Joe Sakic not caving on Matt Duchene trade demands

As the wait for a Matt Duchene trade keeps turning more and more into the hockey version of “Waiting For Godot”, Colorado Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic seems utterly unfazed by impatient fans (and media) screaming for him to “Do something!”

As far as Duchene is concerned, he is a member of the Colorado Avalanche hockey club now and will be until he isn’t. The rest is just Twitter noise, and Sakic doesn’t have an account nor does he check out what the latest tweets are on the subject.

“I don’t have much to say about the rumors. I don’t create them,” Sakic replied to a question by BSNDenver on a conference call Saturday afternoon, on a day when the Avs added Jonathan Bernier and Colin Wilson to their lineup. “You guys will know if we make a move to help our club.”

That hasn’t stopped the Twitter machine from going into overdrive with various Duchene trade rumors. The ones currently most in vogue involve a possible deal with the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Credit to the Columbus Blue Jackets who sources say are continuing to grind away, trying to trade for Matt Duchene. Keeps us interested.

— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) July 1, 2017

But, sources tell BSN, Sakic simply will not cave in on his demands to get, at least, a bona-fide, top-four young defenseman back in any deal involving Duchene. Teams can come at Sakic all they want with names, but unless they’re in the top-four and already established, and young, they can forget about it.

The fact is, Duchene remains a young, established top-six, NHL all-star forward who has won a gold medal for Team Canada. He’s not going out the door in some distress sale. Sakic, sources tell BSN, will keep Duchene moving forward unless current offers improve.

Asked if he does want to upgrade the team’s current defense, Sakic said:

Sakic on team's defense: "I'd love to upgrade the D, for sure, if we could. Not as easy as you think…we're always looking in that dept"

— Adrian Dater (@adater) July 1, 2017

Sakic praised the incoming Wilson, the veteran from Nashville, as a “Big body who can go to the net”, who will complement Gabe Landeskog and A.J. Greer on the left side (the fact that Sakic mentioned Landeskog puts to rest any trade rumors that might have involved him).

Sakic praised Bernier as a goalie who had a “good season” for Anaheim, who will give the Avs a solid “1-2 punch” with Semyon Varlamov, who will be “100 percent healthy” by training camp.

Sakic also said the team has decided on who will be hired as new assistant coaches, but that they won’t be announced until “we can get them all together.”