Post-Draft Thoughts - Avalanche Look to Major Junior

Once the smoke had cleared, the Avalanche got their guy - Matt Duchene - and added an additional forward, three defencemen and two goalies.

Round 1 (3) - Matt Duchene (C, Brampton Battalion)
Round 2 (33) - Ryan O'Reilly (F, Erie Otters)
Round 2 (49) - Stefan Elliot (D, Saskatoon Blades)
Round 3 (64) - Tyson Barrie (D, Kelowna Rockets)
Round 5 (124) - Kieran Millan (G, Boston U)
Round 6 (154) - Brandon Maxwell (G, US National Team)
Round 7 (184) - Gus Young (D, Noble)

In the first three rounds, the Avs strayed from US college hockey and went to Canada's major junior leagues in the CHL, grabbing two forwards from the OHL and two defencemen from the WHL. High-fives all around for those choices. Nobody likes to stereotype but gun to my head, I'd say it's the O that pumps out snipers, the W that pumps out D and the Q that gives us our lovable Francophone goaltenders.

Round-by-round Compustrike numbers
Round 1 was a no-brainer. A chimp could have got up and eeked out something sounding like "uchie" and everyone would assume he meant Duchene. But still, high-fives for not f'n it up!

In Round 2, the Avalanche made two excellent choices. I've watched Stefan Elliot and think he will grow into a solid top-four defenceman who can play on the #1 PP unit. In fact, some have labelled him as a Brian Rafalski-type player. He's got a shot at being on Team Canada for the 2010 World Junior tournament here in Saskatoon, which may be the first time an Avs prospect has played for Team Canada at the U20's. I've never seen Ryan O'Reilly play but I like the sounds of the scouting reports. Sure, he's not going to step on the ice this year and tear it up, but it sounds like he could mature into a top-six forward.

In Round 3, the Avalanche decided to go with Len Barrie's - yes, he of Lightning ownership fame - son, Tyson Barrie. He was partnered with Luke Schenn in Kelowna which gets my seal of approval. He put up some solid numbers in the Rockets run to the Memorial Cup and I'll be sure to be at the Blades-Rockets games to watch two Avs prospects duke it out on defence.

The Avs need more goaltending prospects and they looked to the late rounds to fill those up by grabbing Kieran Millan in Round 5 and Brandon Maxwell in Round 6. I could have sworn earlier today that Millan's stats were on hockeydb and showed a GAA of 1.67 in 28 games played this year, but I must have been off my rocker as . Maxwell would appear to be a longshot but there's something about Millan that has me slightly hopeful. EDIT: The Avs draft page say he posted a GAA of 1.94 while leading Boston to the NCAA championship.

And in Round 7, they grabbed another defenceman, Gus Young. I won't even attempt to say if this was a good choice or not. But he's got a good name, so I like him.

He won't know how successful this draft was overall for a few years, but on paper it looks pretty good. An argument could be made that we've got a lot of offensive defencemen waiting in the pipes and limited blue-chip goaltending prospects. But blue-chip goaltenders are tough to find and defensive defencemen often come out of nowhere to surprise you. I think the cubbard (intentional) is looking good.

Now we enter the free agency waiting zone where the Avs should be relatively quiet, unless they're able to offload some salary. And I wouldn't get my hopes up on that front if I were you.

Related Links
Avalanche.com Draft Wrap-up
Matt Duchene Post-Draft Interview (via MHH)
Duchene fist-pump knowing he was going to Colorado (via Jib)
5 Questions with Matt Duchene

Avalanche Draft O'Reilly, Elliot

Day two of the draft is already underway and the Avs have made two picks as I write this.

With the 33rd overall pick they chose Ryan O'Reilly, a forward with the Erie Otters. He's put up some decent points in his two seasons with them and he was a beast during the combine. (midway down)

With pick #49 the Avalanche went with Stefan Elliot, a defenseman with our very own Saskatoon Blades. Elliot can put up points but he's certainly not deficient in his own end. He's one of those players that's so smooth, you don't even notice how he's contributing. Elliot will be a big part of the Blades this season and I'll be watching him closely now that he's part of the mother organization.

And a nice job by Hockey's Future to already have those players linked up with the Avs!

Related Links
Hockey's Future Prospect Profile - Ryan O'Reilly
Hockey's Future Prospect Profile - Stefan Elliot

The Avalanche Draft Matt Duchene #3

Welcome to the Colorado Avalanche, Matt Duchene!

I'm so excited. More thoughts later but for now, back to enjoying the new office!

Oh and Sherman? No french.

EDIT: TSN says "Comparable: Steve Yzerman"

Come on, guys. "Comparable: Joe Sakic"

Draft Day Begins in 10 Minutes

Our wonderful IT crew has our Internet up and running, I found a TV with a cable connection and I'm good to go!

Rumor is Duchene is going #1. I don't believe it. I still think the Islanders are crazy to not take Tavares. He's ready to play. Duchene might not be.

Nonetheless, the intrigue has spiced things up!

Buckle down, folks. Garth Snow should be up at the podium in about 10 minutes.

Draft Day is Upon Us

Draft day is upon us and it would appear I've been in hibernation for the past two weeks. Well, I have reasons and they're work related - not in a bad way, in a very, very good way - but I won't bore you with that. What I will bore you with is some thoughts on the upcoming draft.

There has been a lot of controversy, so to speak, around what order the top three - John Tavares, Victor Hedman and Matt Duchene - will be selected in. But the smart money should still be on Tavares going first, followed by Hedman and then Duchene. The Islanders would be crazy not to take Tavares, the lightning need defence so bad it's tearing the owners apart and the Avalanche need to replace Joe Sakic, who has been silent as a monk since the season ended.

If the Avalanche are forced to take Tavares or Hedman, there will certainly be no tears shed, but I've got my hopes riding high on Duchene. Possibly unreasonably high, but can you blame me based on the last couple seasons? I'd grasp at anything right now to feel good about this franchise.

Heck, I started falling in love with the guy during the OHL playoffs and when Greg Wyshynski noted that Duchene was wearing a short-sleeve dress shirt + tie combo, the man crush was in full effect. Then Chris Pope fired me an email with a link to an interview he had with Duchene and damned if I wasn't ready to propose right then and there.

When the draft goes down tomorrow, I may not be able to be part of the breaking news. At noon tomorrow, we will be shutting down our office and shifting about ten blocks southwest to some swanky new digs. I will also be working on rolling out some internal system changes to coincide with the shrink wrap completely coming off on Monday morning.

I'm disappointed I won't be able to sit on my duff with my new netbook on my lap, but this move was a long time coming. It will just add to me elation tomorrow when the Avs snag Duchene. So if you don't hear from me, don't worry. I'm around and I'm happy. And I promise, I've got some thoughts I need to get out so you'll be hearing them soon.

Ah, the rallying cry of bloggers everywhere.

Tavares Drops to #3

The thought of drafting Matt Duchene has had Avalanche fans mildly giddy. Sure, after the season we endured you could argue that we'd be giddy over a kick in the crotch.

But no so fast, Avs fans. John Tavares has been tankin' it up in the playoffs while Matt Duchene has been tearing it up. And now one independent scouting service, Redline Report, has Tavares dropping to #3, behind Victor Hedman and Matt Duchene.

I'd take Duchene over Tavares but I'm hoping Islander and Lightning scouts have already made up their minds.

Thanks to Sean Leahy for the tip via Twitter.

Avalanche Pick Third in 2009 NHL Entry Draft

Welcome to Colorado, Matt Duchene.

The draft lottery is over and the Avalanche maintained the #3 selection in the 2009 NHL entry draft. The New York Islanders won the Tavares sweepstakes while the Tampa Bay Lightning retained the #2 selection. In other words, nothing changed.

If you're not stoked about Matt Duchene. You might be after reading Bob McKenzie's comments:

...the scouts love everything about Duchene. They like his size, strength, speed, skill and smarts. They see him as a character player, as someone who can score goals, make plays and work as hard without the puck as with it. There’s nothing not to like about the Brampton Battalion forward. Tavares and Hedman are heavy favorites to go one-two in this draft, but if there’s one player who could upset that scenario, it’s probably Duchene. Not to give it away just yet, but when we release a revised Top 15 draft ranking tonight on the NHL Draft Lottery show on TSN at 8 p.m. eastern, Duchene will be a rock-solid No. 3 but at least one of the 10 scouts we surveyed had him at No. 2, ahead of Hedman.

Craig Billington, Vice-President of Hockey Operations, was in the TSN studios for the lottery drawing. He didn't say anything of substance, nor did any of the other representatives of the bottom 5 teams.

Ken Morrow, the Director of Pro Scouting for the Islanders, was non-commital on who they would choose with the first overall pick. If they don't take John Tavares, I would be very surprised.

Tavares and Victor Hedman looked totally stoked at the prospect of going to the New York Islanders. And by stoked I mean utterly non-caring. Hedman gave a nice, not entirely cliche answer. I think Tavares was reading off a teleprompter.

Is it wrong to both hate Sean Avery's antics and hate the emotionless robots that seem to be getting churned out these days? Can't they all be like Lappy?


Related Links
Islanders win lottery, Avs stand pat at third
TSN's Top 15 Prospects
Hello, Matt Duchene
Matt Duchene Tribute Video

Mock Drafting Mockery

Illegal Curve linked to a couple mock draft sites so I thought I'd take a look around for any others and you know what? I didn't find a lot.

Even within the three I found, two haven't been updated since the season end and therefore contain a nice little fail in them where they have the Avs drafting second overall, which is an impossibility.

But if you like speculating, here's some more fodder for you. And don't forget, we'll be able to make even more informed random speculation once the first 14 slots are determined after the draft lottery tonight at 6:00pm MT on TSN and VS.

Related links
NHL Draft Site 2009 Mock Draft
Total Pro Sports 2009 Mock Draft
MyNHLDraft 2009 Mock Draft

The night before the draft lottery

'Tis draft lottery eve and all is quiet on the Western front.

After Francois Giguere was unceremoniously "relieved of his duties", there was a collective sigh of relief as we all leaned back in our armchairs. Finally, we could relax. The dreadful season is over, the GM is gone and management is pissed. Good, good and good.

And tomorrow we will find out which pick the Avs will get in the first round which brings the "good" total to four.

The odds are that the Avs will get the #3 or #4 slot which should mean either Matt Duchene or Evander Kane. But for some reason I'm not counting out Magnus Svenssen-Paajarvi. It could be the wickedly hard to spell - yet still awesome - name but I could see the Avs going off the board with this one.

I hate stats
The New York Islanders secured the "worst team in the league" moniker but they most certainly haven't secured the #1 slot.

Of the 14 times the draft lottery has happened, the worst team in the league has won the right to draft first a total of 6 times. Which if you do the math is pretty close to the advertised odds of 48%.

So it's still conceivable that the Avalanche could win the Tavares sweepstakes. And then they'll go and do something stupid like draft Ryan Ellis.

TV viewing goodness
The draft lottery will be televised live on TSN and Versus at 6:00pm MT. And while that's happening, CBC will be hosting a show that breaks down each playoff series and features Paul Kukla, Greg Wyhsynski and Tom Benjamin.

Thank goodness for dual-tuner PVRs. Otherwise I'd have to do something like exercise or read or talk to someone.

Related Links
Top mid-season prospects

Avalanche Trade Brad Richardson

I have to run get my precious locks cut but I spotted on Jori's blog that the Avalanche traded Brad Richardson to LA for the 61st pick.

We all saw the writing on the wall for Richardson and I'm actually glad to see him go to LA. He was never able to find a permanent home here but I think he'll do well with the Kings squad.

Jori's also been keeping tabs on the draft which resumed today at 9 am EST time. Otherwise known as "before I wake up on Saturday"

Columbus Trades the Avalanche's Pick

The Columbus Blue Jackets just traded the pick they received from the Colorado Avalanche in the Adam Foote trade to the Philadelphia Flyers as part of a deal for R.J. Umberger.

So in the A-to-B-to-C line of things, we received Adam Foote and Columbus received R.J. Umberger. Hmm...I'm still ok with the deal.

NHL Entry Draft Order Released - Avalanche Pick 50th

The NHL has released the entry draft order (PDF) and, as we all knew, the Avalanche's first choice will come midway through the second round at #50.

Do I want a first-round pick for this team? Yes. Do I lament losing it for the Adam Foote trade? No. Adam Foote helped propel this team into the playoffs and showed some of the youngsters on the squad what it meant to be a determined and gritty player. I wish the lessons had lasted longer but it was invaluable first-hand experience.

The Avalanche tend to have mixed sucess with first-round picks while finding some gems in later rounds. So I'm holding on hope for that to continue this year or for Giguere to pull of a shrewd trade for an early first-rounder. And by "shrewd trade" I mean a controversial trade which will re-ignite the blogosphere for a few days.

Avalanche Choose Kevin Shattenkirk 14th Overall

The Avalanche stick to their U-18 US hockey roots and choose the captain of the U-18 team, Kevin Shattenkirk. He's a 5'11" defenceman who currently weighs in at 193 lbs so he's a tad undersized. He put up 34 points in 48 games so is a very offensive undersized d-man. I can't quite put my finger on who it reminds me of but maybe someone can help me out.

The players that Colorado could have taken still included Alexei Cheraponov and Angelo Esposito who, by the way, is still unpicked 2/3 of the way through round 1. But if there's one thing the Avalanche have, it's a lot of quality up-and-coming forwards. The one thing they don't have is a lot of up-and-coming quality d-men. So stocking the pool a bit with a defenseman with obvious leadership qualities is a great move.

This pick won't make any of the current d-men any more expendable than they already were as Shattenkirk will be playing for Boston University come fall. So this move likely picks at the nerves at some fans as it doesn't bring immediate relief to the defensive corps. However no pick would have helped them out this season.

Shattenkirk will put on more size as he will easily bust past the 200 lbs barrier and has a chance at clocking in at 210. He is known to be a very smooth and mobile defenceman who is extremely smart and aware of where he is at all times. Reminds me a little bit of someone else. A man who's thinking of retiring after doing it all in hockey this year.

No, I'm not comparing Shattenkirk to Niedermeyer. In fact, I hate the "He reminds me of..." talk. But, this is a good pick and has a chance at turning into a great pick 2 or 3 years down the line. So why did I say it? Well, it seems it's the thing to do. Just ask Mr. McGuire who can't talk about any prospect without comparing them to a pseudo-random possibly soon-to-be/current hall of fame player.

Here are some scouting reports on Shattenkirk, in case you don't want to take my word for it. But why wouldn't you?

http://www.redlinejunior.com/html/sam_60profiles.html
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/feature/?fid=11069&hubname=
http://www.hockeysfuture.com/prospects/keith_shattenkirk

And a chat with the young man himself:
http://mckeenshockey.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=677784

EDIT: Esposito finally went at #20 to the Penguins. Good thing b/c they don't have enough young centermen.

Avalanche Re-sign Arnason for Two Years

Today the Colorado Avalanche announced that they have re-signed Tyler Arnason for two years. Terms of the deal have not yet been disclosed but it's likely for around 1.2-1.5 million a year. He was sixth on the team in scoring, putting up 16 goals and 33 assists over 82 games while centering the third line.

Arnason is not at the age where you can tie incentives into his contract which is unfortunate as he has been known to be prone to laziness and was certainly a streaky scorer with the Avalanche this year. Some nights he would chalk up 2 or 3 points but would follow it up with a 4 game point drought. On average he's putting up just over a half point a game while skating on the third line so there isn't much to complain about. If he can raise his level of consistency, this will be a great signing for the Avalanche.

EDIT: He was signed for 3.35m/year which is a cap hit of 1.675M. A bit more than I expected but I'm a lowballer by nature. This is still a good signing for the Avalanche.

Stay tuned for more draft day coverage as news breaks, including an analysis of the first overall draft choice for the Avalanache, whomever it may be.

Guite and McCormick Signed

The Avalanche announced today that they have signed Ben Guite to a two-year contract and Cody McCormick to a one-year contract. So the signings keep on trickling in which is good to see. As for these two signings, I give two thumbs up to Guite and two thumbs at neutral position on McCormick.

Signing Guite for two-years was a great move for the organization. After being called up as an extra body, he solidified his spot in the lineup with his hard-working, gritty playing style. He was put on the penalty kill unit shortly after joining the team and never looked back. In fact, his first NHL goal was a shorthanded goal against the Dominator. He also led the Avalanche in faceoffs and showed some other other players on the team what it meant to finish your checks.

Ben Guite has seen his way around the league. He was drafted by the Canadiens in '97, was picked up as free agent by the Islanders in '01, was then dealt to Anaheim in '02, then signed with the Rangers in '03, then went to Bridgeport in '04, got signed by Boston in '05 and then finally by the Avalanche in '06. However, his only other game played as a non-Avalanche was with Boston in '06. So for all intents and purposes, we can claim him as our own.

He will likely find a home on the PK unit as well as being a third or fourth-liner who can also be used in key faceoff situations, likely when the team is defending a lead towards the end of a game. Either way, I'm happy to see him in the lineup and fully expect him to be a starter after training camp.

Cody McCormick signing is more about having enough players for their new AHL team than anything. He wasn't able to crack the lineup for more than 6 games last year and unless his game has vastly improved, I doubt he'll crack it for much more than that this year. He's got some grit for sure but he doesn't really have much aside from that. The Avalanche already signed Parker for their token fighter and with Guite being a better version of McCormick...well I think that's all that needs to be said.

Of course that being said, it's not improbable that he could find a home playing winger on the fourth-line. It would depend on exactly what Colorado's other three lines look like in the end. If they have enough depth on the first 3 lines that they don't need to worry much about the fourth line (I'm looking at you Anaheim), then he could be welcomed there as a cheap player who tosses bodies around.