For the Avalanche, the window is wide open and the future is now
Oct 1, 2019, 6:00 AM
The Avalanche kick off their season this week with expectations, as high as I can remember going back to the glory days of the late 1990s to early 2000s. For that, I’d like to thank Joe Sakic.
I’ve had my share of social media battles with Avs Fan who insisted on kicking the can of expectations down the road. Whenever I tried to press them on when is the time to win now, I kept getting met with “the future,” “the future.” I would press for Sakic to go out and add some veterans to augment the emerging stardom of guys like Nathan MacKinnon, Gabe Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen, and I was shouted down with cries of “No, our prospects are in the pipeline, give it time!”
I’m an impatient sports fan. I don’t like or trust youth movements. I look at pro sports as one of those things if you’re going to charge people big money (and boy do hockey fans have to pay up), you better deliver a top-notch product sooner rather than later.
I applaud Sakic for recognizing that the Avs are in a window to win now. He had a great summer – on paper – putting this team together.
The young core of MacKinnon, Landeskog and Rantanen are signed to long-term deals. Super Joe showed his belief in the futures of J.T. Compher and Samuel Girard by signing them to new deals. Cale Makar looks like a star in the making as the Avs get to enjoy him for a full year.
But it was the other moves that Joe made that tells me his serious to win now.
The Avs went out and added veterans like Nazem Kadri, Joonas Donskoi, Andre Burakovsky, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Kevin Connauton. Sakic could’ve continued to slow play things and kept bringing up the kids. But at some point, you have to add some graybeards for what you hope will be a long playoff run (accompanied by all those glorious playoff beards!).
The Avs have teased us with playoff appearances the last two years. But in both cases, a lack of depth and secondary scoring proved to be their Achilles’ heel. The moves made by Sakic seem to have addressed those issues.
There are still concerns. There always are.
Is Philip Grubauer ready in year eight to be a No. 1 goalie for the first time? The most games he’s ever played in a season was last year’s 37. Can he handle a 50- to 55-game workload?
Also, the Avs did lose a lot of production from three guys gone from last year’s team in Carl Soderberg, Tyson Barrie and Alex Kerfoot (a combined 52-98=150 points). Who will pick up the slack?
Can the Avs handle having the target of expectations on their sweaters after years of being able to sneak up on opponents? Will Kadri be able to keep his composure come playoff time (he’s been suspended in the playoffs the last two years)?
Hey, these are “problems” a lot of NHL teams would love to have. This is the beginning of what could be a long run for the Avalanche.
For me, the goals are simple. Win the division. Push aside the Nashville Predators, Winnipeg Jets and St. Louis Blues. Earn home-ice throughout the Western Conference playoffs, or at least the first couple of rounds. The Western Conference Finals are absolutely in reach for this team.
The Avs’ window is wide open. The future is now.
