Avalanche lesson from the Mikko Rantanen agreement? Do not negotiate the stars against scrubs

You do not exchange stars against scrubs. During the worst defeat of match 7 in the history of the avalanche, Martin Necas and Brock Nelson were passengers from the start to the Finnish.

“We estimated that we had to deepen, not only for the team of this season, but to move forward,” said Joe Sakic on Tuesday afternoon when he asked the new Killer Avs-Killer in America, Mikko Rantanen, the elephant that is no longer in his room. “The simple fact of paying three high -end guys and not having a surrounding casting was not going to do it.”

You alone know who doesn’t Do it, at the end? Sakic’s support cast. Necas. Nelson. Charlie Coyle. Jack DRURY.

The four attackers who essentially replaced Rantanen, the man of the wing of Nathan Mackinnon for almost a decade, totaled 12 points on the scrap of seven games between Colorado and Dallas.

Rantanen deposited 12 points on his own.

“You know, (with) the gods of hockey, I think it’s just a way of saying:” Have you done the job or not? “The Director General of AVS, Chris Macfarland, said.” Obviously, there were strange objectives in both directions in the series. I think you win your breaks. “

And your scars. The decline is 20/20, granted, and the injuries are always fresh.

But when the AVS needed someone to get the phone in match 7 with the star defender Makar Cale Makar unable to produce, this support casting left a series to go to voicemail.

Rantanen, exchanged by the AVS in Caroline on January 25 after 10 years in Burgundy and in Blue, has an average point per night in the 6 and 7 qualifying series with Colorado dating from 2020.

Necas and Drury had only seen the action in seven inclinations of this type on their respective careers with hurricanes. They had only totaled four points between them.

Drury and Necas have combined for two points in the last two AVS-Stars games. Mikko represented eight. Not too shabby for a so-called “Merchant Mackinnon”.

If the destinies are nice, the AV have learned at least two things from the pure agony of last weekend. First, Rantanen is a future Hall of Famer and one of the best players of its generation. Second, these macfarland hockey gods referred to disapprove of the quality trade for quantity.

C-Mac has swung Big, which you admire, especially given the most recent episodes in the history of Calvin Booth. It also took the way Kris Bryant made a quick ball to letters, and stamped him in Sakique rubber.

The depth counts, yes. The heaviest teams generally do not have the power in the NHL qualifiers, given the physicity and the length of the series. But from Jack Eichel to Matthew Tkachuk, the history of hockey tends to frown in teams that exchange players for guys OK in bulk.

If the reports are true that the AVS and Rantanen sneaned on a difference of $ 500,000 annual salary, then C-Mac and Super Joe could just kiss the rest of Mackinnon goodbye’s career. They could also have removed a proud deductible for half a decennia.

Meanwhile, Dallas saved Rantanen from Carolina and signed the moose to an eight -year agreement for money which, from next season ($ 12 million), the AVS could probably have found room. While extending Makar.

The stars won Mikko’s job, which should never have happened. In the defense of Macfarland, once it has abandoned an extension, GM AVS sent Moose as far from the Western Conference. But, Macfarland was questioned on Tuesday, did he do it with insurance that the Hurricanes had concluded a long-term agreement with Mikko as part of the process?

“Yeah, I’m not going to comment on the presentation of the negotiations we have with the player and his agent,” replied the managing director.

However, we are there. And he’s there. For another seven years.

When you break the group, music is never quite the same, isn’t it? This is why the Blackhawks maintained Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews and Duncan Keith together through three Stanley cups in Chicago.

“You look where we have been in recent years, we have not been good enough. We were not deep enough,” continued Sakic. “We won in 22 because we had our stars, but we were so deep. And you cannot win the Stanley Cup without it. And the status quo was not good enough.”

TRUE. It is still not. The comparisons with the 2022 champions were inevitable – but the more you look, the more the 25 depth painting fell just short.

Nelson turned out to be a solid banger, but he never has an average of 0.83 points per game during one of his nine points in the playoffs. NAZEM KADRI, the bar of the Modern AVS second line centers, has already exceeded this brand in its career in playoffs.

Avs Brass faced music on Tuesday, their credit. But instead of admitting that the Rantanen agreement was an error, they blamed their second release in the first round in three springs on the power game, the assistant coach keeps Ray Bennett, launched their support behind coach Jared Bednar and swore to go back with as many pieces as possible.

On the latter, wish them good luck. Nelson, Ryan Lindgren, Joel Kiviranta, Erik Johnson and Jonathan Drouin should all become free agents without restriction this summer. Macfarland only obtained $ 5.336 million in the ceiling space to play with the moment, according to puckpedia.com.

“Listen, if you have Makar and Nathan McKinnon, your window is open,” said Sakic. “And that is why it is important on the side of management in terms of commercial deadlines, you try to do what you can to give them the best opportunity. You are not going to have these players forever.”