Avs Monday Mailbag: Second line center, Goaltending, roster building, and more

It has gotten awfully quiet around Avs country as we await any sort of news about Nazem Kadri’s next destination, so it’s time for a Monday Mailbag.

From Luke Hocking: Have the Avalanche gone too top-heavy with the forward group and who in the bottom 6 has to step up to keep this team a Cup contender or has MacFarland got more work to do?

The Avs were destined to become more top-heavy as time went on, just due to the salary cap staying flat while more and more players are due to get paid. As of right now, they certainly look more top-heavy than they have in the past, and if Kadri does not re-sign, scoring depth is going to be a talking point going into the season, regardless of how they replace him. But we all saw this coming, right? With MacKinnon likely to get a massive raise going into next year, it’s not going to get any easier and the Avs are just going to have to get creative finding scoring depth.

It’s a lot harder to find the Rantanen’s, MacKinnon’s, and Landeskog’s of the world than it is to replace guys like Kadri and Burakovsky. That doesn’t mean it’s easy to replace those guys, but considering those are the Avs went out and traded for to fill those spots, it can be done. I’d rather be in this position than finding a way to replace a Rantanen or MacKinnon.

As for who in the forward group has to step up, the big one to look at is Alex Newhook. He slowed down significantly at the end of the year, but it’s important to keep in mind the rookie wall is a very real thing. The previous two seasons, due to Covid, he only played a combined 74 games. This year alone he played 93. A short summer throws a wrench in things a little bit, but you hope he’s better prepared for the grind of a full NHL season next year. It would also be helpful if a guy like Ben Meyers surprised with production on an ELC. Guys like Darren Helm and Andrew Cogliano are known quantities, but Meyers surprising with some cheap scoring would be huge.

From Dan Winkler: Who will be Colorado’s 2C on opening night?

I’ll go out on a bit of a limb and say…Mikko Rantanen. This Kadri thing could still work out, but I have tempered expectations there. It wouldn’t surprise me if the Avs went to Rantanen right now and just told him to prepare to start the season as a center. The start of the season is when you try to experiment on stuff like this. If he struggles, then so be it. You’re in the same spot you thought you might be and have time to figure things out. It would take a massive failure for this team to even come close to missing the playoffs, so use October and November to experiment a bit. Come April, no one will really care what happened in October and November. You’re golden if you find yourself a second-line center in Rantanen.

If that’s not the plan, I am 100% for going out and getting Evan Rodrigues. His speed fits the Avs perfectly, and the underlying around his game screams Avs to me. At this point in the summer, I can’t imagine he’ll get paid big time, and if he doesn’t work out perfectly as the second-line center, he can still be a valuable player in the middle six while not blocking a guy like Newhook if he takes off.

From Puck Ferguson: Most likely to contribute significantly next year…. Ranta Bowers Kaut Maltsev Other

Is none of the above an option? I’m not super high on Ranta myself, Kaut just seems a bit forgotten at this point in the organization (I still like his game when he’s engaged), and while I think Maltsev can play at the NHL level, Ben Meyers was more or less brought in to take that spot on the fourth line that he might have had a chance at. I’ve predicted Bowers would fight his way onto the roster for three years now, and I officially cannot do that anymore (which means he’ll make the team opening night).

From David Hofer: Is Joe & Chris working on Kadri? It would be nice having it finished

Considering no one has heard a peep on Kadri in about a week, they’re certainly working on it, but it’s a complex deal to complete and one the Avs have to be careful with to maintain their roster moving forward.

A lot of people asked me, do I want Kadri back? I love the player, and he’s been a great second-line center behind MacKinnon, but do I want to be the team that gives him that next deal? I lean towards no, partially because of the moves the Avs would have to make just to fit him in. He deserves to get paid, and I hope he does, but given what we know about aging curves, it’s a risky one.

From Shaved Stanley Cup Mullet: Where did you buy your couch?

Finally, the important questions. It’s an American Furniture Warehouse jam. I still have faith in Jake Jabs, despite him coming to my high school back in the day and telling people he actually does NOT like animals like it’s portrayed he does in the commercials.

From turned the lights off, carried it home: What was the best goal of the Avs’ cup run?

There were better goals in terms of skill than this one, but for me, it will always be the Darren Helm goal in Game 6 against St. Louis. Once the Avs got over that hump, I had a feeling nothing would stop them, but they had to get there. The timing of the goal, with it basically being an overtime winner, just puts it over the top for me. The fact that it came from a fourth-line player and not one of their stars adds a bit more to it because depth is a huge reason why the Avs went on the run they did.

From Cody: What do you think the game share for the goalie tandem will be?

This is a bit of a cop-out answer, but I actually think it ends up being close to a 50/50 split. I think back to Grubauer’s first season in Colorado. He was supposed to be the starter, but he had a really rough start to the year and didn’t take off until the end of January or so. Varlamov held down the fort until then. Varlamov ended up starting 49 games that year to Grubauer’s 33. The difference here is that Varlamov was a proven starter, whereas Francouz is not. Goalies take time to adjust to new teams, new systems, and new goalie coaches, and Georgiev will be the guy they hope takes the mantle as the season goes on, but I expect Francouz to get a good chunk of the starts early, or just a straight split based on who is playing better.

From Dario in Denver: Who is the 6th defenseman come opening night?

I hope it’s the guy who’s in the sixth spot right now, Erik Johnson. The Avs have the best defense in the league. If you’re losing some scoring depth and going with an unproven duo in net, the best way to offset that is to stack your blue line. Keep it the way it is, because they can defend as well as any group in the league while also pushing the play and providing secondary scoring themselves.

From Jibblepuss: What reclamation project not named (Jesse Puljujarvi)  would be a great idea for Colorado in your perspective?

From do not feed the octopus: What’s a player that you would target via trade for the Avs?

I lumped these questions together because my answer is the same, and it’s Kappo Kakko. I don’t think he has that star ability in him, but I could see him fitting in just as well as Lehkonen did when he arrived.

The reality is the Avs have very few assets they can trade at this point that would be of interest for what it would take to get a Kakko or someone with good value. That’s what will make trades so interesting for the Avs moving forward. They have their first rounder in next year’s draft, and I don’t doubt that if they found a player they felt could fit in long-term, they’d move it, but beyond that, they’ve already dealt a lot of their valuable assets already. That’s why MacFarland and company will have to get creative from this point on.

From Jay Jay the flying: Who on the Avs’ roster do you think will exceed expectations next season?

A J.T. Compher contract year explosion would not surprise me in the least, especially if the Avs enter the season with some question marks on the second line.

From Chris Snell: Who’s the most underrated Avs player?

I don’t think an underrated player exists anymore on a team that just dominated on their way to a Stanley Cup, but the way people just take for granted Mikko Rantanen’s ability to produce at a high rate will always bother me.