Of Joe Sakic’s trade delay moves for the Avalanche, which turned out to be the most important in Colorado’s Stanley Cup run: Josh Manson? Arturi Lehkonen? Andrew Cogliano, Nico Sturm?
Keeler: Man, I want to be Joe Sakic when I grow up. With limited cap space and Stanley Cup or drop expectations hanging over Chopper Circle, the Avs general manager had to be creative and selective in trying to add the finishing pieces to a championship roster. It was about adding guys to complete a long post-season streak, filling in the cracks to complete that superstar core of Nathan MacKinnon, Gabe Landeskog, Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar. Colorado needed to get bigger, more physical and better on faceoffs, right? Artturi Lehkonen, Nico Sturm, Andrew Cogliano and Josh Manson have managed to tick each of those boxes since they jumped on the Stanley Cup party bus. But if you had to pick which of these additions has been the most valuable in the Avs’ playoff run to date, who would it be?
Bedrooms: Lehkonen, with Manson up close. Both great additions – but Lehkonen more so as he will be back next season. Lehkonen, 26, is a pending restricted free agent and the Avs will make him a qualifying offer. He’ll be back in the top six next season when Colorado can’t afford pending unrestricted free agents Nazem Kadri, Valeri Nichushkin and Andre Burakovsky. Maybe the Avs will bring one of those guys back, but Lehkonen will make big money and continue to play an important role in the top six.
Keeler: For a while I was torn. I have loved Lehkonen’s game over the past month. But the advantage goes to Manson, for me. Cut? To verify. Assault? To verify. Leadership? To verify. Shots? To verify. Points? To verify. That winning game against the Blues to end Game 1 in overtime was just the icing on the cake of what he did.
Bedrooms: Manson is a beast. And a great teammate. Guys love her style. It’s an excellent “rental”, although it would be nice to see it again in burgundy and blue next season. The Avs will need that kind of physicality again in the second pair. Coach Jared Bednar has dubbed Manson and Sam Girard the ‘perfect couple’ – stemming from the left/forehand look. But with Girard out for the rest of the playoffs with a broken sternum, Manson’s new partner — rookie Bo Byram — is just as good to me, if not better. Byram, 20, is a tougher version of Girard, 24.
Keeler: You know what’s funny? The Manson snap that put him over for me had nothing to do with his overtime goal. It was in game 2 of the Nashville series. The Predators’ Luke Kunin fired at Nazem Kadri from behind the net late in the second period, shot Naz cheaply, dropped his gloves and tried to goad Kadri into a fight. Manson ran, hugged Kunin, threw him on the ice, and stopped a bad situation from escalating. It’s not just about having your teammates’ backs. It’s having a locker room back in the heat of the moment.
Bedrooms: I love the anecdote, Keels. Manson is a disciplined big guy. He skates away from what he should be doing and gets involved in the situations in which he has to intervene. Just a terrific commercial delay addition. It costs Avs defensive prospect Drew Hellesen, who played in the 2022 Olympics for Team USA, and a second-round pick in 2023. Some may think that’s a ton for an unrestricted free agent. waiting. But Manson’s addition filled a void some people couldn’t see. He completed a three-pairing left/forehand and allowed right-hander Erik Johnson, 34, to focus on the third-minute pairing/penalty at the waning point of his career.
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