friedman said about the Arizona Coyotes potentially looking into trading Nick Schmaltz
uh a player that is under term under contract for another few several seasons I think three
more seasons after this one and he has one of those contracts that started low in terms of cap
number and rise uh well not cap number but the salary the the year over year salary so it's one
of those deals where he was already paid out the lesser amount of years but after this season the
number only goes up to as much as I believe eight point five million dollars eight point four five
and then eight point five in the final two years he's only making four and a half this year an
actual dollars 27 year old centerman um this is someone that fits right in pretty much with what
the avalanche are looking for in terms of a centerman uh what are your thoughts on Nick Schmaltz and
the potential of him being available and if he is maybe the avalanche go out for him I mean yeah I
think you'd have to consider it he wouldn't come cheap like this is a guy who over the past two
seasons has been close to a point per game player and on a bad team too like he's he's put up good
numbers on a team that hasn't had much success um so it's definitely someone that I think if you're
the abs you have to at least look at and think about but I I think that's just it's going to come
down to price it's going to come there there's different levels of teams exploring to trade we've
seen Arizona be really patient like Chikrin his name has been out there for what year a year or so
and and they haven't been felt the need to move him super quickly like okay yeah I mean but I
don't see Schmaltz necessarily being any different like they don't have to there's not a requirement
that they've got to move him really quickly so yeah well we'll see I I don't necessarily have any
intel like the abs front office keeps who they're looking at under wraps pretty well but I think that
I don't know it makes sense in a lot of ways just in terms of timeline I mean this is a
guy's under contract for the next few years who would answer your question of who's your who is your
to see um you would kind of have your top six forwards locked up for the next little stretch with
McKinnon land of scog ranting and uh Neutushkin lackan inch smallts um but we've got to see kind of
what how the market shapes up how serious Arizona is actually looking at trading him like they could
just be there putting out feelers but don't have really any intention to so it's a it's a lot of
speculation for now but I think that it makes it would make sense if if he is available and it
would cost a heck of a lot but this is a a time where maybe if you're the avalanche you have to
look at it as well this this is our best chance now like let's maximize these next few years and
go all in yeah absolutely I said earlier he was 26 he actually turned 27 three days ago so
right in the prime of this career he's he's at that age so that's a name to kind of just keep an eye
on you know whether it's the avalanche or not that's a big name that could be on the move which I
I think Jeff Merrick as soon as Elliot Friedman told him this right away mentioned the Carolina
hurricane so if that's the case then that's another team in the east getting another point
per game guy you know not a sexy a name as a Patrick Kane or a Timo Meyer he's better than Patrick
at this point but a very valuable forward that could also potentially go east you know if if
a trade does happen in the next five days so just really fascinating to see what's happening
there but we'll close out the show here with just at the very end um the avalanche had Calgary
yesterday Nazam Qadri this is pretty much the final chapter of closing out that story uh his
season with the avalanche or three years but his you know 2022 season with the avalanche and then
signing with the Calgary flames he got his big tribute video probably the coolest
standing go and tribute video I've seen from all the guys I've seen come back to Denver
just just kind of your thoughts on on that flames game and having Kaju back in town
yeah it was cool I mean I think it's like you said I think that the
it kind of was the last chapter of that book Kaju's kind of he's already had to answer questions about
playing Colorado twice and now this was the kind of the last time to where he really
will have to do it about coming back in a more kind of emotional way because this is the first
um I think that yeah it was a it was a special night and now I think Nico Sturms the only one left to
to get his ring and to get his tribute video so that'll be coming up when San Jose is in town but
yeah I think it definitely was clearly mental autocadri and I think that's the big thing there is
for a player to feel appreciated and that's why they do those things and clearly he did clearly
that you could see the abs bench like smacking their sticks on the ice bed in our city got goose
bones McKinnon said he got goosebumps so it was a cool moment and definitely one that mental
autocadri and yeah another another player returning for the first time from the cup team yeah it's
pretty wild that they haven't played San Jose at all this year they have him at home and here coming
up soon I believe five games from now Tuesday March 7th and then they have them twice on the road in
the beginning of April so we're not only points in the standings for the abs for the taking like
that's the sharks are gonna be I mean they've already traded Meyer they've traded
some of their depth pieces too we didn't mention Eric Carlson that could be the other big name
that might head west but that's just a huge trade that would take a lot to get done in the next
yeah it feels like some of the chatter around that has quieted a little bit yeah I agree with
with on that front with cadri or sorry to go back to Nico Sturm real quick it's just wild that
you know not only have they like he hasn't gotten his ring yet like Audrey God is ring and finally
came back now he hasn't got his ring at all but yeah not at first week of the season Jack
Johnson was here for the celebrations all make who bell and Kemper when they went to Washington
I think in November they got theirs Nico's just chilling with us the only cup ring until it's
gonna be March before he is so pretty crazy cadri just to close one more thing on that his
morning skate availability I thought this was an interesting question and I know we you know we
we went into the playoffs knowing this is probably the end of it for cadri you know we he changed
agents and there was all that talk of like oh you know Philadelphia's gonna throw a whole
bunch of money at him and all these teams are gonna go out and throw money at him and you know it
ended up being the Calgary Flames the team in the west but he you know there was there was also
that time period when free agency started I want to say July 13 it took number one it took 36 days
for him to sign after that but at the same time there was also that little period where it's like
maybe the market isn't what it was and maybe he comes back to Denver maybe the avalanche are
gonna try to find a way to clear space for him but your colleague at the athletic Julian McKenzie
asked him yesterday if it was easier to transition from Colorado to Calgary or if it was easier to
transition the first time when he went from Toronto to Colorado and he said it was definitely this
time going from Colorado to Calgary because he said in Toronto I woke up one day and I got a call and
I heard I'm being traded and that was just really hard he said in Colorado I had months of an
expectation of knowing this is it I'm gonna be a free agent and I'm gonna go somewhere else and
I thought that not in those exact words but that was basically the message he said was like the
expectation was I mean we're not stupid cadri's not stupid he knows what the salary cap is and
wasn't the season he was having but the expectation to him was all along that like this is probably
the end of it so you know does that mean there was no potential chance of him resigning late in July
when the market sort of started to dry out and you know the devils and the islanders and all those
teams just you know weren't gonna give him the money he thought he was gonna get I don't know
but I thought that was a fascinating comment from him yeah I mean this is I think we we all knew
even in those slower months like it was gonna take the abs trading away contracts and trying to
make stuff work for uh and a lot of what a lot in a lot of ways would have been a short term
not short-sighted but like I did salary caps gonna get even tougher next year and McKinnon's
contracts uh sets in so if they had like found a way to move Johnson's contract that's just kind
of kicking the problems down the line I think really the the end of the chance of cadri coming
back was when Nachushia and signed its extension because that that's I agree that was that was kind
of the abs chose the younger guy they chose the winger and uh I don't know it was gonna end no I
mean it was probably it's it's tough I think when you look at the fact that Val's been hurt for a
lot of this year and hasn't been uh in the lineup and cadries had another good year it makes it's
it's a little like oh I don't know if that's right me but I think Nachushion's four and a half years
younger he's making less money than cadrie is like yeah cadrie it makes but ultimately
ultimately in my opinion cadrie would have taken the Nachushion contract 49 it's the same 49
million it's just over eight instead of seven I don't know if he would have done that at that
point in time because you have to remember Nachushion did it the day like yeah at that either right
before free agency started or shortly before at that time if you're cadrie you're thinking you
might get the JT Miller 70 or 8 million 56 58 million even 59 million 8.3 8.4 a year yes so yeah
understandable so I think by the end of it he probably would have but I don't know if you would
have and I don't think the avalanche offered that it's not like they said hey take this and he said
no and then they went to Nachushion it wasn't you know bull hoorvat and JT Miller uh it was
you know they picked the younger guy I think to me it wasn't just the fact that they signed Val
Nachushkin it was the value in which Nachushkin came in that because like look we all saw when
Nachushkin did last year we all saw what he wasn't the Stanley Cup final but I still coming out of
all of that was like yeah I could see Nachushkin signing a five-year deal at like 5.6 and then it
was an eight-year deal at 6.125 and I'm like okay that's what a Val Nachushkin costs and you know
I didn't think it was an overpay but I'm like if that's what a Val Nachushkin costs and that's
what they went out and signed yeah Kajri's not coming back so yeah just the end of a chapter
there we'll see Nico Sturm here I'm excited to see Nico Sturm that guy was really really cool and
to be honest with you I'm really excited about having Jack Johnson in a dressing room where we
have access to that dressing room so that's going to be fun as well he's always been a great guy to
talk to as well yeah really good one of the better quotes on the team and uh yeah I think and I think
that's honestly a big part of this deal was that he was so well they don't make this deal of Jack
Johnson was just a like net neutral in the locker room it's the fact that the team his teammates all
really liked him and he clearly was respected and valued that they're bringing him back like you
said earlier how much they loved the fact that he was able to be part of everything opening night
and then yeah or with the ring ceremony that it was just such a huge deal to them and end to him so
just feels like it was kind of I mean I'm not gonna sit here and say I told you so because a lot of
people said it like it made way too much sense I think you were the one that mentioned back in
you know training camper when the season was starting that like they wanted to sign Jack Johnson
he ideally wanted to come back but he had to wait and and the avalanche needed him to wait and he
just can't wait like you can't miss out on the possible opportunity of having to go in on another
PTO so he made the right move they made the right move and now here they are kind of reacquainting
themselves so I'll miss Andrea Sanglin but Jack Johnson's back but we'll close it out there Peter
this is going to be a very wild five days ahead couple of home games coming up for the abs and
the trade deadline on Friday so I wish you all the best of luck as we get through these next four
or five days and with that any closing thoughts I think that that should be it for me
I'm always good to be on gotcha awesome so if you made it this far in the podcast bless your
pretty little hearts let's make hockey for everyone and we outcha
Thank you.