Duchene's Avalanche dream may soon be ending

We all remember that NHL Draft night from Montreal in 2009 when Matt Duchene was shown on camera jumping from his seat with excitement upon hearing former Avalanche GM Greg Sherman tell the world, “We are proud to select, from the Brampton Battalion, ….”.

Watching a boyhood dream be realized right there on live TV is a cool thing, and as someone who was there that night at the Bell Centre, the lasting memory I have from it was the perma-grin on Duchene’s face and of him continually tugging at his new Avalanche team cap, as if to keep reminding himself that it was really there.

When the Tampa Bay Lightning made its choice of Victor Hedman as the second overall pick, Duchene was also shown on live TV pumping his fist with joy (something that continues to rankle Lightning management from that time), because he knew the Avs couldn’t possibly pass him up at No. 3. The kid from Halliburton, Ontario, who postered his walls with Avalanche heroes and drew the team logo constantly in his school notebooks, was minutes away from officially becoming an Av himself, and his face showed that it was the greatest thing in the world.

On Monday, I stood next to Duchene’s locker at the Avs’ practice facility, and well, let’s just say there weren’t a lot of laughs. An Avs cap was still on, but his head remained down while mouthing quiet, monotone answers to questions about his future with the team. The joyous teenager from eight years ago now looked like a beat-down man of 26, the anything-is-possible persona replaced by it’s-just-a-business cynicism.

Duchene’s future as an Av might only last another 48 hours or so. He did his best to hide his emotions, but the realization that he might have spent his final day ever in the Englewood practice facility with Avs gear on made for facial expressions only too easy to translate.

“It’s hard to look past three days right now,” Duchene said. “I just can’t really look past that because I don’t know where I’m going to be.”

It could very well be that Duchene will be on the Avs’ return flight to Denver from Winnipeg Saturday night when a three-game road trip that starts Tuesday in Philadelphia finishes up. As of Monday afternoon, he was slated to get on the Avs’ team charter to Philly. While he remains definitely on the trade block, none of the offers made to general manager Joe Sakic have been sufficient enough to make a deal. With too many contenders already capped out and a prevailing theory among GMs the last few years that draft picks are the equivalent of Willy Wonka golden tickets, a Duchene trade may be just too tough to work out. For now. Same applies to Gabe Landeskog and any other core player Sakic may be willing to deal.

I asked Duchene point-blank if he wants to stay with the Avs.

“Yeah, I mean, I…uh…I want to win,” Duchene said, with body language that was every bit as mixed as that answer looks in print. “Whatever it takes for that to happen, that’s what I want. That’s my answer I guess.”

Duchene’s name has been in trade rumors before, including early last season. They all got started when I did a story from Boston where Sakic told me that, essentially, only Nathan MacKinnon was an untouchable. In the visiting locker room at TD Garden, after a win over the Bruins that night, Duchene was stunned by my story and the questions of his reaction that he hadn’t been named by Sakic as an untouchable as well. He was upset, hurt and, soon, angry. But it was a good anger. He tore it up most of the rest of the season, achieving a career-high 30 goals.

Anytime questioners dared ask Duchene whether he wanted to stay in Colorado or not, Duchene practically jumped down their throats with “Of course I want to be an Av; I want to spend my entire career in Denver!” type answers.

Now? He has the look of a spouse at the end of a marriage gone bad. The divorce papers still haven’t been signed, but the lawyers seem to be typing as we speak.

Nobody should feel sorry for Matt Duchene. He’s 26 years old and making six million dollars a year, guaranteed, for this and the next two seasons. His life is one in a million: a Canadian guy who not only achieved the dream of making the NHL, but playing for his favorite team. We should all have it so tough as Matt Duchene right now.

But no matter how much money one makes, no matter how much fame and glory one has, there’s only one word to describe the look on a person’s face when one of his dreams is dying.

On Matt Duchene’s face Monday morning, that word was sad.