Recent injury misfortunes prove Avalanche don’t need Taylor Hall
Dec 10, 2019, 6:00 AM
Whatever Colorado Avalanche fan, player or executive pissed off the hockey gods, we’re waiting for your penance. And it better be good.
If it’s a scornful Red Wings fan, a pox upon your house.
To describe the Avs injury situation early throughout the 2019-’20 season as “unlucky” would be an understatement, as this roster has been truly beleaguered by ailments.
And now, the Avs are down starting goaltender Philipp Grubauer, who appeared to reaggravate a lower-body injury Saturday in Boston, and early Calder Award favorite Cale Makar, who also left midway through Colorado’s win against the Bruins.
Makar is day-to-day, so perhaps a sigh of relief is in order. But can the Avs get some mercy?
However, despite losing captain Gabe Landeskog and all-star Mikko Rantanen for 16 games (and a variety of other injuries ranging from nagging to serious), Colorado remains just two points behind the St. Louis Blues in the Western Conference.
And with a serious shot at a deep postseason run — maybe even a chance at raising the Stanley Cup — capitalizing on this current window seems like a logical move.
Cue Taylor Hall, former Hart Trophy winner and member of the lowly New Jersey Devils.
The Devils are said to have encouraged other teams around the NHL to make offers for Hall, and Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston reported in his “Headlines” segment during “Hockey Night in Canada” on Saturday that there’s a “feeling in the industry” that Colorado may be the favored suitor.
The move makes sense on the surface. It stands to reason that adding a star forward to a Stanley Cup contender would only improve their chances down the stretch.
But there are plenty of cons to trading for Hall, though, including the fact the haul he could demand likely would mortgage the Avs future, all for a player who very well could be gone by next offseason.
Perhaps the best reason to withhold from making a splashy move like trading for Hall, however, is that Colorado doesn’t need him.
In the 14-game stretch in which the Avs were down both Landeskog and Rantanen, Colorado got double-digit point contributions from Andre Burakovsky (12 points), Nazem Kadri (11 points) and Joonas Donskoi (11 points).
Oh, and not to mention, Makar (16 points) and Nathan MacKinnon (24 points) basically carried the team on their backs.
Say Colorado does trade for Hall, where do you play him? As a top-tier forward, does he shake up the MGM line? Does Burakovsky or Kadri or Donskoi get dropped down to make room?
If one thing this recent string of injuries to the Avalanche has taught us is that not only can this team weather such a storm but they’re a force to be reckoned with a full strength … with or without Hall.
