Learning how to build a winner like the Colorado Avalanche
By Steve Paulus
A trade master
Sakic has a reputation as a formidable trading partner. He has shown no reluctance to give up assets to get them.
The only trade acquisition on the team who preceded Sakic’s term as GM was Erik Johnson, picked up in 2011 from St.Louis in a trade for Kevin Shattenkirk.
Sakic’s first big deal was trading Ryan O’Reilly to Buffalo in 2015. In exchange he got two young players still with the Avs in defenseman Nikita Zadarov and left wing J.T. Compher.
In July 2017 he swapped a fourth round pick for former Nashville seventh overall pick Colin Wilson. Wilson has been a solid bottom six winger for Colorado.
In November 2017, Sakic was the prime beneficiary of a three-way blockbuster deal. He traded his top center Matt Duchene to Ottawa with Kyle Turris going to Nashville. The key return for Colorado was defenseman Sam Girard. They also picked up winger Vladislav Kamenev and prospect Shane Bowers. The best result of that deal could be the first round draft pick that turned into lottery pick Bowen Byram, the top defenseman in the 2019 Entry Draft. In one transaction, Sakic was able to get four players who could have an impact with the Avs for years to come.
2018 saw two deals that have paid off for Sakic. He traded minor league defenseman Chris Bigras to the Rangers in exchange for defenseman Ryan Graves who has become a regular on the Colorado blueline. He sent a second round pick to Washington for his top goalie, Philipp Grubauer and Brooks Orpiks‘ contract.
The last piece of the puzzle came over this summer when he traded top defenseman Tyson Barrie and forward Alex Kerfoot for center Nazem Kadri. While trading Barrie was tough, he is due to hit free agency next summer and would be looking for a big payday. Sakic didn’t wait, using his cap space to acquire Kadri, the second line center he needed. He also got defense prospect Calle Rosen and a third round pick in 2020.
Waiver pick ups and free agents
The Avalanche found two players on the waiver wire, with Matt Nieto let go by San Jose and Mark Barbiero from Montreal.
Finally, Sakic has judiciously plucked players from unrestricted free agency with one third of the roster from the UFA ranks. Flanking Kadri on the second line are Joonas Donskoi from San Jose and Andrew Burakovsky from Washington.
Bottom six wingers include Matt Calvert from Columbus, Valeri Nischuskin who was bought out by Dallas and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare from Vegas.
He also signed veteran defenseman Ian Cole and his back up goalie is 29 year old Pavel Francouz, an undrafted free agent from the Czech Republic who had been playing in the KHL.