Avs Weekly Mailbag: Girard, Barberio, rentals not named Hall, and the power play

Welcome to the weekly Avs mailbag, where we answer whatever Avs questions you have on your mind. If you have any questions for the mailbag, leave them for Evan Rawal on twitter or respond in the comments.

https://twitter.com/BubbaZaneti/status/1208897778144944128?s=20

I think it takes a special type of personality to be the extra defenseman. You know you’re not going to be in the lineup every night, and sometimes, you might go weeks without playing. You don’t want a prospect who could be playing every night just sitting in the press box (Although I’d argue at Rosen’s age, he doesn’t need to be).

With Barberio, he’s a great guy in the locker room and has been called by one of his own teammates “the perfect seventh defenseman.” He comes to practice every day and works really hard, and stays on the ice late to get extra work in whenever he’s needed. He doesn’t need to be in the lineup every night like a young defenseman, and he doesn’t complain about the role at all. The reality is he’d probably be in a handful of lineups around the league, but he just isn’t in Colorado.

The locker room matters a lot in some of these decisions, and that’s the case here. Barberio is well-liked in that locker room and accepts his role on the team. You aren’t going to find that with some guys that are put in that same position.

Will Avs regret extending Girard?

— Captain AVbvious (@HawkeeHoz) December 22, 2019

Do you think Byram coming in next year and potentially taking time on PP2 hurts Girard’s value to the Avs or do you think they aren’t too worried about it?

— Skyler Stevens (@SkylerStevens35) December 22, 2019

In short…no. Regarding the Avs being worried about Byram taking away power play time from Girard, I think they expect it. Girard was extended over a month after the Avs chose Byram. You take the best player available, and I think we’re seeing right now that Girard isn’t the ideal option on the power play anyway because his shot just doesn’t scare anyone.

I’m not very worried about Girard, to be honest. He’s a very smart player but he’s in a rut right now and being asked to do too much. With Makar out, he is the only natural puck mover on that defense, and he’s getting extra attention. That also means he’s touching the puck more than any other defenseman on the team, so turnovers are magnified a bit. I thought Girard was starting to look a lot better, and then Makar got hurt and a lot fell onto his plate. When the Avs get Makar back, I think he’ll get better.

One thing I think is fairly obvious is that Girard’s offensive game just isn’t going to take off the way we had all hoped. He was an offensive dynamo in the QMJHL, but at even strength in the NHL, he leaves a lot to be desired. I think his true value will be when he’s slotted into his ideal role as a third or fourth defenseman and can focus on exiting the zone efficiently. His defensive game is a lot better than people give him credit for. He will naturally get outmuscled because he doesn’t have the size, but he’s very good with his stick and is starting to use his physicality along the boards a little bit more. I think he’ll be fine. We can’t forget how young he still is.

The Avs are gonna rent someone, who should we be afraid of now?

— Jackie Kay (@tigervixxxen) December 22, 2019

I don’t think we can just limit it to just rentals. One guy I think the Avs are going to look into is Josh Anderson from Columbus. I know we all laugh because the Avs only acquire guys from that organization, but Jared Bednar liked Anderson’s game a lot when he had him in the AHL, and he’s a big, strong winger who is just one season removed from 27 goals. He’s having a brutal year right now, so it might be a good time to “buy low”, something the Avs like to do. He’ll still be a restricted free agent after the year too, so not someone you may lose this summer. Right now, he’s injured so nobody is picking him up, but he’s someone I can see the Avs inquiring about.

As for the rental situation, I’ve mentioned Chris Kreider in this mailbag before because that’s someone the Avs looked into over the summer. He’s turned his season around a little bit after an awful start, but I’d be wary of him. I have no idea if the Senators would want to trade with the Avs after the Duchene deal a few years back, but Jean-Gabriel Pageau would be a great third line center on this team. It would bump Bellemare down to the fourth line, where he is at his best, and Pageau is far better defensively than either Compher or Jost. If you’re looking at the Avs lineup right now, the third line has essentially become the fourth because Bellemare’s line has played too well, but if you get a great third-line center, you can slot everyone accordingly.

I don’t know if I’d focus too much on a defenseman as a rental. The emergence of Ryan Graves has changed things a little back there, but there’s still plenty of season to play out.

Would it be wise to consider splitting up some of the talent on the powerplay units once Makar comes back? It almost seems a long shot that PP2 will score when on the ice. Someone like Kadri or Landy would be a huge improvement on that line.

— Nick Kimmett (@nkimmett92) December 22, 2019

I received A LOT of questions about the power play. Right now, it’s not good, and to be honest, it hasn’t been great all year. They were scoring goals, but it was because of the talent on the top unit and not because of the setup. The way the power play is designed is very vanilla. There’s little to no player movement, and it depends on guys like MacKinnon, Rantanen, and Makar to make plays. The Hurricanes had a very aggressive penalty kill, and that really messed with the power play, because it isn’t really designed to play another way at the moment. The Avs did get a power play goal that game because MacKinnon decided to move away from the setup and try to make a play. I would love to see more player movement overall, though. Ray Bennett gets a lot of anger from Avs fans, but I don’t see them making a change at this point in the year.

As for breaking up the top power play unit, I would not. If anything, I would leave them out there the whole time. The second unit is almost non-existent, so I would rather just take my chances with the top guys being able to make a play in two minutes. Has anyone on the second unit done anything to deserve a promotion? I would argue Donskoi was decent, but Burakovsky was tentative and guys like Jost and Compher have dried up offensively big time. I say leave the big guys out there as long as you possibly can.