Eurolanche

Stastny trade bait or team core?

This story was written before the last winning game against Chicago Blackhawks, but we could not publish it due technical reasons. It express the opinion of its author and not the Eurolanche organization.

Ever since Ryan O’Reilly came back with his big raise the words “Avs now have to trade Stastny”. Lots of media people have been sharing rumors and saying his day is done for the Avs.  Adrian Dater tweet this after last night’s game. “Paul Stastny simply isn't working anymore in Colorado. Tonight against Chicago was exhibit A” This started off some huge back lash towards him and quite a few conversations on the topic. Many fans do not want to trade Stastny quoting some solid stats for him. Many fans want him gone only seen the 6.6 mil price tag and hate his streaky play.

I am going to put this out here right now I like Stastny and would love to keep him on the team. That being said I am also right there with the he is going to be traded people. For me it is as simple as this you cannot be paying your combined 2&3 third line centers 12+ million in a salary cap system. Yes the Avs still have plenty of cap room to keep them both. Another thing is the O’Reilly contract possibly raised the salary of everyone resigning soon. As well if Jones keeps up his play he also raised the bar a lot for subpar play. In just a year’s time the following players will all be up for contracts Duchene,Landy, McGinn, Elliot,Barrie,Varly and of course O’Reilly as RFA’s Then you have Stastny and Downie as your UFA’s of the younger guys. Now can we expect guys like Landy and McGinn to take bridge contracts at the hometown discount to prove themselves like Duchene?? In Landy’s case I really doubt that he has much to prove to the team that made him captain at 18. Will Duchene still be in a discount team first mood by then? Who knows what level of performance Elliot and Barrie will be at by then? How much will Varly want to keep getting destroyed every night with very little defensive help? Will they have traded O’Reilly by then or have to offer him 6.5 just for contract rights? Will Stastny take a home town discount after years of making big bucks or walk to free agency? That is a whole lot of ifs for a struggling team.

The worst part about all of this is it’s still possible to keep all those guys and be under the cap. The problem is there is the salary cap for the league and then there is the internal team budget which seems to be very different numbers. The ownership group will continue to try and spend as little money as they can as long as they make a profit. If that means using the line of we are rebuilding for years to come to try and fool fans they will. Just look at the coaching situation. So many people around the league are surprised Sacco still has his job after some very questionable seasons. The thing is like Sherman, Sacco is a company man. He tows the line does what he is told and doesn’t speak out of turn.

Most teams will use coaches as scape goats and fire them before completely shaking up the team. The Avs are the opposite and are very willing to shake up the team and trade away pieces for quick fixes before firing some good company yes men. These are all reasons why I think Stastny is on his way out. You can agree or disagree. I could be right or I could be so wrong. In the end it is really up to Avs management and ownership that at the moment look like the joke of the league after the O’Reilly fiasco. What is worst is that they most likely don’t care. As long as they keep making money from fans they will not care what hits the ice.