Michaud makes another move

The Avalanche were a very quiet team all year long, doing well enough to get home ice in the first round of the playoffs last season, and making it as the 8th seed the season before. It seems like Michaud felt that his young team only needed time to get to where it needs to be, and let the young players develop. 

Some of those players have indeed taken the next step, as expected. Johnny Gaudreau, Mark Scheifele, Colton Parayko, Dmitry Orlov and a few other young players have improved a lot and have become core players for the team going forward. Others, like Jonas Brodin or Elias Lindholm, seem to stagnate a little bit, but it's to be expected that some of those young guys take more time to reach their ceiling.

Michaud felt his team was good, but could not contend yet again next season. The plan was to trade a defenseman, which the Avs have a lot of at the moment, to acquire a top 6 winger. But in the end, Michaud saw opportunities rise and decided to acquire not one but three top 6 forwards in order to reach cup contention. He didn't have to give up one of Brodin or Myers, which he expected to be the price to obtain a top 6 forward.

"I first tried to obtain Justin Williams. It seemed like the price wasn't too steep to begin with. He's a good veteran, a winner, a guy that can play anywhere in your top 9 and still be effective in his role. It seemed like the price would be a pick or prospect, but we looked at our bottom 6 and thought : we have too many young guys in there and we can't give them all a role. So we looked at our depth and saw Jaskin, Ferland, Lowry, Burmistrov, Nieto, Roussel and Calvert. We decided who in that group we were ready to move away from, and it ended up being Burmistrov and Nieto. Both are fine players, but if we want to contend, we needed to consolidate some of those assets in order to improve the core of the line-up."

Michaud was trying to get James Neal as well, even though the price was way higher. He'd be a solid fit alongside Gaudreau and Tavares on the top line as a shooter. However, the Oilers called and showed interest in Roman Polak, and were willing to part with Bryan Little, whom we believe is a very solid 2C. Since Polak wasn't even making the team next season, it was an absolute no-brainer, even though Little will be a free agent after next season. 

''Bryan Little is a player we didn't expect to land. We thought Neal and Williams would bring us where we want to be, and we thought we'd fill our third line center spot with free agency. However, when you see an opportunity, you have to pull the trigger''

Michaud then acquired James Neal in exchange of Alex Tanguay, Esa Lindell, Brandon Hickey and the 50th overall pick in the draft.

''Esa Lindell was a piece we didn't like to trade at all. And since we didn't have our first rounder, we did value the 50th pick very highly. However, we couldn't say no to a guy who could play on the top line, especially without giving up a roster player of value in the deal. Tanguay will be missed though, he was a great leader for us in the last few seasons and helped us make the playoffs. We just feel that he won't be able to play a top 6 role anymore, and we decided to move on from him.''

After those moves, here is the Avalanche line-up for next season :

Johnny Gaudreau - John Tavares - James Neal
Daniel Sedin - Mark Scheifele - Elias Lindholm
Antoine Roussel - Bryan Little - Justin Williams
Matt Calvert - Adam Lowry - Micheal Ferland

Mark Giordano - Tyler Myers
Jonas Brodin - Colton Parayko
Tobias Enstrom - Dmitry Orlov

Semyon Varlamov
Karri Ramo

The Avs may be done shopping, but you never know.